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VOL.I. NO.1.
GARDEN AND FOREST
.A.JOURNAL.OF.HORTICULTURE. .LANDSCAPE.ART.AND.FORESTRY.
.FEBRUARY.29, 1888.]
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GARDEN AND FOREST:
An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art and
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GARDEN AND FOREST will be devoted to Horticulture in all its branches,
Garden Botany, Dendrology and Landscape Gardening, and will discuss
Plant Diseases and Insects injurious to vegetation.
Professor C. S. SARGENT, of Harvard College, will have general
editorial control of GARDEN AND FOREST.
Professor WM. G. FARLOW, of Harvard College, will have editorial
charge of the Department of Cryptogamic Botany and Plant Diseases.
Professor A. S. PACKARD, of Brown University, will have editorial
charge of the Department of Entomology.
Mr. WM. A. STILES will be the Managing Editor.
GARDEN AND FOREST will record all noteworthy discoveries and all
progress in science and practice within its field at home and abroad.
It will place scientific information clearly and simply before
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interested in garden plants the conclusions reached by the most
trustworthy investigators. Arrangements have been made to figure and
describe new and little-known plants (especially North American) of
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and description of ornamental trees and shrubs. New florists' flowers,
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GARDEN AND FOREST will report the proceedings of the principal
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with architecture.
GARDEN AND FOREST will give special attention to scientific and
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Conservation and economic Tree Planting, and to all the important
questions which grow out of the intimate relation of the forests
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Original information on all these subjects will be furnished by
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Among those who have promised contributions to GARDEN AND FOREST are:
Mr. SERENO WATSON, Curator of the Herbarium, Harvard College.
Prof. GEO. L. GOODALE, Harvard College.
" WOLCOTT GIBBS, "
" WM. H. BREWER, Yale College.
" D. G. EATON, "
" WM. J. BEAL, Agricultural College of Michigan.
" L. H. BAILEY, Jr., "
" J. L. BUDD, Agricultural College of Iowa.
" B. D. HALSTED, " " "
" E. W. HILGARD, University of California.
" J. T. ROTHROCK, University of Pennsylvania.
" CHAS. E. BESSEY, University of Nebraska.
" WM. TRELEASE, Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis.
" T. J. BURRILL, University of Illinois.
" W. W. BAILEY, Brown University.
" E. A. POPENOE, Agricultural College, Kansas.
" RAPHAEL PUMPELLY. United States Geological Survey.
" JAMES H. GARDINER, Director New York State Survey.
" WM. R. LAZENBY, Director of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment
Station.
" W. W. TRACY, Detroit, Mich.
" C. V. RILEY, Washington, D. C.
Mr. DONALD G. MITCHELL, New Haven, Conn.
" FRANK J. SCOTT, Toledo, O.
Hon. ADOLPHE LEUE, Secretary of the Ohio Forestry Bureau.
" B. G. NORTHROP, Clinton, Conn.
Mr. G. W. HOTCHKISS, Secretary of the Lumber Manufacturers'
Association.
Dr. C. L. ANDERSON, Santa Cruz, Cal.
Mr. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, Brookline, Mass.
" FRANCIS PARKMAN, Boston.
Dr. C. C. PARRY, San Francisco.
Mr. PROSPER J. BERCKMANS, President of the American Pomological
Society.
" CHARLES A. DANA, New York.
" BURNET LANDRETH, Philadelphia.
" ROBERT RIDGEWAY, Washington, D. C.
" CALVERT VAUX, New York.
" J. B. HARRISON, Franklin Falls, N. H.
Dr. HENRY P. WALCOTT, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society.
Mr. C. G. PRINGLE, Charlotte, Vt.
" ROBERT DOUGLAS, Waukegan, Ill.
" H. W. S. CLEVELAND, Minneapolis, Minn.
" CHAS. W. GARFIELD, Secretary of the American Pomological Society.
" C. R. ORCUTT, San Diego, Cal.
" B. E. FERNOW, Chief of the Forestry Division, Washington, D. C.
" JOHN BIRKENBINE, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.
" JOSIAH HOOPES, West Chester, Pa.
" PETER HENDERSON, New York.
" WM. FALCONER, Glen Cove, N. Y.
" JACKSON DAWSON, Jamaica Plain, Mass.
" WM. H. HALL, State Engineer, Sacramento, Cal.
