22 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
foreign Botes. 
The supply of apples from Normandy this year exceeds the demand 
in Paris. 
Just one hundred years ago the Chili pine, Araucaria imbricata, was 
introduced into England. 
Great activity prevails at present in Holland in the matter of tech¬ 
nical education in horticulture. 
A national rose society for France has been established, at Lyons, 
with M. Vivian-Morel as secretary. 
In the spring of 1897 will be held, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the Berlin Horticultural Society, an international horti¬ 
cultural exhibition. 
The Saitama Nursery Co., 26 Tateno, Saitama-Ken, Japan, has been 
established for the direct exportation of plants, seeds and bulbs and 
especially Japanese lilies. 
In the garden of Mrs. Fitzwygram at Larkfield, Hampton Hill, 
England, the plan of planting apple trees in the shrubbery, for the 
beauty of the apple blossoms has been followed. 
The chairman of committees for 1896 of the Royal Horticultural 
Society are : Scientific, Sir J. D. Hooker, K. C. S. I., C. B., F. R. S., 
etc., Sunningdale ; fruits, Philip Crowley, F. L. S., Croydon; flow¬ 
ers, William Marshall, Bexley ; orchids, H. J. Veitch, F. L. S., 
Chelsea. 
Reine Claude and Mirabelle plums are the varieties preferred by 
French growers; no other kind can compete with them in the quality 
of the fruit when fresh, and also for culinary and household purposes, 
except only for drying and for “prunes,” when other varieties should 
be chosen. Near Paris, in the market gardens, plums are to be seen at 
every step, especially the excellent Reine Claude variety, and it is the 
same in every other large town ; 2,500,000 kilos, of Reine Claude and 
1,500,000 kilos, of Mirabelle are sent to Paris from all parts every year. 
In several of the villages near Bar sur-Aube, the Reine Claude trees in 
the vineyards have produced plums to the value of 60,000 francs in one 
crop. Near Sainte-Menehould the amount has been known to reach 
80,000 francs. In 1874 the village of Vitry-le-Brule (Marne) sold 100,000 
francs’ worth of plums. In Picardy, the Beauvieux commune (Aisne) 
is literally covered with Reine Claude plantations. The inhabitants 
realize an extraordinary large sum by the sale of fresh fruit and by 
distilling that which is over-ripe. The Marne valley, the heights be¬ 
tween Nesles and CornR (altitude 230 metres), are, so to speak, simply 
“ wooded ” with plum trees. In 1878 the trees were so laden with fruit 
'that the crop realized as much as 75 francs per tree, the gathering 
expenses being paid by the purchaser. In 1882, in the Brie, a grower 
near Meaux, estimated the produce of one hectare of Reine Claude to 
be worth 4,000 francs, the trees being ten years old. One hundred¬ 
weight of ripe plums has been known to bring in Paris as much as 48 
francs, all growing expenses deducted. 
UNNATURAL GARDENING. 
The Independent and Garden and Forest , of New York 
city, have been discussing the subject of fancy bedding 
or “ unnatural gardening.” The Independent says : 
We suppose there is not a more intelligent horticultural journal in 
the United States than Garden and Forest; and for this reason we 
venture a few words on a subject which it frequently touches on with 
most contemptuous expressions, that of “floral emblems.” 
The reference in these paragraphs is to the showy beds in set colored 
patterns, made of coleuses, altemantheras, lobelias, etc., sometimes 
made to represent badges of army corps, and oh the latest occasion in 
Boston the monograms and mottoes of the Christian Endeavor Society. 
Every visitor to Boston during the late meeting of that society, visited 
the Public Garden, and saw these beds prepared with great skill,.and 
which certainly gave pleasure to ninety-nine out of a hundred of those 
who sauntered along the broad walk, on either side of which they 
were displayed- 
But we are told that we ought not to like to see them, that they arc 
unnatural, “horticultural abominations,” “ vulgar,” examples of “bad 
taste. ” 
Perhaps so, wise pundit; but we would like to know why. The 
The common taste approves them, the taste of the common people, for 
whom they were made, the people w’ho pay the taxes. They are 
“generally praised by the press,” if not by the professors of high 
horticulture. This ought to be some reason for providing them. It is 
true they are not naturalistic, but what art is ? There is not an abler 
or more sensible article in our symposium this week than that which 
proves that we are not to “ follow Nature ” with a capital N in educa¬ 
tion. The purpose of horticulture is not to follow nature but to 
change and improve it. What is a Bon Silene rose but a brier made 
unnatural ? What is more unnatural than the specimen chrysanthe¬ 
mum, all the buds pinched off, and leaving one monstrous flower at the 
end of the stem, all for the display of a beautiful monstrosity ? Why, 
the very issue of the journal from which we have taken these extracts 
recommends the Japanese yew for “topiary” effects, and what is 
“topiary ” but the trimming of trees and shrubs into fantastic shapes 
of birds, animals, squares and rings, just “horticultural abominations,” 
which, however, give pleasure ? And this same issue has another 
word to say in appreciation of the old-fashioned formal beds of the 
last century gardening, all unnatural obominations. 
In the course of an extended reply Garden and Forest 
says : 
We believe that formal gardening is a legitimate form of art, but 
it does not follow that we approve of all formal gardens. A design 
conceived by an artist with a refined sense of color and form, and with 
constructive ingenuity, is one thing, but a pattern bed, which is ugly 
in line and crude in color, is quite another. Every one has seen geo. 
metrical flower beds of such elaborate pattern that they never can be 
properly executed with plants as materials. Even where they are not 
intrinsically bad—that is, where the figure is pleasing and the colors 
are not constantly at war with each other—they are often placed where 
they are out of harmony with the general design, and with the special 
features about them. Wherever in a public garden the recognized 
canons of art are violated it is the province of a journal devoted to the 
subject to'criticise such displays, and we have not hesitated to appeal 
to those in authority and who are, therefore, in a substantial way edu¬ 
cators of the people, to furnish examples of gardening which will not 
offend the purest taste. But there are worse sins than those we have 
named, and there is no occasion here to characterize such efforts as the 
portraits of eminent men or the maps of different states wrought out 
on the turf with houseleeks and echeverias. Such subjects, with the 
imitations in color of flags and banners, badges and mottoes, are too 
trivial for serious consideration. They discredit the very name of 
garden art. Wherever used they can only disfigure our parks, and are 
accurately described as horticultural abominations. 
THE COMING IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 
A recent trip to Phoenix in the interest of the fifth 
Irrigation Congress by the proprietor of The Rural Cali¬ 
fornian revealed a satisfactory condition of things. In 
the first place the business pulse of Central Arizona and 
its metropolis beats regularly and strong, and is therefore 
in a healthy condition ; and in the second place the people, 
and particularly the commercial interests, are keenly alive 
to the importance of making the coming session of the 
National Irrigation Congress an emphatic success. The 
preliminaries are now well under way, the necessary com¬ 
mittees have been appointed, and the machinery set in 
motion to secure a large delegation from all the arid 
states and territories and also from abroad. No effort 
will be spared by the energetic business men of Phoenix 
to secure a large attendance.— Rural Californian. 
