THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
American parks should aim to meet the wants, not 
of speculative individuals, but of the masses. They 
should combine all the leading elements of instruction 
and beauty, and this end should be infinitely more com¬ 
prehensive in their planting than is commonly the case. 
The designers, the situation, the latitude and longitude, 
will stamp them with individuality if they can be re¬ 
deemed from plagiaristic mannerism of design, and the 
incubus of the road-maker and shoveller. American 
forests, beautiful as they are in their outlines at times, 
and fine as are the units of their composition if suffered 
to develop, are naturally nearly always a promiscuous 
and monotonous mixture, each individual doing its utmost 
in competition to strangle the other ; a condition to be 
carefully avoided in the garden or park. All the striking 
effects in modern gardening have been due to grouping. 
The English style achieved its great popularity because 
it swept away a distorted, prescribed, cultural cramping 
for the breadth, beauty and simplicity of the pastoral 
glade and forest group. The very paucity of arboreal 
material a century ago seemed to have lent the concep¬ 
tions a distinctive simplicity which endures to this day, 
and which the English as a people conserve with marked 
success, while encouraging every variation. 
With the vast aggregation of commercial enterprise 
and commercial plants, a system of distinctive grouping 
should be employed, avowing the work of the scholar 
and the gardener, marking the existence of conception 
in garden and park, and witkout prejudice to the utmost 
variety, without sacrifice of unity, or breadth, or beauty, 
the American recreation ground of the future should be 
a masterpiece of genius, not a mere road-puazle in a 
wood. James MacPherson. 
Trenton, N. J. 
HORTICULTURE BY LAW. 
Some few years ago, the State of Penn.sylvania passed a 
law looking to the thorough eradication of trees suffering 
from the peach disease known as the “ yellows.” It was 
stated at the last meeting of the State Horticultural Asso¬ 
ciation that all attempts to put this law into practice have 
proved futile. A correspondent of the Rural Nezv Yorker 
states that this has been the result with the New York law 
against the disease in the plum and cherry, know as “ black 
knot.” It is pronounced a dead letter. Almost every 
effort to carry on agriculture by law has proved a failure. 
The only hope in these cases is by the universal dissemina¬ 
tion of correct knowledge .—Mechanics Moitihly. 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
One of the most interesting’ of the reports of horticultural socie¬ 
ties of the country is that of the Horticultural Society of Missouri, 
for 1892. It includes the proceeding of the summer meeting at 
Chillicothe, on June 7th, 8th and 9th, and the winter meeting at 
Carthage, on December 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. J. C. Evans, of 
North Kansas City, is president of the society and L. A Goodman, 
I 19 
of Westport, is secretary. Each is a life member of the society. 
The papers read at the meetings of this society and preserved in 
the printed reports are of great value to nurserymen and horti¬ 
culturists. 
The transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 
part 1, have been issued by the secretary, Robert Manning. This 
society was incorporated June 12, 1829, and it is one of the most 
important in the country. It has 809 members, and it has by far 
the largest horticultural library in this country. Its library is 
excelled by few of the kind in Europe. The president of the 
society is Nathaniel T. Kidder. The value of the printed pro¬ 
ceedings is shown by the list of subjects treated, each in a mast¬ 
erly manner ; Village Improvement, Landscape Gardening, His- 
ical Sketch of English Horticulture, The Economics of Horti¬ 
culture, Combating the Fungous Diseases of Plants, Wild Flowers 
and Perns, The Carnation and Its Culture, Poisonous Plants, 
Aquatic Plants and Their Culture, Tuberous-rooted Begonias, 
A Visit to Japan. The librarian, Robert Manning, requests 
nurserymen, seedsmen and florists to send him their catalogues for 
the files of the library. 
Of the numerous excellent books which have appeared lately, 
for the purpose of popularizing the study of botany, none is more 
attractive than that recently issued from the press of G. P. Put¬ 
nam’s Sons, of New York, “The Shrubs of Northeastern Amer¬ 
ica,” by Charles S. Newhall, author of “The* Trees of North¬ 
eastern America” and “The Leaf Collector’s Hand-Book and 
Herbarium.” The volume is handsomely prepared and copiously 
illustrated with drawings from nature. The author says : “ As I 
undertook the pleasant work of introduction between the many 
who have no technical botanical knowledge and my friends the 
trees, now I do the same for them and my friends the shrubs.” 
The work is conveniently arranged, as follows : List of families 
and of genera; guide to the shrubs by flower, by leaf, and by 
fruit; description of shrubs, according to angiosperma and gymno- 
sperma ; explanation of terms ; glossary ; list of shrubs worthy of 
cultivation; index to the shrubs. There are 116 illustrations. 
The work should be in the library of every nurseryman. New 
York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Rochester : The Dodge & 
Browii Co. 
“How to Know the Wild Flowers,” by Mrs. William Starr 
Dana, is as attractive as its title indicates it must be. The work 
is in its fourth edition, and the demand for it is large. To all who 
have the least fondness for nature, and there are few who have 
not, this “guide to the names, haunts and habits of our common 
wild flowers ” will be most welcome. It is a book that will always 
be treasured, not only by the public generally, but by the florist 
and nurseryman whose business it is to cultivate flowers. The 
author and the publisher have together produced the most attrac¬ 
tive and convenient form. The illustrations are by Marion Sat- 
tcrlee. Ninety-seven of the one hundred and four plates are from 
original drawings from nature. The most noticeable feature of 
the work is the grouping of the wild flowers by color. Upon 
careful consideration this seemed to the author to offer an easier 
identification than any other arrangement, and those who have 
used the book speak in high terms of praise of this feature. As 
far as possible the flowers have been arranged, under their re¬ 
spective colors, according to the seasons’ sequence. With the 
description of each flower is given its common English name, its 
scientific name and the English title of the larger family to which 
the plant belongs. The volume contains 298 pages. It is of 
moderate size, easily carried in the woods and fields. New 
York : Charles Scribner’s Sons. 
. The fourth annual report of Hon. .J. M. Rusk, as Secretary of 
Agriculture, has been published. It covers the work of the de¬ 
partment in all its branches, during the year 1892, in the usual 
comprehensive manner. 
The Kansas State Board of Agriculture presents interesting 
facts concerning the state in a World’s Fair report. 
A valuable document is the catalogue of the exhibit of econo¬ 
mic entomology at the World’s Columbian Exposition, made under 
the direction of the entomologist of the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. 