" C. C. CROZIER, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
The Rev. E. P. ROE, Cornwall, N. Y.
Dr. C. C. ABBOTT, Trenton, N. J.
Mrs. SCHUYLER VAN RENSSELAER, New York.
" MARY TREAT, Vineland, N. J.
Dr. KARL MOHR, Mobile, Ala.
Hon. J. B. WALKER, Forest Commissioner of New Hampshire.
Mr. WM. HAMILTON GIBSON, Brooklyn, N. Y.
" EDGAR T. ENSIGN, Forest Commissioner of Colorado.
" E. S. CARMAN, Editor of the _Rural New Yorker_.
" WM. M. CANBY. Wilmington, Del.
" JOHN ROBINSON, Salem, Mass.
" J. D. LYMAN, Exeter, N. H.
" SAMUEL PARSONS, Jr., Superintendent of Central Park, N. Y.
" WM. MCMILLAN, Superintendent of Parks, Buffalo. N. Y.
" SYLVESTER BAXTER, Boston.
" CHARLES ELIOT, Boston.
" JOHN THORPE, Secretary of the New York Horticultural Society.
" EDWIN LONSDALE, Secretary of the Philadelphia Horticultural Society.
" ROBERT CRAIG, President of the Philadelphia Florists' Club.
" SAMUEL B. PARSONS, Flushing, N. Y.
" GEORGE ELLWANGER, Rochester.
" P. H. BARRY, Rochester.
" W. J. STEWART, Boston, Mass.
" W. A. MANDA, Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, Mass.
" DAVID ALLAN, Mount Vernon, Mass.
" WM. ROBINSON, North Easton, Mass.
" A. H. FEWKES, Newton Highlands, Mass.
" F. GOLDRING, Kenwood, N. Y.
" C. M. ATKINSON, Brookline, Mass.
* * * * *
Dr. MAXWELL T. MASTERS, Editor of the Gardener's Chronicle.
Mr. GEO. NICHOLSON, Curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew.
" W. B. HEMSLEY, Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew.
" WM. GOLDRING, London.
Mr. MAX LEICHTLIN, Baden Baden.
M. EDOUARD ANDRE, Editor of the Revue Horticole, Paris, France.
Dr. G. M. DAWSON, Geological Survey of Canada.
Prof. JOHN MACOUN, " " "
M. CHARLES NAUDIN, Director of the Gardens of The Villa Thuret,
Antibes.
Dr. CHAS. BOLLE, Berlin.
M. J. ALLARD, Angers, Maine & Loire, France.
Dr. H. MAYE, University of Tokio, Japan.
Prof. D. P. PENHALLOW, Director of the Botanical Gardens, Montreal.
Mr. WM. SAUNDERS, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station,
Ontario.
" WM. LITTLE, Montreal.
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THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO., Limited,
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GARDEN AND FOREST.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY
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Conducted by Professor C. S. SARGENT.
ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y.
NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1888.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
EDITORIAL ARTICLES:--Asa Gray. The Gardener's Monthly. The
White Pine in Europe 1
The Forests of the White Mountain _Francis Parkman._ 2
Landscape Gardening.--A Definition _Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer._ 2
Floriculture in the United States _Peter Henderson._ 2
How to Make a Lawn _Professor W. J. Beal._ 3
Letter from London _W. Goldring._ 4
A New Departure in Chrysanthemums _A. H. Fewkes._ 5
New Plants from Afghanistan _Max Leichtlin._ 6
Iris Tenuis, with figure _Sereno Watson._ 6
Hardy Shrubs for Forcing _Wm. Falconer._ 6
Plant Notes _C. C. Pringle; Professor W. Trelease._ 7
Wire Netting for Tree Guards _A. A. Crozier._ 7
Artificial Water, with Illustration 8
Some New Roses _Edwin Lonsdale._ 8
Two Ferns and Their Treatment _F. Goldring._ 9
Timely Hints about Bulbs _John Thorpe._ 9
ENTOMOLOGY:
Arsenical Poisons in the Orchard _Professor A. S. Packard._ 9
THE FOREST:
The White Pine in Europe _Professor H. Mayr._ 10
European Larch in Massachusetts 11
Thinning Pine Plantations _B. E. Fernow._ 11
BOOK REVIEWS:
Gray's Elements of Botany _Professor G. L. Goodale._ 11
Kansas Forest Trees _Professor G. L. Goodale._ 12
PUBLIC WORKS:--The Falls of Minnehaha--A Park for Wilmington 12
FLOWER MARKETS:--New York--Philadelphia--Boston 12
* * * * *
Asa Gray.
