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J'":. .,""!...£'':...:'"{...;"*!...; .. ..'... ..:.. ..:.. ..}.. ..u. .,:., .,:.. ..;., ..;.. ..:.. ;.;.5 :....• u,.i :...: :...: :...t :.-: t...: :.,.: :.,.: ..r.j ..!._. • ^ ..:.. ..1, ..:.j ..:., ..:., ..... j^.^ ..:.j J.:.; ;.j.j^ ,.:.t^ ,j., j.:.^ ..:.; ..:.j j.{ X !!J!; X .' • "i", ..t., •• "!*■ •• :"-i_. . rM"'L;'5'-^-:.;";.;.r"3-:.-'''^-'-'*%'5"''' ..: i.j.i ..J.. ..;.. ...r"s...r'i ; . . : :"*; r-: »■••: i*": :•••{ :*•". ••• J. .,;., ..,., ..... ..J.. ..;.. ..;.. ..,.. .. : r^'^ t--*i i"«i 7"". J': '' ■ t'''t :• .:.. ..».. ,.«.. ..I, 5.L, ..i., ,.u, ..t.^ ; THE GARDEN'S STORY OR PLEASURES AND TRIALS OF AN AMATEUR GARDENER BY GEORGE H. ELLWANGER 7j NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MDCCCLXXXIX :->'.^(. ' f JUL 16 1889: log 2.^ r/. ■•GTOV^- k / ^ /^J ^-^\. 1^ Copyright, 1889, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. TO Rev. C. WOLLEY DOD, MASTER OF GARDENING, WHOSE WORK AMONG HARDY PLANTS HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF FLORICULTURE, THIS INCOMPLETE RECORD OF THE GARDEN-YEAR IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. You find me in my garden dress. You will excuse it, I know. It is an ancient pursuit, gardening. Primitive, my dear sir ; for, if I am not mistaken, Adam was the first of our calling. — Pecksniff. I am of Opinion that one considerable way to improve Gardening and the Culture of Plants would be to give a de- scription of the Plants themselves ; then the Soils, Climates, and Countries where the Plants to be cultivated naturally grow ; and what Seasons, Rains, and Meteors they have ; which, being imitated as much as possible, perhaps some Plants might thrive better than they do now on the fattest Ground. — Philosophical Transactions of the Royal So- ciety TO the End of the Year 1700, Article LXXXIV. HE publication of a book on the Gar- den calls for no apology — there are not half enough contemporary works on the subject ; there never can be too many. The design of the present volume is to direct attention to the importance of hardy flower- gardening as a means of outward adornment and as a source of recreation. Some of the very many hardy plants, shrubs, and climbers which may be advantageously employed are mentioned, and some hints are given with re= spect to their use and culture. I am aware the list is far from complete, even for this rigorous climate, where the line is distinctly drawn by the extremes of heat and cold. To enumerate all plants worthy a place under cultivation would require the knowledge vi 33ceface. and experience of a Loudon ; and tastes vary largely as regards the worth and beauty of in- dividual flowers. It has been the aim to present a simple out- line of hardy flower-gardening, rather than a formal treatise or text-book of plants — to stimu- late a love for amateur gardening that may be carried out by all who are willing to bestow upon it that meed of attention it so bountifully repays. Nearly all the subjects referred to are such as may be successfully grown in the low- er lake region, and, for the most part, have come under notice in the writer's garden. Different soils and different treatment often produce widely dissimilar results ; and even the limited list presented may possibly be found to contain some departure from the well-known types. Moreover, it is pleasant sometimes to look at a flower through different eyes. The flower remains the same, though its perfume may become accentuated, and the garden prove the more inviting the oftener its beauties are set forth. ^Preface. vii The following chapters have been so ar- ranged as to present the various aspects of the garden from early spring until late autumn. But the garden year is so interwoven with the many delightful phases of external nature that, the more fully to preserve the sequence of the seasons, it has been deemed advisable to touch also upon the bird and insect life with which it is so intimately connected. The bee, the moth, the butterfly, are all inseparable attend- ants upon the flowers, and have their mission in the economy of the garden. The birds, also, are constant visitors to every nook and corner, and likewise possess an interest and have a voice in the garden's progress from day to day. Numerous references to the wild flowers in their native haunts, a chapter on the rock-gar- den, and a chapter on hardy ferns, have been introduced ; and, finally, more or less allusion to the flowers and seasons in literature has been made. The year referred to is that of 1888. G. H. E. Rochester, N. Y., 1889. Preface I. The Garden in Anticipation . II. An Outline of the Garden . III. The Spring Wild Flowers IV. When Daffodils begin to peer V. The Rock-Garden VI. The Summer Flowers VII. Two Garden Favorites VIII. Warm-Weather Wisdom IX. My Insect Visitors . X. Hardy Shrubs and Climbers . XI. In and out of the Garden . XII. The Hardy Fernery XIII. Midsummer Flowers and Midsummer Voices XIV. Flowers and Fruits of Autumn . XV. The Last Monk's-hood Spire . PAGE V 3 31 59 81 105 135 165 193 209 229 245 261 275 293 315 Index 329 w @;i)e (^arben in ^ntici^jation. And the spring comes slowly up this way. Christabel. Or call it winter, which, being full of care. Makes summer's welcome thrice more wished, more rare. Sonnet lvi. I. THE GARDEN IN ANTICIPATION. I T appears a long way removed still — the goal toward which the length- ening days are slowly trending. In place of rampant Aries, ever charging upon the delaying spring, Patience-on-a-Monument would seem an equally appropriate symbol of March, were the signs of the zodiac to be remodeled. The seconds drag through a never-emptying minute-glass, until one wearies utterly of the tedium of the "loaded hours," and wonders not at the impassioned cry of the poet : O God, for one clear day, a snow-drop and sweet air ! Yet, bluster as he will, March has at most four weeks to retard the " open sesame ! " How gratefully the grass will smile at the first warm rains ; and what a caressing odor will arise with the first whiff of Daphne mezereumy a foretaste E\ft eUartJen's Stor^. of its sweeter sister, the rosy-cheeked Daphfie cneorum, and all the train of expectant flowers I Slowly, yet surely, the hour of the year is ad- vancing. Under the ermine of winter, April's treasures await only the robins' rondeau to call them forth. And what pleasure there is in the anticipation ! The swarms of tulips already gathering their forces — the dazzling rex rubro- rurns, the bizarres, and the tall marbled by- bloems, which look like the old-fashioned silks of our pretty grandmothers. That bank of oxlips, cowslips, and primroses, too — " crimson-maroon sparkler," " Danesford yellow hose - in - hose," " lilac pantaloons," and ever so many more in- viting names — which you placed along the south garden-wall, what a mass of bloom will not push through the mottled earth ! And that hamper of daffodil-bulbs, sent by a friend in England, what wealth of beaten gold will not unfold from the fragrant petals ! Will pallidus prcBCOX outstrip obvallaris in the race ; and will " golden plover " vie with " golden dragon " ; or can any daffodil, born or yet unborn, excel the glorious bicolor of the Lancashire weaver, John Horsfield ? Only, as every rose has its thorn, Horsfieldi has its seri- ous drawback, at least with me, in decreasing in vigor every year. Perhaps it is the fault of soil ; )Jn ^ntfcipation. more probably a matter of climate. But, inas- much as I have succeeded in wooing the coquet- tish Lzlium auratum so that she smiles instead of frowns, I shall continue to persevere with Horsfieldi, which is worth any pains to obtain in the perfect full-blown flower. To think it has taken all these years to ren- der a daffodil " fashionable " ! As if a live flow- er were a ribbon, subject to the caprice of a milliner ! Yet, what may we not expect when lovely woman stoops to blond her tresses, and vandal florists figuratively plunge a flower into the dye-pot? Scarcely a case where beauty is truth, truth beauty. Perhaps, some day, ma- genta may become the mode, and a magenta gown call for its accompanying flower of the same shade — a chance to let a zinnia scream. The camellia, described in the dictionary as "a genus of beautiful plants," fortunately has had its day — banished with the wax flowers in Wardian cases, let us hope, never to return ; too bloodless and too cold even for a chancel ; a flower absolutely without a soul. In the in- dex expurgatorius should be included the calla lily, which still does lugubrious duty at funerals. Talmage's wish that, when he dies, his grave may be strewed with a handful of violets, a water-lily, a sprig of arbutus, a cluster of asters, rather than E\}t (fS^KxXftn'B Storg. that he be laid in imperial catafalque of Russian czar, is a sentiment relatives would do well to consider at the obsequies of those they may be called upon to mourn. The final tributes at the grave, above all, should express the floral prefer- ences of the departed — the old custom of the Indians, clothed in a softer, lovelier garb. In-door flowers at this season atone, in a measure, for those unobtainable out of doors — always providing one can afford to pay a dollar apiece as the price of a new rose, and shut one's olfactories to the taint of tobacco-smoke and the villainous-smelling stuff shot at the red spi- der that frequently adheres to the glass-grown queen of flowers. Marie Louise violets and lilies of the valley lose none of their sweetness by being grown out of season. The violet ! how pure its wave of fragrance ! And the potfuls of "£-rand soleil d'or" and " grand primo" taz- zettas ! — surely here is spring incense enough to fill a cathedral at Easter-tide. Is there any odor more delectable than the mingled essence of pineapple, orange, and banana, which this form of the poet's flower exhales ? To many, the odor of paper-white {Narcissus papyra- ceus) and the Campernelle jonquil (A^. odorus) is almost overpowering ; they should be used sparingly, therefore — a single spathe will suffice JJn glnticipatton. to scent your librar}\ Powerful enough they are to have pleased Baudelaire, who, preferring musk to violets or roses, declared, " My soul hovers over perfumes as the soul of others hov- ers over music." There is, indeed, an intoxica- tion, and often a strong association, in the sub- tile odor emitted by certain flowers. Does not the perfume of Lzlmm auratiim, stealing from the spotted petals, recall the reedy jungle and the stalking tiger? Or a gorgeous epiphytal orchid, steeped in its mysterious perfume, does it not simulate unconsciously some strange form of tropic insect or animal life ? I oftener recall a flower by its odor, to which sentiment tena- ciously clings, than by mere characteristics of form or color. What an indelible aroma, that of the fragrant everlasting of the fields ! — a wild, haunting" odor, as of fallen leaves after the latter rains, when the sun extracts their essences, rather than the characteristic fragrance of a flower. Through its rustling, ashen petals I already inhale the autumn from afar, and an- ticipate the last sad cricket's cry. If Addison be taken for authority, we can not have a single image in the fancy that does not make its first entrance through the sight* — a dogma which, * " On the Pleasures of the Imagination." 