Botanical garden

“ For the botanical garden and curious collections it is indispensable. It is strong and lasting when well established, and may be allowed to trail over rough places, stumps, or similar positions. The flowers have a rather strong odour of violets, and are succeeded by roundish fruit, the size of a small orange, of a deep green colour barred and speckled with white. ”

“ The royal botanical gardens contained an endless variety of plants, both indigenous and exotic, cultivated for their brilliant foliage, their grateful fragrance, or their culinary and medicinal virtues. ”

“ There are hot-houses in the grounds containing rare specimens of exotic vegetation to delight the botanist heart, and in every nook is evidence of the care which has succeeded in making these Botanical Gardens one of the best in Europe. ”

“ The section of palms, the ferns, climbing plants, and gigantic lianas surpasses in interest all that can be found in any other botanical gardens.
As a result of the perfect scientific arrangement of the garden, the stranger, with a plan in his hand, which is furnished gratuitously to all who wish to work there, can find his way at once to whatever section he is most interested in. ”

“ It could be made, and ought to be made, a notably exquisite piece of landscape.
5. Means of circulation as related to the improvement of existing plantations. The mention of paths in connection with the Cherry Garden brings us to a very perplexing and very important matter. In a botanical garden resorted to by great numbers of people, it is a fact, as frequently pointed out by the Director-in-Chief, that an adequate and convenient path system is very important for handling the crowds without destruction of the more essential element—which is the vegetation. ”

“ Unquestionably it is a very desirable thing to provide, in the most perfect possible way, somewhere in the Botanical Garden area, for the grouping of such functions in a beautiful building, domestic in scale but considerable in size, intimately related to a beautiful garden of a suitable kind. ”

“ They have not the grandeur of the Botanical Gardens, though they display an even more perennial greenness and a certain wild charm of their own, and the lawns are not so smoothly kept, while in places the grass grows deliciously lush and high. ”

“ Obviously a botanic garden is hardly a legitimate place to devote much space or money to the creation, for its own sake, of any formal design so predominantly architectural or sculptural in its interest that the vegetation plays a wholly secondary rôle—such [Pg 23] a thing as might be more properly called a court-yard or a plaza than a garden. ”

“ Throughout this program of improvement of existing features, the paths and roads and grading should be considered solely as a necessary means to the end of developing and maintaining in the most beautiful manner possible, those features of scientific and horticultural and landscape interest for the sake of which [Pg 15] the Botanical Garden exists, and of making them conveniently and pleasurably accessible to the public without their destruction by public use ”

“ The Botanical Gardens, likewise founded and kept up by private subscription, are not only a most agreeable resort, but also afford much instruction, arising from the many interesting and useful plants gathered here from all quarters of the world. ”

“ The sort of thing we mean is a type of what is sometimes called a landscape garden, the heart of which is a beautifully modelled lawn, enframed by beautifully composed trees irregularly disposed, under which the lawn here and there loses itself in shadowy mystery, while elsewhere its irregular margin is formed by masses of flowering shrubs and flowering herbaceous plants, providing, as an incident of the landscape, an informal or naturalistic herbaceous garden designed predominantly or almost exclusively for esthetic effect. ”

“ The Botanical Gardens are kept in beautiful order. They furnish not only a charming promenade for the people, but serve as a nursery for young plants and trees. On every side the town presents an appearance of thrift and industry. ”

“ With the popularization of science and the rise of landscape gardening on an extensive scale in or near all the great cities, botanical gardens have acquired more and more importance and perhaps greater value for the awakening and instruction of the masses, and should therefore be made easily accessible to them and as instructive as possible. Hence the public parks that are most easily within reach of the largest numbers of people are the peculiarly favorable territory on which to place botanical gardens. ”

“ The botanical gardens to the east of the city are of considerable extent and admirably laid out. The nurseries cover a large area and are devoted chiefly to the raising of plants of economic importance which can be purchased at nominal rates. ”

“ But a profounder change concerning the scientific side of botanical gardens may nevertheless be anticipated in the future. The fashionable plants of the trade-gardens and the monotonous forms of certain genera which require whole houses in their aimless fullness of species do not deserve such a preference; and the time is at hand for botanical gardens to break with these old traditions and to carry out a stricter selection connected with necessary reforms in nomenclature. ”

“ 'Don't you be too sure of that.' He made two or three peculiar observations; as when shewn the botanical garden, 'Is not every garden a botanical garden?' When told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles: 'That is making a very foolish use of the ground; ”

“ The preservation of the beautiful patches of native forest, which still survive in the ravines, and the affixing the names of the various trees and shrubs, have created, at a small expense, a Botanic Garden of the most useful kind. ”

“ And yet, to the true lover of Nature, wild flowers have a charm which no garden can equal. Cultivated plants are but a living herbarium. They surpass, no doubt, the dried specimens of a museum; but, lovely as they are, they can be no more compared with the natural vegetation of our woods and fields, than the captives in the Zoological Gardens with the same wild species in their native forests and mountains. ”

“ The gardens are beautifully laid out in pleasure-grounds, broad walks, groves, flower gardens, greensward, &c.—a pleasing combination of the natural and artificial; the public may walk where they wish; they may saunter here and there; they may lie down or walk on the greensward, only they must not pluck the flowers or break the trees and plants; the garden is a perfect wealth of floral treasures. Seventy-five of its three hundred and fifty acres are devoted to the Botanic Gardens, with different hot-houses for rare and tropical plants, all open to the public. ”

“ With few exceptions these plants have never been grown out of botanic gardens, many of them being thought too coarse for the mixed border. They are, nevertheless, remarkably beautiful both in flower and foliage, and many effects never before seen in gardens may be obtained by massing them under trees in shrubberies or copses, as a rule allowing one species to establish itself in each place and assume an easy natural boundary of its own. ”