The whole civilized world is mourning the death of Asa Gray with a
depth of feeling and appreciation perhaps never accorded before to a
scholar and man of science.
To the editors of this Journal the loss at the very outset of their
labors is serious indeed. They lose a wise and sympathetic adviser of
great experience and mature judgment to whom they could always have
turned with entire freedom and in perfect confidence; and they lose a
contributor whose vast stores of knowledge and graceful pen might, it
was reasonable to hope, have long enriched their columns.
The career of Asa Gray is interesting from many points of view. It is
the story of the life of a man born in humble circumstances, without
the advantages of early education, without inherited genius--for
there is no trace in his yeoman ancestry of any germ of intellectual
greatness--who succeeded in gaining through native intelligence,
industry and force of character, a position in the very front rank
of the scientific men of his age. Among the naturalists who,
since Linnaeus, have devoted their lives to the description and
classification of plants, four or five stand out prominently in the
character and importance of their work. In this little group Asa Gray
has fairly won for himself a lasting position. But he was something
more than a mere systematist. He showed himself capable of drawing
broad philosophical conclusions from the dry facts he collected
and elaborated with such untiring industry and zeal. This power
of comprehensive generalization he showed in his paper upon the
"Characters of Certain New Species of Plants Collected in Japan"
by Charles Wright, published nearly thirty years ago. Here he first
pointed out the extraordinary similarity between the Floras of Eastern
North America and Japan, and then explained the peculiar distribution
of plants through the northern hemisphere by tracing their direct
descent through geological eras from ancestors which flourished in
the arctic regions down to the latest tertiary period. This paper
was Professor Gray's most remarkable and interesting contribution
to science. It at once raised him to high rank among philosophical
naturalists and drew the attention of the whole scientific world to
the Cambridge botanist.
Asa Gray did not devote himself to abstract science alone; he wrote as
successfully for the student as for the professional naturalist.
His long list of educational works have no equals in accuracy and
in beauty and compactness of expression. They have had a remarkable
influence upon the study of botany in this country during the half
century which has elapsed since the first of the series appeared.
Botany, moreover, did not satisfy that wonderful intellect, which hard
work only stimulated but did not weary, and one of Asa Gray's chief
claims to distinction is the prominent and commanding position he took
in the great intellectual and scientific struggle of modern times, in
which, almost alone and single handed he bore in America the brunt of
the disbelief in the Darwinian theory shared by most of the leading
naturalists of the time.
But the crowning labor of Asa Gray's life was the preparation of
a descriptive work upon the plants of North America. This great
undertaking occupied his attention and much of his time during
the last forty years of his life. Less fortunate than his greatest
botanical contemporary, George Bentham, who turned from the last page
of corrected proof of his work upon the genera of plants to the bed
from which he was never to rise again, Asa Gray's great work is left
unfinished. The two volumes of the "Synoptical Flora of North America"
will keep his memory green, however, as long as the human race is
interested in the study of plants.
But his botanical writings and his scientific fame are not the most
valuable legacy which Asa Gray has left to the American people. More
precious to us is the example of his life in this age of grasping
materialism. It is a life that teaches how industry and unselfish
devotion to learning can attain to the highest distinction and the
most enduring fame. Great as were his intellectual gifts, Asa Gray was
greatest in the simplicity of his character and in the beauty of his
pure and stainless life.
* * * * *
It is with genuine regret that we read the announcement of the
discontinuance of the _Gardener's Monthly_. It is like reading of
the death of an old friend. Ever since we have been interested in the
cultivation of flowers we have looked to the _Monthly_ for inspiration
and advice, and its pages have rarely been turned without finding
the assistance we stood in need of. But, fortunately, the _Gardener's
Monthly_, and its modest and accomplished editor, Mr. Thomas Meehan,
were one and the same thing. It is Mr. Meehan's long editorial
experience, high character, great learning and varied practical
knowledge, which made the _Gardener's Monthly_ what it was. These, we
are happy to know, are not to be lost to us, as Mr. Meehan will, in a
somewhat different field and with new associates, continue to delight
and instruct the horticultural public.