8 E^t ^artren's Storg. though emanating from the " Spectator," is manifestly sophistical and untrue. Was Addi- son deficient in the sense of smell (the voice of a flower) ; or was a thrush's song powerless to awaken in him a sentiment of sublimity ? But Addison does not mention odors, and, for the most part, I take it, did not like external sounds ; or was it Steele who wrote the essay " On the London Cries " ? Bulwer declares, the only perfume a man should use is soap and water — a heresy. I would not for a moment commend musk, or even ylang-ylang ; though the latter, it seems to me, is preferable to the compound of Jean Ma- ria Farina with which men fairly saturate them- selves. Consider its ingredients : orange, cedrat, neroly, bergamot, and rosemary — scent enough to trap a cougar. But this is supposed to be fashionable ; while a hem-stitched handkerchief, with a lingering scent of violets, has no business to peep from the masculine pocket. Why should everything dainty be monopolized by the fair sex ? Has it not enough, with its feathers and ribbons and laces and jewelry, without carrying out the adage to its ultimatum, " sweets to the sweet " ? It even robs masculinity of any pro- prietorship to color, except what little can be focused into a scarf, or polka-dot a waistcoat. fin Anticipation. I'o be sure, there are those striped Joseph's- coats one meets at the sea-side, appropriately termed "blazers," which woman openly pro- fesses to admire, only to contrast them inward- ly with the sea-side habiliments of her own hu- man form divine. Even her blue bathing-dress she has deliberately pirated from the sailor of the high seas, and pilfered the crowning charac- teristic that proclaims man a man — the stove- pipe hat. Let those of the sterner sex who love the delicate aroma of a flower not hesitate to use its essence when distilled by an Atkinson, if the flower itself can not be had to take its place on the lapel. Does not Dumas pere, fn the " Vi- comte de Bragelonne," speak of the Bishop of Vannes as exhaling " that delicate perfume which, with elegant men and women of the grand world, never changes, seeming to be in- corporated in the person of which it has become the natural emanation " } Another case where they manage these things better in France. It is well known, moreover, that flower-essences are prophylactic and antiseptic — the more reason why they should be employed in moderation, and that their use be not monopolized by woman. '* There are perfumes," says Gautier, " which are fresh as the skin of a child, green as spring 3 10 2r!)e ^artren's Storj. meadows, recalling the flush of sunrise, and car- rying with them thoughts of innocence. Others, like musk, amber, benzoin, spikenard, and in- cense, are superb, triumphant, mundane, pro- vocative of coquetry, love, luxury, festivity, and splendor. Were they transposed to the sphere of colors, they v^ould represent gold and purple." I open the jar of rose pot-pourri to flood the room with the subtile essence of June. No evanescent odor, but one that permeates and clings, evaporating not, changing not its sweet- ness from year to year. I do not refer to the dry, soapy-smelling article of commerce labeled " Tea-rose Pot-pourri from Japan," but to the old-fashioned "rose-jar," made from your own garden-roses, blended with a sufficiency of other sweets to hold its perfume immutable. It is difficult to give a precise recipe for a rose pot- pourri, for no two ever turn out quite alike. I would say, however, with fat old Baron Brisse in the preface to an entree in his " Petite Cui- sine " : " There is a certain point in this prepara- tion rather difficult to seize ; but this is the way to set about it in order to be complimented : " The roses employed should be just, blown, of the sweetest-smelling kinds, gathered in as dry a state as possible. After each gathering, spread out the petals on a sheet of paper and JJn ^ntfcipatfon. ii leave until free from all moisture ; then place a layer of petals in the jar, sprinkling with coarse salt ; then another layer and salt, alternating until the jar is full. Leave for a few days, or until a broth is formed ; then incorporate thor- oughly, and add more petals and salt, mixing daily for a week, when fragrant gums and spices should be added, such as benzoin, storax, cassia- buds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and vanilla- bean. Mix again, and leave for a few days, when add essential oil of jasmine, violet, tuber- ose, and attar of roses, together with a hint of ambergris or musk, in mixture with the flower ottos to fix the odor. Spices, such as cloves, should be sparingly used. A xo^^ pot-pourri thus combined, without parsimony in supplying the flower ottos, will be found in the fullest sense a joy forever. Notwithstanding the rarity of flowers at this season, no one with space enough for the small- est kitchen-garden need be without at least an abundance of violets. A small stock of strong young plants, placed in good soil in May in a partially shaded position, will have increased sufficiently by November to. supply a hot-bed. These should be planted within a few inches of the glass, early enough to insure their rooting well before extreme cold weather. The hot-bed 12 2r|)e CKarticn's Storj. should be placed in the most sheltered and sun- shiny position, and be thoroughly protected on the sides with leaves or straw, and the sashes covered with thick matting and boards to ex- clude frost. So soon as the weather allows, in spring or during the winter, air should be given gradually during the day, recollecting that cold currents of air should be guarded against. As the weather becomes warm, and the plants require it, they may be watered occasionally. Pinch- ing back the runners will increase the bloom. After blossoming, lift the plants, divide them and place them in the open, as before. Dur- ing extreme dry weather they will naturally be much benefited by an occasional watering and mulching. No one who cares for flowers will grudge the little trouble and trifiing cost of a violet-bed which yields its wealth of blossom when other out-of-door flowers are still buried beneath the snow. I know of nothing that af- fords so much satisfaction for so little pains. Marie Louise is incomparably the most fragrant, floriferous, and satisfactory variety for hot-bed culture. From the adjoining hill-side at nightfall I hear the weird nocturne of the small screech- owl. A pair has always had its abode in the covert, in company with the red squirrels that Kn Anticipation. 13 bark so fiercely at the falling nuts in autumn. They each give an air of wildness to the sur- roundings, and one feels as if the trees had found an expressive voice. I can not compre- hend why the owl should invariably be associ- ated with gloom and deeds of evil, or that his voice should allow us to forget for a moment his accomplishments as a mouser. When other birds have deserted us, and even the squirrel remains in his hollow tree, the cry of the owl rings out sonorously on the winter twilight, " I am here ! " Well may Thoreau rejoice that there are owls, and Jesse admire their soft and silent flight. Charles Lotin Hildreth is superla- tively the poet-laureate of the bird of wisdom. Shakespeare, Barry Cornwall, Shelley, Words- worth, Jean Ingelow, and Tennyson must each and all give place to his apostrophe. Take the opening and the closing stanzas, for instance : There is no flame of sunset on the hill, There is no flush of twihght in the plain ; The day is dead, the wind is weird and shrill ; Amid the gloom the sheeted shapes of rain Glide to and fro with stealthy feet and still, And, wilder than the wood's autumnal moan, A voice wails through the night, " Alone, alone ! " Night deepens on the haggard close of day With wilder clamor of the wind and rain ; 14 ?rf)c ^articn's Storn. Louder the beaten branches groan and sway ; And fitfully the voice comes once again, Across the fields, more faint and far away. Is it the dark bird's wailing backward blown, Or my own heart that cries, "Alone, alone ! " The snow is fast retreating despite the raw March winds, though St. Patrick and the vernal equinox have yet to engage in their accustomed brawl. Indeed, St. Patrick never comes in with- out brandishing his blackthorn. As 'tis an ill wind turns none to good, so the dreaded equi- noctial is not without its advantages. Not hav- ing Blasius for authority, I can not tell why it is so ; nevertheless, the weather-vane of the equi- nox for the three days of its duration is an index to the character of the weather for the succeed- ing two or three months. A puzzling rule of three, no doubt, but why not as probable as that three consecutive white frosts are a never-failing sign of rain ? To be more explicit, the general direction of the wind and character of the weath- er during the several equinoxes would seem to be followed during the greater portion of the next quarter of the year by a like general direc- tion of the wind and character of weather. Avant-couriers of spring continue to blos- som diurnally through the post, in the shape of flower and vegetable catalogues. These unfold J^n ^ntfcipatfon. 15 some interesting studies in form, and reveal new possibilities of color. Many of the covers seem Koula rugs transformed into card-board ; and the hideous greens, saffrons, and magentas that gape from the Anatolias in the carpet-store win- dows appear to have been lavishly borrowed to heighten the effect of the foliage and fruit of some new strain of gourd, ruta-baga, or colossal onion. The most powerful appeal of the season is a full-page plate of liver-colored tomatoes and zinnias in combination. In another distinctly aesthetic overture, a plant of the Ipomcea tribe, sent out under the name of moon-flower, has embowered an entire cottage ; while the moon itself, represented as rising in the horizon, shines only with a borrowed splendor in the presence of this high-class luminary. When the cata- logue informs one, in addition, that "the flowers, when unfolding, expand so rapidly as to be plainly seen, affording amusement and instruc- tion, and that, being a free bloomer, the effect on a moonlight night is charming," the reader need no longer doubt the advent of the floral millennium. Surely it is the weather that the crows have been denouncing so vehemently for several even- ings from their roost in the immediate vicinity. If we have not the rook, I am glad we have his 1 6 2rf)e ^farUen's 5btori>. larger Plutonian cousin. His dusky shadow and husky bass have a charm of their own, and har- monize with the bleakness of early spring and the somberness of late autumn. Apart from the pestiferous English sparrow, the crow supplies almost our only winter voice. I place him with the black hellebore or Christmas-rose — a very good thing to have until there is something bet- ter to take his place. The Ettrick Shepherd should have substituted the crow-blackbird when he said, " The crow is down in the devil's book in round hand." I am glad to hear Phil Robin- son say he should be reluctant to deny this bird every one of the virtues ; and John Burroughs exclaim : " I love him ; he is a character I would not willingly miss from the landscape." The advance-guard of the robins has come, behind its usual time, but their reception has been too cold as yet to expect them to proclaim their presence in an audible manner. For the robins' silence the sparrows are doing double duty. I shall have to set my long pole in mo- tion again, and banish them from the front verandas to those of my neighbors. Birds, it is well known, will not endure being disturbed from their roosts ; and one or two dislodgments after nightfall will suffice to rout even the spar- row, although he is so disgustingly numerous Kn Anticipation. 17 that there are soon others ready to take his place as public defilers. Too cunning to be poisoned, a light charge of No. 12 shot is the best means of allaying his obstreperous cry. I usually leave the corpses of the chief offenders, the noisiest among the cock birds, in some conspicuous place for a day or two, and the matutinal tom- tom in the sugar- maple near my sleeping-room gives place to a sense of delicious repose. One of the necessities of the hour is a noiseless pow- der, and a practical sparrow -gun, light and cheap enough to be generally utilized. A twelve- gauge gun answers the purpose, save for the loudness of the report ; and a small rifle is effective, but the successful use of this requires too much skill to meet the popular demand. Through the means proposed, no one need be disturbed except the chief offender, and a liberal supply of cartridges would perceptibly rid one of his loathsome presence. " The sparrow car- ries no purse," says Phil Robinson, " for he steals all he wants ; and his name is in no di- rectory, for his address is the world." If Bry- ant lived to-day, he would assuredly change his false refrain, " The Old-World sparrow is wel- come here." An anonymous writer voices a charming sentiment : " Cursed be the man — the enemy of the peace of all civilized Americans — 1 8 2rt)c ffifarioen's .Storg. who imported them ! He should be incinerated, and his ashes blown by the four winds to the four quarters of the globe." The melancholy fact exists, notwithstanding, that the sparrow is here, and stands urgently in need of a prescription. He has succeeded in his dual role of harassing both mankind and his own desirable congeners. One by one he has driven away the song-birds from our home- steads, appropriating the nesting-places of the wren, the bluebird, and others, whose presence was invaluable in the orchard and among small fruits. The oriole still remains, concealed by the apple-bloom, or comparatively secure from assault in his rocking-chair in the elm. The song-sparrow and purple martin are diminishing yearly, the robin, blackbird, and oriole alone being able to resist his malicious persecution. In like manner, the Rocky Mountain trout has been placed in streams tenanted by the speckled trout, only to override and diminish a superior game-fish. Can not the champions of the Eng- lish sparrow people the country with the Austra- lian rabbit, or disseminate the Swiss goitre, as an act of philanthropy } A State or Govern- ment bounty on the sparrow's head would help to thin his polygamous brood ; his slaughter for " potted game " would add largely to the score ; Jtn ^nticfpatfon. 