Various

“ 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. ”

“ The wood of the White Pine is certainly better fitted for many purposes than any tree with which nature has provided Europe, and yet one can hardly expect it to easily overcome fixed habits and prejudices. It will devolve upon the more intelligent proprietors of wood-land in Europe to begin with the plantation of the White Pine on a large scale. No Conifer in Europe can be cultivated with so little care and risk as the White Pine; the frost does not injure the young plant, and the numerous insects invading the European trees during their whole life-time inflict but little harm. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ GARDEN AND FOREST, in view of the growing taste for rural life, and of the multiplication of country residences in all parts of the United States, especially in the vicinity of the cities and of the larger towns, will make a special feature of discussing the planning and planting of private gardens and grounds, small and large, and will endeavor to assist all who desire to make their home surroundings attractive and artistic. ”

“ But notwithstanding the splendid qualities which distinguish the White Pine as a forest tree its wood has never been looked upon with favor in Europe. Many of those who are cultivating the White Pine for business seem to expect that they will raise a heavy and durable wood. These are the qualities prized in their own timber trees, and they seem to think that the White Pine must be so highly prized at home for the same qualities, when in fact it is the lightness and softness of the wood which are considered in America. ”

“ Buyers are learning, however, that at no period of the year can cut flowers be had in such perfection and variety as during February and March, and although not much required for party occasions they are bought for other purposes in increasing quantities every year, so that the advent of Lent does not now produce utter stagnation in the flower trade. In Roses there is at present a large assortment offered. From the modest Bon Silene, and its new competitor, Papa Gontier, up to the magnificent American Beauty and Hybrid Perpetuals, may be found every gradation of color, size and fragrance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Beautiful at all seasons, the pond is most beautiful in June, when the rhododendrons are ablaze with crimson and purple and white, and when the yellow of the azalea-beds—discreetly separated from the rhododendrons by a great clump of low-growing willows—finds delicate continuation in the buttercups which fringe the daisied meadow. ”

“ It would seem also that some European planters believe that a Pine tree exists which will yield more and at the same time heavier wood than any other tree on the same area. It is a general rule that the amount of woody substance annually formed on the same soil does not vary in any great degree with the different kinds of trees. For instance, if we have good soil we may raise 2,200 lbs. per acre of woody substance every year, from almost any kind of timber tree. If we plant a tree forming a wood of low specific gravity, we get a large volume of wood, and this is the case with the White Pine. ”

“ In this compost it grows very strong, the fronds attaining a deeper green and lasting longer than when grown in peat. When the pots are filled with roots give weak liquid manure occasionally. This fern is propagated by dividing the roots and potting in small pots, which should be placed in the warmest house, where they soon make fine plants. Where it is grown expressly for cut fronds the best plan is to plant it out on a bench in about six inches of soil, taking care to give it plenty of water and heat, and it will grow like a weed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The witness of the eye alone would persuade us that Nature unassisted had achieved the whole result. But beauty of so suave and perfect a sort as this is never a natural product. Nature’s beauty is wilder if only because it includes traces of mutation and decay which here are carefully effaced. ”

“ After general cultivation as an ornamental tree in parks this Pine began to be used in the forests on account of its hardiness and rapid growth, and it is now not only scattered through most of the forests of Europe, but covers in Germany alone an area of some 300 acres in a dense, pure forest. Some of these are groves 120 years old, and they yield a large proportion of the seed demanded by the increasing cultivation of the tree in Europe.
The White Pine has proved so valuable as a forest tree that it has partly overcome the prejudices which every foreign tree has to fight against. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The White Pine is not so easily broken by heavy snowfall as the Scotch Pine, on account of the greater elasticity of its wood. The great abundance of soft needles falling from it every year better fits it for improving a worn-out soil than any European Pine, therefore the tree has been tried with success as a nurse for the ground in forest plantations of Oak, when the latter begin to be thinned out by nature, and grass is growing underneath them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In cultivation it is generally looked upon as poor grower, but with us it grows as freely as any fern we have. We grow a lot to mix in with Orchids, as they do not crowd at all. We pot in a compost of equal parts loam and peat with a few ashes to keep it open, and grow in the warmest house, giving at all times abundance of water both at root and overhead. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 the public, and make available for the instruction of all persons interested in garden plants the conclusions reached by the most trustworthy investigators. ”

“ Where it is not possible to shade bulbs without interfering with other plants a simple and effective plan is to make funnels of paper large enough to stand inside each pot and six inches high. These may be left on the pots night and day from the time the plants are brought in until the flower spike has grown above the foliage; indeed, some of the very finest Hyacinths cannot be had in perfection without some such treatment. Bulbous plants should never suffer for water when growing rapidly, yet on the other hand, they are easily ruined if allowed to become sodden. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is better to thin such over-crowded seedlings early, if serviceable timber is wanted in the shortest time. The statement that close growth is needed to produce long, clean timber, needs some limitation. No plant can develop satisfactorily without sufficient light, air and feeding room. When trees are too thickly crowded the vigor of every one is impaired, and the process of establishing supremacy of individuals is prolonged, to the detriment even of those which are ultimately victorious. ”

“ 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 Linnæus, 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Landscape Gardening.—A Definition.
S OME 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. ”