Americans who visit Europe cannot fail to remark that in the parks and
pleasure grounds of the Continent no coniferous tree is more graceful
when young or more dignified at maturity than our White Pine. The
notes of Dr. Mayr, of the Bavarian Forest Academy, in another column,
testify that it holds a position of equal importance as a forest tree
for economic planting. It thrives from Northern Germany to Lombardy,
corresponding with a range of climate in this country from New England
to Northern Georgia. It needs bright sunshine, however, and perhaps it
is for lack of this that so few good specimens are seen in England.
It was among the first of our trees to be introduced there, but it has
been universally pronounced an indifferent grower.
The Forests of the White Mountains.
New Hampshire is not a peculiarly wealthy State, but it has some
resources scarcely equaled by those of any of its sisters. The White
Mountains, though worth little to the farmer, are a piece of real
estate which yields a sure and abundant income by attracting tourists
and their money; and this revenue is certain to increase, unless blind
mismanagement interposes. The White Mountains are at present unique
objects of attraction; but they may easily be spoiled, and the yearly
tide of tourists will thus be turned towards other points of interest
whose owners have had more sense and foresight.
These mountains owe three-fourths of their charms to the primeval
forest that still covers them. Speculators have their eyes on it, and
if they are permitted to work their will the State will find a most
productive piece of property sadly fallen in value. If the mountains
are robbed of their forests they will become like some parts of the
Pyrenees, which, though much higher, are without interest, because
they have been stripped bare.
The forests of the White Mountains have a considerable commercial
value, and this value need not be sacrificed. When lumber speculators
get possession of forests they generally cut down all the trees and
strip the land at once, with an eye to immediate profit. The more
conservative, and, in the end, the more profitable management,
consists in selecting and cutting out the valuable timber when it has
matured, leaving the younger growth for future use. This process is
not very harmful to the landscape. It is practiced extensively in
Maine, where the art of managing forests with a view to profit is
better understood than elsewhere in this country. A fair amount
of good timber may thus be drawn from the White Mountains, without
impairing their value as the permanent source of a vastly greater
income from the attraction they will offer to an increasing influx
of tourists. At the same time the streams flowing from them, and
especially the Pemigewasset, a main source of the Merrimac, will be
saved from the alternate droughts and freshets to which all streams
are exposed that take their rise in mountains denuded of forests. The
subject is one of the last importance to the mill owners along these
rivers.
_F. Parkman._
Landscape Gardening.--A Definition.
Some of the Fine Arts appeal to the ear, others to the eye. The
latter are the Arts of Design, and they are usually named as
three--Architecture, Sculpture and Painting. A man who practices one
of these in any of its branches is an artist; other men who work with
forms and colors are at the best but artisans. This is the popular
belief. But in fact there is a fourth art which has a right to be
rated with the others, which is as fine as the finest, and which
demands as much of its professors in the way of creative power and
executive skill as the most difficult. This is the art whose purpose
it is to create beautiful compositions upon the surface of the ground.
The mere statement of its purpose is sufficient to establish its rank.
It is the effort to produce organic beauty--to compose a beautiful
whole with a number of related parts--which makes a man an artist;
neither the production of a merely useful organism nor of a single
beautiful detail suffices. A clearly told story or a single beautiful
word is not a work of art--only a story told in beautifully connected
words. A solidly and conveniently built house, if it is nothing more,
is not a work of architecture, nor is an isolated stone, however
lovely in shape and surface. A delightful tint, a graceful line, does
not make a picture; and though the painter may reproduce ugly models
he must put some kind of beauty into the reproduction if it is to be
esteemed above any other manufactured article--if not beauty of
form, then beauty of color or of meaning or at least of execution.
Similarly, when a man disposes the surface of the soil with an eye
to crops alone he is an agriculturist; when he grows plants for
their beauty as isolated objects he is a horticulturist; but when
he disposes ground and plants together to produce organic beauty of
effect, he is an artist with the best.
Yet though all the fine arts are thus akin in general purpose they
differ each from each in many ways. And in the radical differences
which exist between the landscape-gardener's and all the others we
find some reasons why its affinity with them is so commonly ignored.
One difference is that it uses the same materials as nature herself.