19 the sportsman's trap might ingulf him by the thousands ; and wholesale netting, as practiced abroad, would well reward those who supply the restaurant larder. The shrike, or butcher-bird, is an admirable matador so far as he goes, and would, no doubt, end in exterminating him, with man's assistance, did he exist in sufficient num- bers. Let us pray, meanwhile, for the advent of a sparrow-bug, or Passer-aphis — some insect- scourge such as besets the inanimate world — to aid in delivering us from this feathered Philis- tine. The chimney-swallows, which last summer awakened me with their chattering and whirring in the chimney, at all times of the night and early morning, will trouble me no more. A wire screen placed across the top of the chimney has rendered a little folding of the hands to sleep possible at five in the morning. The chorus of the Hy lodes, or peepers, is yet in store — that piercing treble launched against the quiet nights of early spring that nothing — even the katydid — can equal in strident intensity, and that no earth- ly power can still. Fancy attempting to go to sleep in a country house near a swampful of these shrieking demons ! " It is a plaintive sound, a pure spring melody," says Burroughs, for once apparently forgetting himself, or led 20 2rJ)e eSartJcn's^torj?. astray by its association with spring. But he sets us comparatively at ease by stating that there is a Southern species heard, when you have reached the Potomac, " whose note is far more harsh and crackling. To stand on the verge of a swamp vocal with these, pains and stuns the ear. The call of the Northern species is far more tender and musical." It is at least some consolation to know there are others worse off than ourselves. The uproarious crow-blackbird, too, is sure to return to the Lombardy poplars in April. A volley of coarse shot alone can drown his dis- cordant gutturals, which he hurls at you in utter disregard of the exquisite sensitiveness of the human tympanum. Fortunately for mankind, he is less numerous than the nauseous sparrow, or deafness were necessarily the all-prevailing malady. How many of these oral miseries there are awaiting us ! It is enough to develop a gouty diathesis to think of them. The blue-jay is almost always referred to as the most discordant among the birds, while little fault is found with the harsh voice of the grackle or crow-blackbird. Compared with the latter, the jay is a paragon in manners, dress, and every characteristic, unless we except his habit of pilfering the nests of his neighbors. His Kn ^ntfcfpatfon. 21 voice certainly has a meaning from his vantage in the tree-tops. It is emphatically a cry of warning, uttered loud enough for every feather in the forest to hear, that an enemy is intruding upon the sacred domain. His crest of sapphire would atone for his shrill clarion, were not the meaning of his cry a sufficient excuse in itself. The grackle, on the other hand, only screams incessantly to hear himself scream, and to drown the voices of the song-birds. In Harris's " Treatise on Insects injurious to Vegetation," the crow-blackbird is made to pose as a public benefactor. The reader, at first shocked by the statement that " few persons, while indulging in the luxury of early green peas, are aware how many insects they uncon- sciously swallow," is somewhat relieved later on by being told that these " buggy peas " contain, in the first instance, a minute whitish grub, which larva is changed to a pupa within its hole in the pea in the autumn, and before spring casts its skin again, becoming a beetle {Bruchus Pzst), only to fly out into the awaiting maw of the crow-blackbird ! " Buggy peas," I admit, do not sound appetizing at first hearing ; still, were we to draw the line at such trifles, I fear our vegetable diet would necessarily be greatly restricted. So long as we eat the insects with 2 2 STfce ©fartien's Storj). the special vegetables they infest, there can be but little objection. The strawberry and rasp- berry parasites are, certainly, exceptions ; for no one could taste and swallow more than one of either, and live to tell the tale. The mushroom- worm, the cabbage-louse, the lettuce-hopper, the Brussels-sprout thrip, and dozens of other jump- ing, wriggling things which the cook sends to table, possess invariably the exact flavor of the several vegetables they garnish. It would only be by serving the wrong or foreign insects with a particular dish that any gastronomical syncre- tism could result. The argujnentum ad g id am advanced for the existence of the crow-black- bird is, therefore, untenable, and I fail to dis- cover any excuse for allowing him to usurp the place of the starling, with whom he is forever quarreling. Another blanket of snow has been heaped upon us, just as the previous vestiges had dis- appeared and there were hopes of an end to the interminable hibernation. It was a halting philosopher who termed snow the poor man's manure, for want of a proper definition. The ammonia it contains one might better be with- out at this season, when every shrub, plant, and grass-blade is crying for the caress of the rain. Apparently the snow came from the asperous Kn ^ntfcipatfon. 23 east. I have wondered why the east wind should be so unkind, coming, as it does, from lands sentient with sunshine and steeped in tropic warmth. A wind like Ruskin's " plague- wind, made of dead men's souls — such of them as are not gone yet where they have to go, and may be flitting hither and thither, doubting themselves of the fittest place for them." I find the east wind has been grossly maligned ; it is the west wind that bears the venom of Boreas and the stratus-cloud in its icy breath, surging on an upper current of the atmosphere, and coming only in appearance from the east on a counter under-current of air. The Rocky Mountains are the real seat of the dreaded "easterly" storm, and they — not the east wind — desen^e our strict- ures. In point of viciousness and duration the pres- ent equinox exceeds any other I have known. The chanticleer on my neighbor's house-top has been whisking seemingly from each point of the compass at once ; and every variety of weather, from an east wind bitter as quassia to the most brutal of westerly blizzards, has raged unremit- tingly for six days. I defy even Sir Admiral Fitzroy to forecast the weather from so hetero- geneous a horoscope — a combination of winds that has blown evil to me and good to my al- 24 STije CKartren'sf utIinc of ti)e CKarticn. 49 Often plants crowd each other ; too many species of similar habit occur side by side ; hur- ried spring- planting may place desirable subjects amid incongruous surroundings, and the sym- metry of the flower-border become disturbed. Its outline, shading, and harmony of color are naturally seen to the greatest advantage at the flowering season, and it is then that transplant- ing may be most intelligently performed. Cer- tain subjects, like lilies, daffodils, etc., must, of course, await their proper season for removal; and, where the subjects for shifting are numer- ous, cool, wet weather should be selected. I would not by any means appear to advocate summer transplanting, to the exclusion of spring and fall ; but where the position of individual plants is immediately offensive, or where they are unduly crowding each other, summer trans- planting is to be recommended. It is always advisable to have a reserve flower-patch to draw from, where subjects may be obtained to replace those that may fail or prove unsatisfactory, for the purpose of ex- change, or where masses of particular kinds are liable to be called for. Generally, a stock of desirable plants may be had by annual sowings and division. The seeds of some perennials germinate very slowly, and are often trying to 50 srtje CKat"tien*!5 Stott>. raise. Much is to be gained with the majority by sowing as soon as the seeds are ripe, and wintering the slow-germinating kinds in a cold frame, pricking off when large enough, and planting out subsequently in their proper places. Not a few perennials spare us this trouble by sowing themselves ; many bloom the first year where sown early ; a large portion germinate slowly. In all cases, fresh seed insures the best results. Sow in light soil in shallow boxes, cov- ering with a light layer of moss to retain moist- ure, and wintering in the cold frame such spe- cies as do not develop sufficiently to plant out in autumn. Perennial seeds one should not de- spair of until well on to the second year after sowing. Many of them are in the habit of lying dormant for a year, In England seed-pans are usually kept dark, being moved into the light as soon as the seeds are up. Lichens, which clog the surface of the soil, do not grow in the dark. Annuals germinate readily, and cause little trouble. Another mode of propagation is by cuttings. These, taken from the plants just when growth begins, or after blooming, should be inserted in boxes or pots filled with a mixture of leaf-mold and sand, keeping them in a shaded frame until rooted ; then pot singly in three-inch pots, plant- ^n ©utlinc of tf)c ©nrijcn. 51 ing them out finally the following spring where desired. What flowers shall we plant, and how shall they be planted ? This will depend largely on the space to be filled, and on other considera- tions. Many, who are accustomed to be absent during the summer, will plant spring bloomers almost exclusively — a mistake, for this means bare borders during midsummer. Where one has a rock-garden, some plants, that otherwise might find a place in the borders, will be kept apart in this more proper situation. Where there is a hardy fernery, ferns will naturally be ex- cluded. There will also always exist a diversity of opinion regarding the merits of particular plants. Certain perfumes delightful to some are disagreeable to others ; while, so long as people exist who can endure magenta passively, we may never hope to exile such nightmares as Achillea rosea from the border, or some of the shades of the Cineraria from the greenhouse. All hardy plants, desirable and beautiful themselves, which will thrive in the soil and position chosen, and which are not so small as to be lost in the bor- der, may be used appropriately ; these will be alluded to specifically, later on, in their order of flowering. Experience will teach what not to plant bet- 52 5ri)e ^ar"Oen*s Storj. ter than volumes of instruction. Usually, sub- jects that sucker and throw out strong, creeping root-stalks are objectionable. Do not introduce rows in the borders ; plants are not supposed to be on military review. Neither dot the ground at equal distances with the same subjects often repeated ; variety is the spice of the garden. Though the taller-growing subjects, as a rule, are best placed in the background, an occasional colony of large plants should be placed in the center, and some large individual specimens re- lieve the foreground. Massing, where too much space is not called for, is desirable, especially with medium-sized subjects ; though attention must be paid to selection, or large bare spaces after blooming will obtrude. Where daffodils are largely grown, summer and autumn flower- ing subjects, like the columbines and Japanese anemones, should be placed in close proximity, to fill the void left when the bulbs die down in summer ; or light-rooting subjects, like the lovely Iceland poppy and some of the finer small annuals, may be employed to take their place. The great secret of successful floriculture is continuity of bloom — a luxuriance of blossom from early spring to late autumn ; so that, when one species has flowered, there will at once be some- thing else to continue the blossoming period with- sin ©utline of ti)e <*5actien. 53 out leaving unsightly gaps of bare ground. The necessity of placing plants intelligently will thus be readily apparent — the just apportioning of spring, summer, and autumn subjects with these several ends in view. Moderate shade is of ad- vantage to many flowers, but this should never be obtained from trees planted in the border itself. Plant permanently, mass boldly. Do not confine yourself to a few kinds when there is such a wealth to choose from — plants for sun- shine and plants for shade, plants for color and plants for fragrance, plants for spring and plants for autumn, plants for flower and plants for form. Aim at individuality, to produce an ideal of your own. Many half-hardy plants in the accepted sense can be grown by simply protecting them with leaves over winter. Plant for permanency lilies, irises, roses, delphiniums, phloxes, spiraeas, hemerocallis, narcissi, columbines, day lilies, her- baceous pasonias, bell-flowers, anemones, fraxi- nellas, perennial sunflowers, the great and less- er poppies, centaureas — the list is inexhaustible. Avoid coarse, weedy subjects, unless in special cases where habit may be compensated by bloom or special adaptation to situation ; these are usu- ally best placed by themselves m the distance or the rear garden. Many an old-fashioned coun- 54 ^t)^ CKartren's Storj). try garden can teach us much on the subject of selecting proper border flowers. The flower- border may be raised very slightly, to insure per- fect drainage and to emphasize its contour, but never be so elevated as to cause over-dryness ; elevated beds and borders are designed for plants which do not require much moisture. The skillful planter will not forget to place showy subjects with reference to their effect from the interior of the house, so that the beau- ty of the garden may be admired from within during inclement weather. A garden may be rendered beautiful from early spring until late autumn with perennial flowers alone ; but it may be rendered still more attractive by the judicious use of many of the finer annuals, biennials, and foliage plants as well. By the term "judicious " I mean not only a use of annuals of merit, but annuals properly placed ; perennial flower-borders should consist in the main of perennial flowers. To cultivate hardy flowers it is not necessary to be an Asa Gray, though a knowledge of botany must always afford an ever-increasing satisfaction and pleas- ure. A love for flowers one must have : one can not be a Peter Bell in floriculture. Finally, the garden syllabus may also be written on two tables of stone : ^\i (JDutlfnc of ti)e ©fartren. 