“ I was led to think of the enormous number of beautiful hardy plants from other countries which might be naturalised, with a very slight amount of trouble, in many situations in our gardens and [vi] woods—a world of delightful plant beauty that we might in this way make happy around us, in places now weedy, or half bare, or useless. I saw that we could not only grow thus a thousandfold more lovely flowers than are commonly seen in what is called the flower garden, but also a number which, by any other plan, have no chance whatever of being seen around us. ”

“ I recall particularly two Italian gardens, perfectly laid out by landscape gardeners, but which amounted to nothing because the planting was insufficient,—here a Phlox, there a Lily, then a Rose, with perhaps a Larkspur or a Marigold, all rigidly set out in single plants far apart, with nothing in masses, and no colour effects.
To attain success in growth, as well as in effect, plants must be so closely set that when they are developed no ground is to be seen. If so placed, their foliage shades the earth, and moisture is retained. ”

“ We passed rapidly through a great many walks, and saw groves of a large variety of trees, in all which I felt a peculiar interest, such as the cinnamon, nutmeg, sage, camphor, bread-fruit, tamarind, cocoa-nut, orange, lemon and banyan trees, and thickets of bamboo and swamps of bananas, besides a multitude of beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers, whose names we did not learn. In the center of the garden, and dividing the palm-tree walk, which I have described, into two equal parts, is a fine fountain bordered with and surrounded by a profusion of rich flowers. ”

“ Apart altogether from our want of a more elegantly diversified surface in the flower-garden—the best and most practical way to meet which is by the use of such plants as these and neat and elegant young specimens of such things as Thujopsis borealis—there is, in many British gardens, a great gulf between the larger tree and shrub vegetation and the humbler colouring material, which most will admit should be filled up, and there is nothing more suitable for it than the many graceful conifers we now possess. ”

“ The old grass land orchard, filled with picturesque standard trees, is capable of being made a wild garden of true beauty. In early spring we may have troops of golden daffodils and silvery narcissi, making vistas of colour among the lines of grey trunks. Ropes of purple and white clematis may festoon the trees, and some of the semi-wild roses, with their rich foliage and single flowers will fill the hedges and ramble over the banks. ”

“ Then, too, each year the intelligent gardener will arrange new combinations, grow new varieties of plants, and aim after a perfection which he can never hope to reach.
But the garden has no less also a scientific interest. Fresh species of plants are continually enriching our flower-beds, and botanists are constantly searching the wildest and most remote corners of the world on behalf of the English stove-house, conservatory, and garden. They endure untold hardships, and risk many dangers, if only they may secure some new treasure. ”

“ Subtropical gardening means the culture of plants with large and graceful or remarkable foliage or habit, and the association of them with the usually low-growing and brilliant flowering-plants now so common in our gardens, and which frequently eradicate every trace of beauty of form therein, making the flower-garden a thing of large masses of colour only. ”

“ A valuable quality of the plant is, that in any light soil it spreads freely, and it is quite hardy. For dry places between shrubs, for dry or sandy banks (either wooded or bare) , copses, or heathy places, this plant is admirable. I have noticed it thriving in the shade of fir trees. It is interesting as being a South American plant, thriving in any open soil.
Marsh Mallow, Althæa.—These are plants rarely seen out of botanic gardens now–a–days, and yet, from their vigour and showy flowers, they may afford unique effects in the wild garden. ”

“ Usually flower beds and borders are in the full sun—a very proper arrangement in a cool country. But even in our climate, there are in the warm months many days in which the woodland shade is sought in preference to the open lawn, and when the fully–exposed garden is deserted. Therefore, it is clearly desirable that we have flowers in shady as well as sunny places. Many plants, too, love the shade, and we only require to plant the most suitable of these to enjoy a charming wild garden. It need not be pointed out to Americans that a vast number of herbaceous plants naturally inhabit woods. ”

“ A part of the arboretum is more particularly devoted to this kind of decoration, and will eventually form a very wild wood and wild garden, where the Poet’s Narcissus may be found among Sweet Briers, Lilacs, and many kinds of fragrant–flowering shrubs and vigorous perennials. While carrying out the scheme of wild gardening, pure and simple, that is to say, the naturalisation of foreign hardy plants, opportunity has been taken to establish beautiful native kinds where they do not happen to be present in sufficient abundance. ”

“ The garden is arranged according to the Linnæan system, and exhibits a single specimen of every tree, shrub, and plant which will stand abroad, and is to be found in the park and gardens. It is impossible to conceive a more agreeable spot for the living study of botany than the seat under this tree, which, like a venerable patriarch, looks down upon the surrounding youthful generations of every form, foliage, blossom, and colour. ”

“ Beyond the brushwood, which grows where the original forest has been cut down, there are large trees covered with numerous epiphytes—Tillandsias, orchids, ferns, and a hundred others, that make every big tree an aerial garden. ”

“ But there need be no fear of massed color in a field, as being ever gaudy or cloying. An approach to the beauty and satisfaction of nature's plentiful field may be artificially obtained as an adjunct to the garden in a flower-close sown or set with a solid expanse of bloom of some native or widely adopted plant. I have seen a flower-close of Daisies, another of Buttercups, one of Larkspur, one of Coreopsis. ”

“ On many lawns, spring gardens might be formed by planting some spring flowering plants that finish their growth before the trees are in leaf. Another advantage of such positions is, that the foliage of the tree prevents any coarser plants taking possession of the ground, and therefore these little spring plants have the ground to themselves, and wander into natural little groups in the moss and grass, sometimes covering the surface with a sheet of blossoms. ”