In what is called "natural" gardening it uses them to produce effects
which under fortunate conditions nature might produce without
man's aid. Then, the better the result, the less likely it is to be
recognized as an artificial--artistic--result. The more perfectly the
artist attains his aim, the more likely we are to forget that he
has been at work. In "formal" gardening, on the other hand, nature's
materials are disposed and treated in frankly unnatural ways; and
then--as a more or less intelligent love for natural beauty is very
common to-day, and an intelligent eye for art is rare--the artist's
work is apt to be resented as an impertinence, denied its right to its
name, called a mere contorting and disfiguring of his materials.
Again, the landscape-gardener's art differs from all others in the
unstable character of its productions. When surfaces are modeled and
plants arranged, nature and the artist must work a long time together
before the true result appears; and when once it has revealed itself,
day to day attention will be forever needed to preserve it from the
deforming effects of time. It is easy to see how often neglect or
interference must work havoc with the best intentions, how often the
passage of years must travesty or destroy the best results, how rare
must be the cases in which a work of landscape art really does justice
to its creator.
Still another thing which affects popular recognition of the art as
such is our lack of clearly understood terms by which to speak of it
and of those who practice it. "Gardens" once meant pleasure-grounds of
every kind and "gardener" then had an adequately artistic sound. But
as the significance of the one term has been gradually specialized,
so the other has gradually come to denote a mere grower of plants.
"Landscape gardener" was a title first used by the artists of
the eighteenth century to mark the new tendency which they
represented--the search for "natural" as opposed to "formal" beauty;
and it seemed to them to need an apology as savoring, perhaps, of
grandiloquence or conceit. But as taste declined in England it was
assumed by men who had not the slightest right, judged either by their
aims or by their results, to be considered artists; and to-day it is
fallen into such disesteem that it is often replaced by "landscape
architect." This title has French usage to support it and is in many
respects a good one. But its correlative--"landscape architecture"--is
unsatisfactory; and so, on the other hand, is "landscape artist,"
though "landscape art" is an excellent generic term. Perhaps the best
we can do is to keep to "landscape gardener," and try to remember that
it ought always to mean an artist and an artist only.
_M. G. van Rensselaer._
Floriculture in the United States.
At the beginning of the present century, it is not probable that there
were 100 florists in the United States, and their combined green-house
structures could not have exceeded 50,000 square feet of glass. There
are now more than 10,000 florists distributed through every State and
Territory in the Union and estimating 5,000 square feet of glass to
each, the total area would be 50,000,000 feet, or about 1,000 acres
of green-houses. The value of the bare structures, with heating
apparatus, at 60 cents per square foot would be $30,000,000, while the
stock of plants grown in them would not be less than twice that sum.
The present rate of growth in the business is about 25% per annum,
which proves that it is keeping well abreast of our most flourishing
industries.
The business, too, is conducted by a better class of men. No longer
than thirty years ago it was rare to find any other than a foreigner
engaged in commercial floriculture. These men had usually been private
gardeners, who were mostly uneducated, and without business habits.
But to-day, the men of this calling compare favorably in intelligence
and business capacity with any mercantile class.
Floriculture has attained such importance that it has taken its place
as a regular branch of study in some of our agricultural colleges. Of
late years, too, scores of young men in all parts of the country have
been apprenticing themselves to the large establishments near the
cities, and already some of these have achieved a high standing; for
the training so received by a lad from sixteen to twenty, better
fits him for the business here than ten years of European experience,
because much of what is learned there would prove worse than
useless here. The English or German florist has here to contend with
unfamiliar conditions of climate and a manner of doing business that
is novel to him. Again he has been trained to more deliberate methods
of working, and when I told the story a few years ago of a workman who
had potted 10,000 cuttings in two inch pots in ten consecutive hours,
it was stigmatized in nearly every horticultural magazine in Europe
as a piece of American bragging. As a matter of fact this same workman
two years later, potted 11,500 plants in ten hours, and since then
several other workmen have potted plants at the rate of a thousand per
hour all day long.
Old world conservatism is slow to adopt improvements. The practice
of heating by low pressure steam will save in labor, coal and
construction one-fifth of the expense by old methods, and nearly all
the large green-house establishments in this country, whether private
or commercial, have been for some years furnished with the best
apparatus. But when visiting London, Edinburgh and Paris in 1885, I
neither saw nor heard of a single case where steam had been used for
green-house heating. The stress of competition here has developed
enterprise, encouraged invention and driven us to rapid and prudent
practice, so that while labor costs at least twice as much as it does
in Europe, our prices both at wholesale and retail, are lower. And
yet I am not aware that American florists complain that their profits
compare unfavorably with those of their brethren over the sea.