55 I. Whatever is worth growing at all is worth growing well. II. Study soil and exposure, and cultivate no more space than can be maintained in perfect order. III. Plant thickly ; it is easier and more profitable to raise flowers than weeds. IV. Avoid stiffness and exact balancing ; garden vases and garden flowers need not neces- sarily be used in pairs. V. A flower is essentially feminine, and de- mands attention as the price of its smiles. VI. Let there be harmony and beauty of color. Magenta in any form is a discord that should never jar. VII. In studying color-effects, do not over- look white as a foil ; white is the lens of the garden's eye. VIII. Think twice and then still think be- fore placing a tree, shrub, or plant in posi- tion. Think thrice before removing a speci- men tree. IX. Grow an abundance of flowers for cut- ting ; the bees and butterflies are not entitled to all the spoils. X. Keep on good terms with your neighbor j you may wish a large garden-favor of him some day. S6 E\)t CKar)3cn's Stori). XI. Love a flower in advance, and plant something every year. XII. Show me a well-ordered garden, and I will show you a genial home. "?'\y '^\)c Spring tXlilb iTlotDers. Shall we be so forward to pluck the fruits of Nature and neglect her flowers ? These are surely her finest influences. So may the season suggest the thoughts it is fitted to suggest. . . . Let me know what picture Nature is painting, what po- etry she is writing, what ode composing now. — Thoreau. III. THE SPRING WILD FLOWERS. HE exhilarating sensation of the first warm late April day ! A new life in the sunshine, a sweeter breath in the south wind : the breath of green fields and re- animated woodlands ; the fresh, unctuous smell of the soil ! To it every living thing responds — the awaiting birds, the dry chrysalis, the impris- oned flowers. How merrily bluebird and mead- ow-lark ring out their welcome ! With what a rush Hepatica, bloodroot, spring beauty, and dog-tooth violet burst through the mold ! How all the wild, glad host of pulsating things seems eager to roll away the resurrection-stone ! I never see and feel the start of vegetation without recalling Remy Belleau's sixteenth-cent- ury lyric on April, which still exhales the very essence of spring — a lyric unsurpassed by any I am acquainted with on a similar theme. To 6o 2r|)e CKartrcn's Storn. April the French poet assigns a place exalted above all the other months: " Avrzi, fkojineicr et des bois et des moisf" Unsurpassed in the original, the apostrophe is admirably rendered by Andrew Lang : April, pride of murmuring Winds of spring, That beneath the winnowed air Trap with subtle nets and sweet Flora's feet, Flora's feet, the fleet and fair. . . . Nothing could be more truly descriptive of the mad hurrying into life of the spring flora than the spirit and allegro throughout the poem. I think the first of inanimate wild life to pierce the ground is the well-known member of the aroids, the skunk-cabbage {Symplocarpus fcrtidus). A rank, foul, noxious weed, " a noi- some hermit of the marsh," it is usually consid- ered — surely an unjust stricture. It has a clean, wholesome smell, a pungent, growing, out-of- doors smell, with no taint of corruption. Greuze would have admired its lovely greens, and, I doubt not, a poet will yet be born to praise its rugged precocity, I have planted it in the rear garden, on the edge of the copse, as a wild foli- age-plant, just to watch its incurved horn and gigantic leaves expand. So long as we grow Ef}t Spriitfl tS!&iVts iFlotocrs. 6i the crown imperial, we can well overlook the odor of the great green aroid which so boldly ushers in the spring. The infinite shades of green which Nature has in her color-box ! I say nothing of the mar- velous greens of her twilight skies, or those of her streams and waters, but simply the greens of vegetation. There is another autumn of color in the spring foliage, so varied are the shadings of the buds and young leaves. Indeed, it is often difficult to tell where green begins or ceases, so interblended it is with reds and yel- lows. The different colors of the soil, too, what variety they present ! there is almost a rainbow in the clays alone ! I do not remember having noticed magenta in either foliage or soil. When Nature uses it in a flower, she is rather sparing, or gives it a proper foil of green to tone it down ; its wild, barbaric effect she leaves to frescoes, florist's cinerarias, and Bahadur rugs. Once started, the wild flowers succeed one another with astounding rapidity. The arbutus appears blushing almost beneath the snow, and so quickly is it followed by the many other early flowers that it becomes difficult to place them in their proper succession. A sheltered situation where the sun concentrates its warmth often calls out a species before its regular time, inter- 62 2rf)c ffiartren's .Stotj). cepting earlier species in less favored localities. Many of the flowers that we shall meet in the swamps and woods will be found worthy of a conspicuous place in the garden. Few realize the richness of our native flora. Comparatively few are familiar with its infinite grace and beauty in its chosen haunts. Fewer still appreciate how many of our wild flowers thrive under proper cultivation, or how much they add to the charm of the garden. Nature shows us the effect of liberal planting and bold massing. The wood- lands hold no bare patches ; each flower is quickly succeeded by another. The ground now glowing with the little spring beauty {Clay- tonia Virginica) will soon be painted with vio- lets and Trillhnns ; and where the Hepaticas run riotously over the hill-side, ferns and flower- ing plants innumerable will take the place they have vacated. The Hepatica is one of the earli- est flowers to extend an invitation to the woods. It grows on sandy hill -sides, frequents open glades hides, in shady hollows, and, like Mont- gomery's daisy, " blossoms everywhere." In color it varies from a lovely blue to pure white, shading to lavender and a soft flesh-tint. The spring beauty is scarcely less charming, and is even more prodigal in moist places. Not sat- isfied with one color, its flower - clusters also assume several hues — white, with shadings of rose, and penciled with deeper-colored veins. There is another form of spring beauty (C. parviflord), from Oregon, equally free bloom- ing, which flowers later and spreads freely from seed. Besides these, I find five additional forms mentioned in the " Botanical Survey of the Fortieth Parallel." Whoever has been in the woods in early spring has met the bloodroot {Sanguhiaria Canadensis), with its white, star-shaped corolla, the delicately scented flowers preceding the large, kidney-shaped leaves. Its only fault is its ephemeral nature ; you scarcely obtain a glimpse of it ere it is gone. It belongs to the poppy- worts, nearly all of which are familiar with the Horatian refrain : Vitse surama brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam. I suppose many flowers, like many people, have their faults, if such they may be called. Even the arbutus, if born again, I think, would wish to appear with fresher leaves. When violets of every kind have jeweled the fields and meadows, and crept into the swamps and woods, there comes a sudden fall of snow. The great white flakes everywhere strew the ground, clustering round the beech- 64 E\)z ^nxtitn'B Storg. boles, flecking the hill-sides, dotting the slopes — the chaste, pure triangles of the white wood-Hly {Trillium grandijlorum). Individual among flowers, the Trillium is scentless — lovely enough without perfume. To enjoy its full beauty, you should come suddenly upon it in its wild-wood home, or naturalize it with the bloodroot by the hundreds, under trees or in shady spots in the garden. It will hardly bear the shortest journey after cutting. If you would have it in the house, you should grow it in large potfuls, treating it like the narcissus. The English pro- nounce it one of the most beautiful of hardy plants, and I exchange it every year, with friends in Cheshire and Kent, for Horsfieldi daffodils. The purple variety {T erectum) often keeps it company. It is a jaunty flower at home, but somehow appears out of place under cultivation. T. erythrocarpum is a very pretty species, fluttering a small white corolla with a lively carmine eye. I found it swarming in the Adirondacks with the large white and purple varieties. In " Les Fleurs de Pleine Terre," which I opened by accident on page 1 1 5 1 , it is amusing to read, under " Trillium grandijiorimi,'' "The Trilliimis are curious rather than pretty plants, and rather delicate, perhaps." To have the 2rt)e Spriitfl W^iVa JFlotoers. 65 Trillitcm thus characterized provokes a smile. A strange flower it certainly is — its leaves, calyx, and corolla a triangle. In the same volume I find the bloodroot described as " curious and pretty " — a distinction with a difference. The Trillmm may be raised from seed — a much more tedious process than obtaining plants from the woods. It likes rich, deep leaf-soil and shade, requiring at least two years to become thoroughly established. Where T. grandiflo- rum is well grown, it often attains a height of nearly two feet. Not the least charm of this variety is its change to a soft rose-color — revers- ing the order of numerous flowers when they begin to fade. Indeed, variety and change of color in individual species is a characteristic of numerous spring flowers. If the majority of our native violets have little odor, many of the very abundant species possess at least a faint scent, just enough to suggest an odor. The large-leaved Viola cucullata, and many of the tiny-flowered species, belong to this class. The bird's-foot violet {V. pedata) is less common than we would wish, more especially its variety bicolor, both species and variety having a rich, pansy-like fragrance, and velvety, pansy- like petals. I do not think Bryant open to criticism for 66 Effz ^artrcn's Storj). ascribing fragrance to liis yellow violet, blos- soming Beside the snow-bank's edges cold. The Violas are so associated with odor that it is difficult to think of any as entirely scentless. From the hosts of blue, purple, lavender, yellow, and white species that carpet the ground, and which, except the white bla7ida, are usually con- sidered odorless, there certainly does arise a per- ceptible fragrance, perhaps best described by Bryant as a " faint perfume." Lorenzo de' Medici, a distinguished gardener and floricultur- ist himself, tells us in sonnet-form how the vio- let came blue. Originally white, Venus, seeking Adonis in the woods where it grew, stepped upon a thorn, which, piercing her foot, caused the purple drops to fall upon the flowers — Tingeing the luster of their native hue. Shakespeare's violet was V. odorata, com- mon in Europe and in many portions of Great Britain. " Viola odorata flowers all winter, but chiefly in March ; the typical color is a deep purple-blue," Rev. Wolley Dod, of Cheshire, writes me ; " it is not unlike indigo-dye, but in gardens there is every shade, down to pure white, the latter being, I think, the sweetest of all." The passage in which the violet figures 2rt)e . Trois larges : le sein, le front et I'entre-sourcil. Trois estroites : la bouche, la ceinture et I'entree du pied. Trois grosses : le bras, la cuisse et le gros de la jambe. Trois deliees : les doigts, les cheveux et les levres. Trois petttes : les tetins, le nez et la teste. Sont tretiie en tout. Dark eyelids — a dark purple, rarely the typical violet hue — are a well-known mark of feminine beauty. Cleopatra's eyes must have flashed over them ; and we know the fair Georgians of the East, who do not come by them naturally, use k'hol to produce the languorous charm they are supposed to impart. Still, this does not satisfactorily explain the Shakespearean analogy — Violets di7n, but sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes. To carry out the comparison of the poet, who distinctly qualifies the color as " dim," Bran- tome's beauty-mark will scarcely apply in its literal sense. Possible allusion to fragrance is out of the question ; it must, then, refer to some other sense — either to that of sight or feeling — the term sweeter being employed for lovely, or to denote softness to the touch. Let us, there- fore, look deeper into the eye of woman. A kiss upon the eyelids — and for this we do not require 2rf)e ^priiTfl W&ills iFlotocrs. 69 Gallic authority — is pronounced one of the sweet- est thing's of life. This theory, then, may fur- nish the key to the passage ; it is to the qualifi- cation " sweeter," in the sense of softer, not to the color-definition, that we must seek for its intended significance. On the other hand, if im- petuous Jove kissed Juno, as there is every rea- son to suppose he did, we must conclude that he preferred roses to violets, and kissed her on the mouth, and not on the eyelids. Clearly, this is a subtle ruse of Shakespeare, all the more abstruse from its lovely imagery, and is only another case of " The Lady or the Tiger." Passing from the " Winter's Tale " to the " Country Churchyard," the verse printed in two editions of Gray, and then expunged from the " Elegy," presents itself : There scattered oft, the earUest of the year, By hands unseen, are showers of violets found ; The redbreast loves to build and warble here, And little footsteps lightly print the ground. Why Gray should have canceled this exquisite stanza is inconceivable. It is the relief, the very flower of the ode — the one expression of loving- kindness and human sympathy to diffuse warmth and fragrance over the tomb. Finally, before taking leave of the violet, I wonder if a resemblance of two poems, to which 70 Efft ©fartren's Storj. the spring flower's fragrance clings, has been noticed ? I refer to Collins's ode " On Fidele supposed to be Dead," and Oliver Wendell Holmes's verses " Under the Violets." Both are pervaded by a pathos equally tender, the meter being alike, except the added fifth line of the latter. Though a similarity will be observed, consisting rather in meter, pathos, and sentiment than in any direct expression, it is not difficult to pronounce upon the comparative merits of the two poems. Viewed by posterity, assuredly Holmes's will be regarded as the richer, the more finished ode : To fair Fidele's grassy tomb Soft maids and village hinds shall bring Each opening sweet of earliest bloom, And rifle all the breathing spring. The redbreast oft at evening hours Shall kindly lend his little aid, With hoary moss, and gathered flowers, To deck the ground where thou art laid. Collins. For her the morning choir shall sing Its matins from the branches high, And every minstrel-voice of spring That trills beneath the April sky, Shall greet her with its earliest cry. 5ri)e ,Sprfnij ?K!^flti iFlolucvs. 71 At last the rootlets of the trees Shall find the prison where she lies, And bear the buried dust they seize In leaves and blossoms to the skies ; So may the soul that warmed it rise. Holmes. While the violets are yet in the hey-day of their beauty, there is no lack of other vernal flowers. The adder's-tongue {Erytkrom'um Americanufri), almost first to dart its sharp purple spathe through the ground, appears in legions. The warmth has brought out the brown spots upon the now clouded gray leaves. Presently will appear its nodding, tulip-scented yellow blossom, revolute in the sunshine. Sin- gularly, the adder's-tongue has its two leaves of equal length, but one almost double the width of the other. I do not find this dog-tooth violet a satisfactory subject to naturalize ; it has a rag- ged look out of its native quarters, and even there it is not always as free-flowering as we would wish. The robust variety, E. grandiflortcm, arid the large, white form, E. gzganteum, from the Rocky Mountains, are far more beautiful. A variety named E. Hendersonii, with lilac flow- ers and a central purple blotch, edged with yel- low, discovered very recently in Oregon, is said to be the finest of the genus. 72 2r|)e ^artien's Storj). Little later than the adder's-tongue comes the lung-wort {Mertensia Virginicd), pretty in the blue and lilac shades of its drooping flowers, and almost equally beautiful in the rich, dark purple of the early leaves. The large blue flag {Iris versicolor), an inhabitant of wet places in woods, meadows, and along streams, is a hand- some subject for naturalizing where it can ob- tain the necessary moisture. Soon the little Dutchman's breeches {Dicentra cucularia) will disclose its curious spurred flower, and the columbine {Aquilegia Canadensis) plume the rocks and enliven the dry places with its pendu- lous scarlet-yellow blossoms. The wild crane's- bill {Geranium maculatum) is usually found with the columbine, both being fond of places where the Hepatica has preceded them. Jack-in-the-pulpit {AriscEina triphyllu77t) I regard as the coarsest of the aroids, not fit to associate with refined flowers ; it looks more like a snake than a flower. The name — Jack-in-the- pulpit — sounds well, and doubtless has helped it to retain popular favor. Female botanizing classes pounce upon it as they would upon a pious young clergyman. But it is an arrant pre- tender, and should be called by its proper name, " Indian turnip," which befits it well. Let it pass for what it is worth, and pose not as a 3r!)e Sptfnfl ^Wilti JFloUjers. 73 flower but as a carminative — its only virtue. " Parson-in-the-pulpit " they call the wild Arum in Great Britain. At Mentone, on the Riviera, the flowers of one of the aroids {Arum arisa- rum) are termed Capucclni, in allusion to the brown-cowled brethren of a neighboring- cloister. The bell-wort {Uvularia grandifiord), al- though far from being a monstrosity, is another plant that makes the most of its name. Un- attractive, it is not hideous ; neither is it brazen, like the Indian turnip. Instead of thrusting itself forward and demanding attention, it is rather graceful, hanging its head as if conscious of its dingy yellow. Its smaller sister, the dark, sessile-leaved bell-wort, is much prettier. On account of its creeping, deep-rooting rhizome, it should be avoided in the rock-garden, where it soon becomes troublesome. In woods and on shaded hill-sides the rue anemone {Thalictruin anejnonozdes) is conspic- uous — a dainty plant, with delicate foliage, and graceful white flowers assuming a blush tinge in some localities. It increases under culture, thriving both in shade and sunshine. A double form, which is in cultivation, is said to be even preferable to the common variety. Now the shad-blow {Ai7ielanchier Canaden- sis) has lighted its chandeliers and silvered the 7 74 STlje ffiartren's ^torg. edges of the woods. It has seemingly a wild grace of its own, being seldom equally branched on all sides, but leaning its feathery sprays far over the woodland's edge. This is the case only where it is crowded ; for isolated trees, in nature or under cultivation, do not possess this habit, one of its charms in the woods. I have always envied those who can enjoy the white alder, or sweet pepper-bush {Clethra alnifolia), whose midsummer fragrance hangs like incense over the thickets where it grows. In August I should be willing to exchange it for the Amelajichier, only to regret it in May. The shad-blow has scarcely vanished ere the dogwood {Cornus fio- ridci) succeeds it as torch-bearer. A very much larger white flower, or, strictly speaking, invo- lucre, it is scarcely more brilliant from a dis- tance. It is far more distinct on close approach, and one would have to think twice to decide to which the preference should be accorded. I love the shad-blow, because it is first to appear ; and the dogwood, not only for its beautiful in- florescence, but for its brilliant red berries and glorious autumnal hues. The dogwood is still in majestic bloom when the wild thorns add their tribute to the flowering pageant. Perhaps the thorn seems the showiest of the three, because it so often occurs as an 2ri)e SprfiTfl J^ilti iFlotocrs. 75 isolated specimen. It has a pleasant way of surprising one, peering at you over precipitous banks, suddenly springing from some lonely hol- low, or startling you by its snowy whiteness on some meadow or pasture. Have you wondered at the symmetry of many of these patriarchal pasture thorns ? — the cattle have manipulated the pruning-shears. I think a gnarled old thorn, standing sentinel over a hill-pasture, the most picturesque of trees. For a century, perhaps, it has buffeted the wintry blasts, and escaped the shafts of the lightning, still to simulate perpet- ual youth in its perpetual bloom. The ground around it has been worn and trodden by count- less hoofs ; and on sweltering midsummer days the cattle ruminate, and lash their tails, beneath its woof of shade. It is the next thing to the shaded stream with white water-lily cups to keep it cool. You look for the shad-blow with the snowy drifts of the Trillium and the running yellow flames of the marsh-marigold {Caltha palus- tris)y that Shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray. Hamerton calls the leaves of the water-ranun- culus " the most beautiful of all greens in the world." Strange that he should have excluded 76 E\)t CKarTren's Storn. the marsh-marigold, than whose glossy foliage nothing could be a lovelier, livelier green ! A " gay, glabrous green, with glazed and brilliant yellow flowers," the publication that reviled the Trillium describes it very prettily and correctly. The Caltha is common to France also, and a Frenchman can always paint a French flower artistically, whether a wildling or a duplicate new rose. There exists a double variety, and also a white Caltha, a Californian species. The water-ranunculus) R. aquatilis) is a common American plant. It grows submerged, and floats a shabby little white flower on the surface of the water. Concerning the color of its foliage, which Hamerton extols, a botanical friend suggests that artists are apt to be enthusiastic about tri- fling differences which ordinary mortals do not notice. Of the tenants of the brooks and streams, the greens of the common marsh or water cress can scarcely be exceeded in beauty when sway- ing with every motion of the current. Do not imagine, because the Caltha grows so abundant- ly in the wet places, that it is easily cultivated, unless you possess the luxury of a bog-garden or a running stream for it to wade in, when you may naturalize it to your heart's content. One always wishes to transplant these water-loving flowers, they look so cool and seem to grow so 2rf)c Sjjrins ®5^il"D JFlolDers. 77 easily. But they are born thirsty, and soon pine without their liquid nourishment. It will not suffice to give them a sponge-bath ; they de- mand the bath-tub, and only luxuriate where their roots are forever drinking the moisture. If you have a sharp eye and are acquainted with its haunts, you will see the large leaves of Orchis spectabilis, earliest of its family, pushing up to join the spring-tide pageant. The dwarf cornel has begun to prepare for its chase with the twin-flower and Vaccmium over the pros- trate logs ; while the bladder-fern and polypody crowd the stumps and bowlders, and the little Cystopteris is fast uncurling its interrogation- points. One of our most beautiful wild flowers is the little fringed Polygala {Polygala paucifolid), its refined rose-red or purple flowers resembling a small sweet-pea. It rises from long, white sub- terranean runners, rambling over shady hill-sides with the goldthread and star-flower, and occa- sionally the fragile little oak-fern. Is there any blossom poised quite so airily above its whorl of lanceolate leaves as the star-flower; and could there be anything fresher than the dainty, shin- ing foliage of the goldthread, that threads its leagues and leagues of golden runners through the cool, shadowy places of the woods ? All 78 E\)t (SJarticn's Storj). these, with the dwarf cornel {Cornus Canaden- sis), itself a bold rambler and always fresh-look- ing, are charming when well established in the Alpine garden. I should like to see a wild-woods garden placed in almost entire shade, and free from all rude draughts of air, composed exclusively of some of our native trailers and flowers, and a few of the miniature ferns. For the trailers, runners, and carpet plants, for instance, twin- flower, partridge-vine, goldthread, dwarf cornel, fringed Polygala, false Solomon's-seal, prince's- pine, ground-pine, and winter-green ; with star- flowers, Pyrolas, bluets, and star-grass ; and, for the small ferns, the common polypody, the oak and beech-ferns, the smaller Cystopteris, some of the dwarf spleenworts, and