Commercial floriculture includes two distinct branches, one for the
production of flowers and the other for the production of plants.
During the past twenty years the growth in the flower department of
the business has outstripped the growth of the plant department. The
increase in the sale of Rosebuds in winter is especially noteworthy.
At the present time it is safe to say that one-third of the entire
glass structures in the United States are used for this purpose; many
large growers having from two to three acres in houses devoted to
Roses alone, such erections costing from $50,000 to $100,000 each,
according to the style in which they are built.
More cut flowers are used for decoration in the United States than in
any other country, and it is probable that there are more flowers sold
in New York than in London with a population four times as great. In
London and Paris, however, nearly every door-yard and window of city
and suburb show the householder's love for plants, while with us,
particularly in the vicinity of New York (Philadelphia and Boston
are better), the use of living plants for home decoration is far less
general.
There are fashions in flowers, and they continually change. Thirty
years ago thousands of Camellia flowers were retailed in the holiday
season for $1 each, while Rosebuds would not bring a dime. Now, many
of the fancy Roses sell at $1 each, while Camellia flowers go begging
at ten cents. The Chrysanthemum is now rivaling the Rose, as well
it may, and no doubt every decade will see the rise and fall of some
floral favorite. But beneath these flitting fancies is the substantial
and unchanging love of flowers that seems to be an original instinct
in man, and one that grows in strength with growing refinement.
Fashion may now and again condemn one flower or another, but the
fashion of neglecting flowers altogether will never prevail, and
we may safely look forward in the expectation of an ever increasing
interest and demand, steady improvement in methods of cultivation, and
to new and attractive developments in form, color and fragrance.
_Peter Henderson._
How to Make a Lawn.
"A smooth, closely shaven surface of grass is by far the most
essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban home." This
is the language of Mr. F. J. Scott, and it is equally true of other
than suburban grounds. A good lawn then is worth working for, and if
it have a substantial foundation, it will endure for generations, and
improve with age.
We take it for granted that the drainage is thorough, for no one would
build a dwelling on water soaked land. No labor should be spared in
making the soil deep, rich and fine in the full import of the
words, as this is the stock from which future dividends of joy and
satisfaction are to be drawn. Before grading, one should read that
chapter of Downing's on "The Beauty in Ground." This will warn against
terracing or leveling the whole surface, and insure a contour with
"gentle curves and undulations," which is essential to the best
effects.
If the novice has read much of the conflicting advice in books and
catalogues, he is probably in a state of bewilderment as to the
kind of seed to sow. And when that point is settled it is really a
difficult task to secure pure and living seeds of just such species as
one orders. Rarely does either seller or buyer know the grasses called
for, especially the finer and rarer sorts; and more rarely still does
either know their seeds. The only safe way is to have the seeds tested
by an expert. Mr. J. B. Olcott, in a racy article in the "Report of
the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1886," says, "Fifteen years
ago nice people were often sowing timothy, red top and clover for
door-yards, and failing wretchedly with lawn-making, while seedsmen
and gardeners even disputed the identity of our June grass and
Kentucky blue-grass."
We have passed beyond that stage of ignorance, however; and to the
question what shall we sow, Mr. Olcott replies: "Rhode Island bent and
Kentucky blue-grass are their foolish trade names, for they belong no
more to Kentucky or Rhode Island than to other Northern States. Two
sorts of fine _Agrostis_ are honestly sold under the trade name of
Rhode Island bent, and, as trade goes, we may consider ourselves
lucky if we get even the coarser one. The finest--a little the
finest--_Agrostis canina_--is a rather rare, valuable, and elegant
grass, which should be much better known by grass farmers, as well
as gardeners, than it is. These are both good lawn as well as pasture
grasses." The grass usually sold as Rhode Island bent is _Agrostis
vulgaris_, the smaller red top of the East and of Europe. This makes
an excellent lawn. _Agrostis canina_ has a short, slender, projecting
awn from one of the glumes; _Agrostis vulgaris_ lacks this projecting
awn. In neither case have we in mind what Michigan and New York people
call red top. This is a tall, coarse native grass often quite abundant
on low lands, botanically _Agrostis alba_.
Sow small red top or Rhode Island bent, and June grass (Kentucky blue
grass, if you prefer that name), _Poa pratensis_. If in the chaff, sow
in any proportion you fancy, and in any quantity up to four bushels
per acre. If evenly sown, less will answer, but the thicker it is sown
the sooner the ground will be covered with fine green grass. We can
add nothing else that will improve this mixture, and either alone is
about as good as both. A little white clover or sweet vernal grass
or sheep's fescue may be added, if you fancy them, but they will not
improve the appearance of the lawn. Roll the ground after seeding. Sow
the seeds in September or in March or April, and under no circumstance
yield to the advice to sow a little oats or rye to "protect the young
grass." Instead of protecting, they will rob the slender grasses of
what they most need.
Now wait a little. Do not be discouraged if some ugly weeds get the
start of the numerous green hairs which slowly follow. As soon as
there is any thing to be cut, of weeds or grass, mow closely, and mow
often, so that nothing need be raked from the ground. As Olcott puts
it, "Leave one crop where it belongs for home consumption. The rains
will wash the soluble substance of the wilted grass into the earth to
feed the growing roots." During succeeding summers as the years roll
on, the lawn should be perpetually enriched by the leaching of the
short leaves as they are often mown. Neither leave a very short growth
nor a very heavy growth for winter. Experience alone must guide the
owner. If cut too closely, some of it may be killed or start too late
in spring; if left too high during winter, the dead long grass will be
hard to cut in spring and leave the stubble unsightly. After passing
through one winter the annual weeds will have perished and leave the
grass to take the lead. Perennial weeds should be faithfully dug out
or destroyed in some way.
Every year, add a top dressing of some commercial fertilizer or a
little finely pulverized compost which may be brushed in. No one
will disfigure his front yard with coarse manure spread on the lawn
for five months of the year.
If well made, a lawn will be a perpetual delight as long as the
proprietor lives, but if the soil is thin and poor, or if the coarser
grasses and clovers are sown instead of those named, he will be much
perplexed, and will very likely try some expensive experiments, and
at last plow up, properly fit the land and begin over again. This will
make the cost and annoyance much greater than at first, because the
trees and shrubs have already filled many portions of the soil. A
small piece, well made and well kept, will give more satisfaction than
a larger plot of inferior turf.
_W. J. Beal._
Horticultural Exhibitions in London.
At a late meeting of the floral committee of the Royal Horticultural
Society at South Kensington among many novelties was a group of
seedling bulbous Calanthes from the garden of Sir Trevor Lawrence,
who has devoted much attention to these plants and has raised some
interesting hybrids. About twenty kinds were shown, ranging in
color from pure white to deep crimson. The only one selected for a
first-class certificate was _C. sanguinaria_, with flowers similar
in size and shape to those of _C. Veitchii_, but of an intensely deep
crimson. It is the finest yet raised, surpassing _C. Sedeni_, hitherto
unequaled for richness of color. The pick of all these seedlings would
be _C. sanguinaria_, _C. Veitchii splendens_, _C. lactea_, _C. nivea_,
and _C. porphyrea_. The adjectives well describe the different tints
of each, and they will be universally popular when once they find
their way into commerce.
CYPRIPEDIUM LEEANUM MACULATUM, also shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence, is a
novelty of sterling merit. The original _C. Leeanum_, which is a cross
between _C. Spicerianum_ and _C. insigne Maulei_, is very handsome,
but this variety eclipses it, the dorsal sepal of the flower being
quite two and one-half inches broad, almost entirely white, heavily
and copiously spotted with purple. It surpasses also _C. Leeanum
superbum_, which commands such high prices. I saw a small plant sold
at auction lately for fifteen guineas and the nursery price is much
higher.
LAELIA ANCEPS SCHR[OE]DERAE, is the latest addition to the now very
numerous list of varieties of the popular _L. anceps_. This new form,
to which the committee with one accord gave a first class certificate,
surpasses in my opinion all the colored varieties, with the possible
exception of the true old Barkeri. The flowers are of the average size
and ordinary form. The sepals are rose pink, the broad sepals very
light, almost white in fact, while the labellum is of the deepest
and richest velvety crimson imaginable. The golden tipped crest is a
veritable beauty spot, and the pale petals act like a foil to show off
the splendor of the lip.