the hart's-tongue. tol)en JDaffobib begin to peer. In the flower-garden especial observance ought to be taken of the choicest roots of the Asian Ranunculi, Aulmoneys, ten- der Narcissi, and divers others of the like Tendernesse, and strangers to such Entertainments as our Northern Countries afford. — Philosophical Transactions of the Roval So- ciFTY, Article LXXXIX. Devotion to Flora as a queen among us is as yet a living truth, and among or around the heart of all true gardeners there is woven a thread of twisted gold. — F. W. Burbidge. IV. WHEN DAFFODILS BEGIN TO PEER. HE white-throated and white-crowned sparrows have lingered longer about ^^^ the garden and the copse than usual before retiring to distant coverts. Thanks to unremitting warfare, my premises are compara- tively clear of the English sparrow, so it is pos- sible to hear the song-birds. Next to the in- comparable music of the hermit-thrush, I think the major and minor of these two sparrows, who are almost always in each other's company, one of the most pleasing of all our bird-voices. They are more sociable than the hermit-thrush, who sings his hymn only in the most secluded wood- lands ; the latter has hurried past us this sea- son, not making his customary pause on his re- turn trip. The blackbirds have suddenly disap- peared, after a brief dress-parade on the lawn. Over the distant lowlands I hear the vibrating 82 E\)c (Kartien's Storu. warble of the meadow-lark ; while high above the pastures float the mellow strains of the bobolink. The wood-thrushes are early and welcome arrivals. I wish they might remedy the disagreeable crack in their notes which they seem to have caught from the grackle, the ter- mination of the second bar frequently sound- ing like a snapped bowstring. Otherwise the notes would be very liquid, and, at a distance, might almost pass for those of the hermit. The Baltimore orioles have brought with them their orange- scarlet plumage, and still another new note which they will change from time to time. Year before last it was more sustained, and quite as plain as if one pronounced it, " Pretty, pretty bird ! " The same cat-bird — I am sure it is the self- same demon — has taken up his perch in the maple close to my sleepmg-room, precisely as he has done for two years past. Nothing could be more delightful than his opening matin song, begun m a dulcet undertone, did I not know from experience his long-drawn crescendo and the frenzy of the finale — a perfect Hungarian "Czardas"! Pelting him with stones, a pile of which I keep within reach, stops him, as it does my morning nap. But he returns persistently to his chosen tree. I shall turn the garden-hose 5l®t)en JDaffolrils btQhx to pttv. 8;^ upon him some evening, and see if cold water possesses the virtue that the prohibitionists would have us believe. Notwithstanding the caution I gave to spare the shears, the gardener ruined the beautiful Forsythias on the slope. If one needs an illus- tration of the cruelty of spring-pruning certain shrubs whose habit it is to flower on the old wood, he has but to trim a Forsythza into a rigid outline and compare it with one left un- touched. All the airy grace of the golden sprays is fled. Fortuneii and viridissitna, the for- mer especially, are the best of the Forsythias, or golden-bells ; suspensa looks ragged, even with close pruning. If you commence early to plant magnolias, you may possibly succeed in obtaining one to solace your declining years. The money the nursery-men must make layering, budding, and grafting the acres of things they do, and then levying two or three dollars apiece on the wares they puff up in their trade-lists ! All they do is to stick their things into the soil, and they take care of themselves. They must make thou- sands annually on magnolias alone ; for there is no case on record of any one establishing a magnolia until at least three or four attempts. I find growers invariably recommend transplant- 84 2ri)e CKartien's Stori). ing this tree, when in blossom, the last thing in spring — a cunning device to sign its death-war- rant, so as to insure another sale the following year. Magnolia Halleana, or stellata, is beau- tiful on the lawns, with the Forsythia and the pink Chinese double flowering plum iPrunus tri'loba). Every little while one feels like touch- ing his hat to Japan, it has supplied us with so many valuable hardy shrubs and plants. Con- spicua comes next to Halleana, a much larger plant and flower. M. Lennei is a dark, late- flowering variety which should not be over- looked. The scarce M. purpurea, while not nearly so robust, has a more refined and dis- tinct flower than Lennei, of a very rich lake- color ; the petals are narrower and more point- ed than most magnolias. In well-sheltered positions M. macrophylla will withstand even the severe climate of western New York, by protecting it for the first few years during winter — a fact worth remembering with regard to many deciduous and evergreen trees which are usually considered not perfectly hardy. This species would be worth growing for its magnificent leaves ; when to these are added its gigantic white tulip-shaped blooms, it is incom- parably the most tropical-looking of all our trees. To obtain its most striking effect it should be SJ^Ijcn Baffotifls ftcflfn to jpeer. 85 seen in a clump, the immense flowers being rela- tively few. Here it is well to direct attention to the pre- vailing error of planting permanent subjects too closely, or too near walks and roadways. It should never be forgotten, when planting, that the small tree must grow, and eventually require space to develop. How often noble specimens, just when they are attaining their full beauty, must be removed, from this point having been lost sight of in the first instance ! Unfortunately, cojtspzcua and Lennei are both somewhat tender; and of the large-flow- ered species, Soulangeana is on this account one of the most satisfactory for general cultiva- tion. M. Tho7nso7iiana, an American hybrid, a cross between the native glauca and tri- petala, seems to have become lost of late years. Difficult to propagate, no doubt the nursery- men can not realize a sufficient dividend upon it, and so have discarded it. It is a valuable half-evergreen species, retaining much of the fragrance of its American parent. Soon after the first magnolias the Japanese quinces appear, the most brilliant of ornamental shrubs. A single specimen of the scarlet varie- ty will light up the largest lawn. There is a softer and equally beautiful shade in the varie- 86 S'fje CKarticn's Storg. ties umbellicata, aurantiaca, and others ; and also numerous lovely flesh-colored kinds. The double-flowering white Japanese peaches have appeared with Spircsas Thunbergii and primifolia. It is not because its blossom is whiter than the Spiraas, but because it so re- sembles the great flakes of the last flurry of snow, that the white peach seems the whitest of all flowering shrubs. The variety versicolor plena surprises one by its strange freak of pro- ducing variously white, red, and variegated flow- ers on the tree at the same time. It is nothing new to advise planting white-flowering trees and shrubs, with evergreens for a background ; nev- ertheless, it is good advice always worth repeat- ing. The rose and red flowering peaches are like- wise highly ornamental, and all the double-flow- ering cherries, notably the double white, may be placed in the same class. Most of the flower- ing crabs are beautiful. The blossom of the fragrant garland-flowering crab {Pyrus mains coronaria odorata) is not nearly as big as its name might imply, being a modest blush-flower borne in clusters, with the perfume of sweet vio- lets. But while admiring this and many other ornamental flowering trees, let us not overlook the glorious inflorescence of the apple itself, a Sffi^ljcn Baffotifls begin to peer. 87 flower as tender in coloring and delicate in fra- grance as the rarest exotic. " A rose when it blooms, the apple is a rose when it ripens," says John Burroughs, who has said about all that can be said on the apple in his own inimitable way. What a gardener he would have made had he followed Loudon as closely as he has Audu- bon ! To properly enjoy Burroughs, he should be read in the author's pocket edition, pub- lished by David Douglas, Edinburgh. The burly, brown-cloth American volumes are too coarse a casket for the jewels they enshrine. The only possible objection to his locusts and wild honey is that they are sometimes too highly flavored with thyme from Mount Whitman. The yellow-flowering or Missouri currant is in bloom. It deserves to be cultivated, if only for its odor. A shrub will scent a garden, and a bunch of it a hall ; and its bouquet is as spicy as that of the yellow St. Peray wine, which I fancy it resembles, the favorite of Dumas pere. The bees crowd around its yellow blossoms, and its honey should be worth its apothecary-weight in gold. Herrick's Julia was born too soon. She missed Horsfieldi and many hundred others among the beautiful new English daffodils. But how much time she would have required 88 E\)t CGarticn's 5btori>. to select a corsage-bouquet from the infinite number of nineteenth-century varieties, each one more bewitching than the other ! I find three hundred kinds in Barr's catalogue alone, with scores of undiscovered ones running wild through the Pyrenees, and who knows how many more new hybrids to be heard from ? Parkinson and Hale would have been beside themselves at the multitudinous forms and varieties. The daf- fodil is a flower for every one, and no spring garden is a garden in the full sense of the v^^ord without the grace and gayety it lends. Orchids are very well, yet they never seem to me to be a flower to excite special envy; we know they are beyond the reach of the masses, and that only a millionaire can grow them. Not so with the daffodil, which every one can enjoy in mod- eration, though a fine collection may be made a very expensive luxury as flowers go.* Of all floral catalogues, a daffodil catalogue is the most exquisitely tantalizing. The further you read, the deeper the gold ; and you are even met with Apples of gold in pictures of silver. * The term daffodil I have used in its general sense. Specifically speaking, in many cases the term Narcissus would naturally be employed. 2121^1)011 ©affotJils btQin to peer. 89 Daffodils running the entire gamut from yellow to white. Daffaclillies with trumpets flanged, expanded, gashed, lobed, serrated, and recurved. Daffadowndillies with perianths twisted, dog- eared, stellated, refiexed, imbricated, channeled, and hooded. Then the multitudinous divisions and classes. Hoop-petticoat daffodils, single and dwarf trumpets, bicolor and shortened bicolor trumpets, white trumpeters, coffee-cups, tea- cups and tea-saucers, musk-scented and Eucha- ris daffodils, jonquil-scented and rush-leaved, goblet-shaped daffodils, polyanthus or tazetta, early and late poet's daffodils, jonquils, double daffodils, and how many more of the gilded host To add to golden numbers golden numbers ! Lilies are tempting enough in the catalogues. But the lists finally come to an end, while the varieties of the daffodil are inexhaustible. The names, English and Latin, are so tempting, too, though these are nothing compared to the de- scriptions. To catch the daffodil-fever severely means either to break the tenth commandment or to be guilty of ruthless extravagance. You know there are swarms of varieties that will not succeed ; but how are you to single them out without trying them } How artistically, how artfully devised some of the monographs are! 8 go 5ri)e ^atticn's«Stori». Sulphur hoop-petticoat daffodil (Narcissus cor- bularia citrind), for instance — as if the name were not enough to sell it — bears this descrip- tion : " It is a bold and shapely flower of a soft sulphur tint, ' the color having a luminous qual- ity, the flower being like a little lamp of pale-yel- low light.' " Observe that two modern Parkin- sons are called upon to describe it, so that, if one fails to hook the reader, the other will be sure to land him. William Baylor Hartland, of Cork, Ireland, should be regarded as Herrick's and Words- worth's successor. His illustrated " ' Original ' Little Book of Daffodils " is a very epithala- miiiin of the flower of the poets. If we only had his climate and the Gulf Stream to help us raise his Narcissi ! Like most flowers, the daf- fodil is thankful for careful culture. It dislikes manure, preferring good loam and a liberal sprinkling of sand. Climate, however, is every- thing with it. It likes to usher in the season gradually, not hurry it as our spring wild flow- ers do. Mild winters, gradual warmth, and abundance of moisture during the early season suit it best. For many kinds our springs are too sudden, and the transition from frozen ground to almost tropical suns is too rapid. In England, from February, when daffodils begin to flower, fflj^ten Baffotrfls btQxn to peer. 91 until May, the climate hesitates between winter and spring, and this is what daffodils seem to like. Nevertheless, even there some of the large trumpets go off with a kind of blight in masses after bad seasons. The flowering of the follow- ing year so depends upon the full development of the leaves that, if the weather suddenly be- comes blazing and burns up the foliage, degen- eracy is sure to result. To the labors of the late Edward Leeds and William Backhouse we are indebted for many of the finest hybrid forms. Leeds was the prince of hybridizers, and was followed by Backhouse, who raised empress and emperor. Many of the hybrid incoinparabilis, however, are so similar in form and coloring as to be perplexing and to uselessly extend the list of varieties. Of all these hybrids the Nelsoni are the finest and most dis- tinct, with broad, snow-white perianths, and yel- low cups usually suffused with orange on first opening. I was about to pass by the Barri va- rieties. But I find B. conspiciius, which has just opened, is almost another bicolor poeticus, also somewhat resembling one of the finest Leedsi forms, aureo tinctus. Since writing the above, I find the reverse opinion maintained by Mr. Burbidge, one of the best authorities on Narcissi. " As a grower of 92 Ef>z eSaroen's Stoo. nearly six hundred forms in a public garden," he says, " I know something of the variability of daffodils, and also of the taste of those who see them. Often and again will one visitor condemn a particular form which the very next will stop to admire. Some will even tell you that there is none or but little difference between John Hors- field and empress ; whereas the differences are very marked in size, height, color of trumpet and of foliage, and in the date of blossoming. Taste is a shifting index, and there is room for all the varieties we now possess and more." Mr. Bur- bidge also imparts the information that those iV<3;rmj'/ possessing thick, fleshy, prong- like roots will grow anywhere, even in manured soils ; but those having thin, short bunches of fine, wiry fibers will not do so, and must be grown in sand or gravel and pure fresh meadow-loam only. Hybrids in the genus Narcissus are very readily made, and undoubtedly any species of the genus, under favorable conditions, will form a hybrid with any other species of it ; and sev- eral of these kinds which are considered by bot- anists as species, seem to be hybrids ; that is, they can be imitated by crossing two other spe- cies of the genus. The best-known instance of this is the so-called species Narcissus incom- ^arabilis. A cross between N. pseudo-narcis- W&\)tn BaffotJils bejjtn to peer. 93 sifs and JV. poeticus produces in some instances a daffodil which can not be distinguished from this ; but the same cross may also produce re- sults varying in the degree of each parent they contain, varying in the color, size of trumpet, and other particulars. These varieties are found wild on European mountains at elevations where A^. poeticus and A^. pseudo-narcissus flower si- multaneously with the melting of the snow. It is this cross, made in gardens, that has produced all the Leeds hybrids. As for increase, some of the incomparabilis sorts multiply rapidly. Gen- erally, orange Phoenix increases rapidly, but sul- phur Phoenix never increases at all. The trum- pets mcrease ver}' irregularly ; with me, obvalla- ris and the common spurius are perhaps the best growers of this section. Among the bicolor trumpeters Horsfieldi and empress are incomparably king and queen. I confess I can perceive little difference between them aside from the foliage, except that the lat- ter is a few days later to flower, and its trumpet stands out less boldly. Each exhales a rich magnolia-like odor ; each flutters its pure white perianth and great golden corona over the luxu- riant green foliage like some gorgeous butterfly, rather than a perfumed flower. Empress in- creases far more slowly than Horsfieldi. Its 94 5ri)e CKatticn's Storn. favorites claim for the former that it is better " set up," the perianth having more substance and the flower lasting longer. The marked difference of the flowering period of these two and many other sorts is hardly ap- parent with us. Hot weather follows our cold weather so rapidly, that we almost lose sight of this distinction, and a great majority of the daffodils appear in blossom at nearly the same time. Emperor is certainly a grand variety, but infinitely larger in the English illustrations than in the American soil. Sir Watkin is scarcely as big as his name or his price would lead one to suppose. Nevertheless, he is assuredly the largest of the flat chalice-flowers or tea-cup section, and keeps on increasing from year to year. We must not expect to raise daffodils two to three feet high, as they can and do in England and Ire- land, or grow them with trumpets large enough to serve the angel Gabriel. Maxhnus (Hale's vase of beaten gold) I have been unable to manage. Neither can I grow the double poeticus successfully, after re- peated trials with bulbs sent from England and Holland and procured here. It throws up strong flower-stalks, but they invariably come blind. I shall banish it to some neglected corner, where it will probably take better care of itself. Ard- ffl2^i)cn DaffoTJfls bcjjfn to jpccr. 95 Righ, nobilis, princeps, and a form of single Telamonius are all distinct and desirable forms. In a great vaseful of daffodils before me, cerniius, the drooping white Narcissus, is con- spicuous, nodding lithely from its fluted stalk. Its sulphur perianth changing to white, and pale primrose tube, are heightened in their refined effect by its pendulous habit. It is a Spanish flower, and, as it can not wear a mantilla, it co- quettishly hangs its lovely head. Smaller, but also beautiful, is Circe, one of the Leeds forms of the tea-cup section, with white perianth seg- ments, and a cup changing from canary to white. The white daffodils generally possess a superior air of good breeding ; they always seem dressed for the drawing-room. The yellow ones, even where they are superlatively handsome, look as if they preferred a romp or a game of tennis. The Pyrenean pallidus prcBcox is invariably the first daffodil in the garden, closely succeeded by the distinct obvallaris or Tenby ; the pale straw-color and cernuous habit of the one con- trasting strongly with the vivid gold and large, wide-mouthed crown of the other. I have yet to see the daffodil which can compare with the intensity of its gold. " The causes of the singu- lar and almost blinding intensity of the color," Hamerton explains from a painter's standpoint, 96 E\)t CSartrcn's Storn. " are a gradation from semi-transparent outward petals, which are positively greenish in them- selves, and still more by transparence owing to green leaves around, to the depth of yellow in the womb of the flowers, where green influences are excluded, but yellow ones multiplied by the number of the petals. So in the heart the color is an intense orange cadmium, not dark, but most intense — a color that we remember all the year round." Hamerton says this in reference to Wordsworth's dance of the daffodils, and thus had pseudo-narcissus, or the common Lent lily, in mind, which has a pale perianth and rich yel- low trumpet, and which is extremely difficult to cultivate in its native country. Cynosure, another of the Leedsii hybrids, and Mary Anderson, single of the familiar orange Phoenix, are both strikingly beautiful. The for- mer has a large primrose perianth changing to white, and an orange-scarlet cup ; the latter, a silver perianth and a cup of lively orange- scarlet. What with most flowers deteriorates from their beauty only increases the attractiveness of many of the daffodils, the fading perianth often adding a chastened beauty to the passing flower. Would that our pretty wives and sweethearts could all grow old so charmingly, or that woman CS^ljcn j©afFotiil.«f btQin to peer. 97 might learn from the daffodil the art of always looking- lovely things ! The big trumpeters and chalice-flowers are not yet over before the poeticus and polyatithiis groups and the jonquils appear. How cool the snow-white corolla of single poeticus, and how warm the rim of its dainty cup ! And who that has ever scented it can forget its delicious aro- ma ? The varieties of poeticus are many ; the garden varieties, recurvus, patellaris, and orna- tus, being finer than those collected wild. All of the polyanthus, or tazettas, are likewise delight- fully odorous. The latter form pushes up so strongly in the fall, however, that it is apt to be injured by frost, and therefore the bulbs should be lifted after flowering and stored until late autumn. The big and little jonquils — and even here the variety is great — concentrate more odor in their little cups than any other form of narcis- sus. Of the double daffodils, poeticus plenus is too well known to be specified. With me, as has been previously observed, most of the buds come blind, the flowers forming inside the spathe, which becomes hermetically sealed, and soon dries up and .dies. In England, where this species flowered very poorly the past season, a friend writes me that the same conditions pre- vailed, failure being attributed to the drought 98 S'ljc CKartren*s Stotj). and cold winds of February and March, and something " going wrong " with it in May. The common double yellow is coarse compared with either orange or sulphur Phoenix. I can grow neither of these successfully. The latter runs out after the first year; the former gradually turns green— jealous, no doubt, of its thriving sisters in my neighbor's garden. The hoop-petticoat narcissus of southern Europe I have yet to try out of doors, well pro- tected in winter. It is of all the Narcissi the most individual, resembling an evening primrose enlarged and much lengthened. The depth at which daffodils and lilies should be planted is a disputed question. In light soils it is well to err in planting too deep rather than too shallow ; in stiff soils they should not be planted at all. Very many of the daffodils re- quire to be placed in new soil every year or two ; weak foliage and decreasing flowers indicate that they require a change. Transplanting, in either case, should be effected so soon as the leaves and stalks have died down, during the short space the bulbs are at rest. To secure the finest flowers, they should be cut in the full-bud stage, and allowed to expand in water within doors. In England daffodils are taken up in July every year. James Walker, the largest grower t!M\)tn DaffoTjfls btQin to peer. 99 near London, plants the bulbs in land that was manured for peas or early potatoes ; a similar plan being adopted by the Dutch growers in their bulb-culture. Sea-sand is very genial to daffodils ; the Scilly Islands soil consists of but little else. Constant replanting in deep, pure soil is the plan in England now, although five years ago growers were all manuring the soil for them. In Holland, a// bulbs are lifted once a year. Fine crocuses, hyacinths, and tulips do not grow themselves. The soil in Holland is dark sea-sand or alluvium. Cow-manure is largely used for ordinary farm-crops, and after these have sweetened the soil it is dug over, two to four feet deep, and the bulbs are plant- ed. Deep culture prevents their suffering from drought, and gives a clean, round bulb. To the Dutch should be awarded the prize for perfect- ing the bunch-flowering section, as to the Eng- lish belongs the olive-crown for developing the grand trumpeters and the incomparabilis sec- tion. For house-culture some of the tazettas are very effective, grown in the Chinese fashion, in water. Indeed, many of the Narcissi, which force readily, may be grown in this manner. In China N. tasetta is a favorite flower. The cus- tom there is to place the bulbs in bowls of water roo a:f)c CKartJen's Storj. with pebbles, the latter being employed for the roots to adhere to. But to produce Chinese effects we must have the Chinese narcissus, a splendid species, with immense, vigorous bulbs. The bulbs should be started in their receptacle with water about five weeks before they are wanted to flower, and placed in the dark until root-growth is made. They may then be moved to a sunny window, requiring no further care beyond keeping up the supply of water. They may even be grown in full light from the start. The Chinese tazetta, thus treated, throws up huge leaves, and stiff flower-stems two feet or more in height. There are two varieties, with single and double flowers, somewhat resembling in individual flowers Grand Prhno and the double Roman tazetta, though of less substance and less highly perfumed. Many of the lovely English hybrids we can not grow with success, owing to our rigorous climate. They are inversely like some of our wild flowers in England, which miss the frost and long season of rest, as some of the daffodils with us lack the genial climate they are accus- tomed to. Still, if many varieties refuse to be- come acclimated, there are very many others that are readily grown. Let us, then, follow the adrnirable precept of Delille : 5!H!