TWO NEW FERNS of much promise received first class certificates. One
named _Pteris Claphamensis_ is a chance seedling and was found growing
among a lot of other sporelings in the garden of a London amateur. As
it partakes of the characters of both _P. tremula_ and _P. serrulata_,
old and well known ferns, it is supposed to be a natural cross between
these. The new plant is of tufted growth, with a dense mass of fronds
about six inches long, elegantly cut and gracefully recurved on all
sides of the pot. It is looked upon by specialists as just the sort
of plant that will take in the market. The other certificated fern,
_Adiantum Reginae_, is a good deal like _A. Victoriae_ and is supposed
to be a sport from it. But _A. Reginae_, while it has broad pinnae of a
rich emerald green like _A. Victoriae_, has fronds from nine to twelve
inches long, giving it a lighter and more elegant appearance. I don't
know that the Victoria Maidenhair is grown in America yet, but I am
sure those who do floral decorating will welcome it as well as the
newer _A. Reginae_. A third Maidenhair of a similar character is _A.
rhodophyllum_ and these form a trio that will become the standard
kinds for decorating. The young fronds of all three are of a beautiful
coppery red tint, the contrast of which with the emerald green of the
mature fronds is quite charming. They are warm green-house ferns and
of easy culture, and are supposed to be hybrid forms of the old _A.
scutum_.
_Nerine Mansellii_, a new variety of the Guernsey Lily, was one of
the loveliest flowers at the show. From the common Guernsey Lily it
differs only in color of the flowers. These have crimpled-edged petals
of clear rose tints; and the umbel of flowers is fully six inches
across, borne on a stalk eighteen inches high. These Guernsey Lilies
have of recent years come into prominence in English gardens since
so many beautiful varieties have been raised, and as they flower from
September onward to Christmas they are found to be indispensable
for the green-house, and indoor decoration. The old _N. Fothergillii
major_, with vivid scarlet-crimson flowers and crystalline cells in
the petals which sparkle in the sunlight like myriads of tiny rubies,
remains a favorite among amateurs. Baron Schroeder, who has the finest
collection in Europe, grows this one only in quantity. An entire house
is filled with them, and when hundreds of spikes are in bloom at once,
the display is singularly brilliant.
A NEW VEGETABLE, a Japanese plant called Choro-Gi, belonging to the
Sage family, was exhibited. Its botanical name is _Stachys tuberifera_
and it was introduced first to Europe by the Vilmorins of Paris under
the name of _Crosnes du Japon_. The edible part of the plant is
the tubers, which are produced in abundance on the tips of the wiry
fibrous roots. These are one and a half inches long, pointed at both
ends, and have prominent raised rings. When washed they are as white
as celery and when eaten raw taste somewhat like Jerusalem artichokes,
but when cooked are quite soft and possess the distinct flavor of
boiled chestnuts. A dish of these tubers when cooked look like a mass
of large caterpillars, but the Committee pronounced them excellent,
and no doubt this vegetable will now receive attention from some
of our enterprising seedsmen and may become a fashionable vegetable
because new and unlike any common kind. The tubers were shown now
for the first time in this country by Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent
surgeon. The plant is herbaceous, dying down annually leaving the
tubers, which multiply very rapidly. They can be dug at any time of
the year, which is an advantage. The plant is perfectly hardy here and
would no doubt be so in the United States, as it remains underground
in winter. [A figure of this plant with the tubers appeared in the
_Gardener's Chronicle_, January 7th, 1888.--ED.]
PHALAENOPSIS F. L. AMES, a hybrid moth orchid, the result of
intercrossing _P. grandiflora_ of Lindley with _P. intermedia Portei_
(itself a natural hybrid between the little _P. rosea_ and _P.
amabilis_), was shown at a later exhibition. The new hybrid is very
beautiful. It has the same purplish green leaves as _P. amabalis_, but
much narrower. The flower spikes are produced in the same way as those
of _P. grandiflora_, and the flowers in form and size resemble those
of that species, but the coloring of the labellum is more like that
of its other parent. The sepals and petals are pure white, the
latter being broadest at the lips. The labellum resembles that of _P.
intermedia_, being three-lobed, the lateral lobes are erect, magenta
purple in color and freckled. The middle or triangular lobe is of the
same color as the lateral lobes, but pencilled with longitudinal lines
of crimson, flushed with orange, and with the terminal cirrhi of a
clear magenta. The column is pink, and the crest is adorned with
rosy speckles. The Floral Committee unanimously awarded a first-class
certificate of merit to the plant.