^!)en i0affotjils btQin to peer. loi Ce que votre terrain adopte avec plaisir, Sachez le reconnoitre, osez-vous en saisir. I have been enjoying Deiille in the old edition of eighteen volumes, copiously illustrated with quaint woodcuts. I found it in an old book- stall, and obtained it for a song. No wonder the late A. J. Downing was so fond of " Les Jardins," a French Georgic with nineteenth-cent- ury improvements ! Sir Theodore Martin ought to do with this and " The Man of the Fields " what he has done with Horace and Heine ; they are books that every gardener and lover of nature should be able to enjoy. So many desirable forms oi Narcissi may be had so cheaply, that almost any one can afford to grow some of the capricious varieties as bien- nials. With proper selection and intelligent cul- tivation, we may have in the daffodil a treasure- house of beauty, and with this flower alone render any garden a field of the cloth of gold QL\)C Eock-C^arlrcn. Pleasures which nowhere else were to be found, And all Elysium in a plot of ground. Dryden. Imitez ce grand art, et des plants delicats Nuancez le passage a de nouveaux climats. Observez leurs couleurs, leurs formes, leurs penchans, Leurs amours, leurs hymens. DfiLILLE, L'HOMME DES ChAMPS. V. THE ROCK-GARDEN. HEARD the tre?nolo of the toads for the first time, April 20th— later than -^^^^^^^^^^^^ usual. They are supposed to be silenced thrice by the cold — a rule I have gen- erally found to be true. Though limited in com- pass, the toad possesses a musical voice, and only sounds it in warm weather. The orches- tration of the small frogs, where each one tries to puff himself up as big as an ox, is emphat- ically a vernal tone, but it can not be termed musical. Their comical croakings always re- mind me of the peculiar noise made by boat- builders during the operation of calking. The huge, green bull-frog of the swamps, who is not heard until much later than his smaller brethren, has the merit of a powerful organ not entirely immelodious. In the distance, on hot summer evenings, his grand bassoon blends well with the 9 io6 E\)t (Sinvhcn's Storj). lighter and varied instrumentation of the lesser reptilia. His nocturne brings the plash of water and the scent of water-lilies nearer to me. It is a fluviatile expression, the fitting utterance of ponds and swamps. The cicada emphasizes no more tensely the heat of the midsummer noon, than the great batrachian the serenity of the summer night. His voice fits into the landscape like an audible shade — a sonorous emanation of coolness and departed day. The trill of the toad is the prelude to spring, as the cricket's croon is the farewell to summer. How drowsily the chorus floats up from the low- lands — a summons to the early bees and flies to seek the precocious flowers ! The blue scillas, the hepaticas, and the cowslips are swarming with the smaller bees and musccs. Where do they come from in such swarms ; and where do they all house themselves when the inevitable change of temperature puts a stop to cross-fer- tilization.^ A few warm days have done won- ders toward startnig delayed vegetation, each of the spring flowers apparently trying to outstrip the other. The pushmg and striving for warmth and sunlight always seem to me among the most marvelous things of nature — the embryo seed, the rising stalk, the unfolding corolla, the perfect flower ! E\)t 3^octt^^artrcn. T07 Scilla Siberica is perhaps the best of its class, although the comparatively new Chiono- doxa Lucilice is almost equally desirable for its lovely shade of blue. Of the other squills, the colors of S. bifolia vary much, some being far better than others ; this species also contains a white variety. S. Italica and S. amcena are worthless. The later-flowering Spanish squills are large and coarse, but showy in shrubberies. These are of three colors — blue, white, and pink — sold under three names — campanulata, patula, and nutans. The difference in name does not always insure difference in flower. The best of all, certainly, as regards color, is S. Sibe- rica. From the chinks of the rocks the hepati- cas glow with all shades of blue, purple, and rose, until they stop at nearly a pure white. The hepatica comes in the category of those flowers which the gardener neatly terms "very thank- ful." If you can not procure it readily from the woods, you should raise it from seed taken pro- miscuously from the different kinds, to procure new colors. It is not strange that the British hold the primrose in such estimation that they have con- secrated to it a " Primrose-Day" — April 19th — the anniversary of the death of Lord Beacons- field, who wore a bunch of primroses in his but- io8 3ri)e CKnrtrcn's Stor^. ton-hole whenever they were procurable. Hardy and floriferous, it is the richest of early spring flowers : from the palette of tints of the polyan- thus, through the varied hues of the cowslip and common primrose to the ''edged" and "pow- dery " Auriculas, the large, purple clusters of the Siberian cortusoides, and the fiery, opening eye of the Himalayan P. rosea. The Himalayan P. denticulata is a fine species, with bright mauve flowers on tall stalks. P. Sikkimensis is probably the most distinct of the Himalayan kinds, with lemon-colored and deliciously-scent- ed trusses borne on lofty scapes. This must be raised from seed in pans or boxes; then, if planted out in shade in early autumn, the plants flower moderately well the following June. The second June they flower still finer, but after that they die, or deteriorate, and have to be replaced by fresh seedlings. It is one of the latest of its family to bloom. Nearly all the many varieties of the Japanese P. Sieboldi are charming, being perfectly hardy, unusually free-flowering, and remarkable for the size of trusses and flowers. A strain of EngHsh primrose, called Dean's high-colored hybrids, has produced some most tender and fascinating colors. In many instances of primroses raised from seed, it is puzzling to know just where the poly- E^t 3lllocfe=ffiavticn. 109 anthus begins and the primrose leaves off — they seem to run into one another through hybridiza- tion. Our native primroses number but few spe- cies. P. farinosa, or bird's-eye primrose, also a native of Europe, is found in several localities. P. Mistassinica, a small, rose-colored species, rarely seen under cultivation, occurs in several Northern and Eastern States. The finest of in- digenous species is P. Parry z, common in Ne- vada, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the Uintahs, at an altitude of six thousand to ten thousand feet. This flowers from July to Sep- tember, bearing fine rose-colored blossoms with yellow eyes, on tall stalks — a distinct and hand- some hardy species. One should have a great bank of primroses placed in partial shade, to enjoy their fragrance and color en masse. And they should be raised from seed at least every other year, to keep up a supply of young plants, and to distribute among one's friends. But their most appropriate place is the Alpine garden, where they form dense cushions of bloom, and, with the daffodils, form a garden in themselves. In English poetry the primrose shares an equal place with the violet and daffodil. It is referred to as the " lady of the springe," " win- ter's joyous epitaph," " merry spring-time's har- binger," " sweet infanta of the year," " the no 2nje CKartien's Storj. welcome news of sweet, returning spring," " the precious key of spring " ; and most conspicuous- ly by Shakespeare, who associates it with the daffodil and violet in the flowers let fall from Dis's wagon. Here, where it is comparatively scarce under cultivation, its beauties have only been sparingly sung by the poets, who neverthe- less freely voice the praises of the snow-drop, crocus, and daffodil. Among our native flowers, the arbutus, violet, and gentian are freely singled out by the poets, and the azalea, bloodroot, he- patica, and cardinal-flower all come for their share of appreciation. I do not recall any poem on the spring beauty, the meadow-rue, the rue- anemone, or the moss- pink. Lowell is poet- laureate of the dandelion, and Emerson the bard of the rhodora. The wind-flower, or anemone, a well-known flower in American verse, would become a favorite, if only from Whittier's breezy lines : And violets and wind-flowers sway Against the throbbing heart of May. Of all forms of cultivating flowers, rock-gar- dening is the most fascinating. Within a small space you may grow innumerable dainty plants, which would be swallowed up or would not thrive in the border — delicate Alpines, little creeping vines, cool mosses, rare orchids, and STfjc a!lock*(SnrTjeu. iii much of the minute and charming flora of the woods and mountains. Over this rock may trail the fragrant sprays of the twin-flower ; here, at the base, a carpet of partridge-vine may be pierced by the wild-wood and meadow-lilies, and there a soldanella or Alpine gentian flash beside the fronds of an English fern. Then, its con- stant variety, and the inconceivable amount of plants it will contain ! And how they develop and thrive among the rocks, where the roots have only to dive down to keep cool ! I speak of the rock-garden as distinguished from the " rockery " — that embellishment to be found in company with the geranium-bed, surrounded by whitewashed stones ; and iron stags or grey- hounds standing guard over the growth of a hop- vine up a mutilated Norway spruce. With the " rockery " we are all familiar — that nightmare of bowlders, that earthquake of stones dumped out on to the hottest portion of the lawn, with a few spadefuls of soil scattered among them. Into this scant pasturage, where even a burdock would cry out for mercy, dainty plants are turned to graze. Fancy the rude shock to a glacier- pink or a Swiss harebell ! The bowlder with a " pocket " is always at a premium, and within this parched receptacle, where nothing but Se- dum acre or the common saxifrage could sub- 112 STIje eSfarXren's Storjj. sist, is placed a delicate Alpine. Of course, this is merely the death-warrant of the subject. Some tough and weedy species, that thrive on neglect, may survive the broiling ordeal. Usu- ally only the rocks and Sediuns remain, and the cultivation of Alpmes is given up in disgust. To grow Alpine plants successfully, it is necessary to understand the object of the rock- garden — its special adaptation to a very large class of beautiful plants, which find in it the root-moisture and natural surroundings they re- quire. Many of these are too minute, many too fastidious, to be grown in any other way. The novelty, the delightful variety and charm which the rock-garden lends to the cultivation of flow- ers can scarcely be overestimated. From the very requirements of most Alpine plants, which love to run deeply into the soil in search of moisture, it is self-evident that there should be no unfilled spaces left between the base and sur- face. The rocks should be firmly imbedded in the soil, with sufficient space left between them for root development of the plants. While the hideous chaos of stones of the average " rock- ery " can not be too severely condemned, half- buried bowlders, showing here and there their weather-beaten sides, have a picturesque look, especially when the flowering season is over. 2C|)c 3£locfe=®artJcn. 113 The form of the rock-garden will depend largely on the character of the surroundings. Nothing can be more beautiful than a rock-garden at the base of a declivity, with the center, perhaps, forming a natural grotto half smothered with trailers and ferns. A rigid wall of rock will be avoided, while a round or even an oval mound is less pleasing than a form of somewhat irregular outline. Whatever form may be chosen, the rock-work should be constructed with a view of growing Alpine plants, and subordinating geo- logical effects. The soil is a matter of prime importance. Often, " potting-earth," as it is termed, is used, which becomes stiff and cakes badly during hot weather. For the majority of rock-plants a sandy loam proves most suitable. In some por- tions leaf-mold should be freely mixed with the soil, to meet the requirements of certain species ; while peat-loving subjects will naturally be pro- vided with the soil they prefer. A top-dressing of fine old leaf-mold and fresh loam every au- tumn will prove of advantage both in supplying the waste of soil from washings, and in serving as a fertilizer. I do not think the stress laid upon an easterly exposure, in England and on the Continent, applies here. The main points with us are shade and protection from draughts. 114 ^tf^ ^attJen's Stoti). Spring subjects have mostly flowered before the trees are in full leaf ; and, with our blazing sum- mer suns, overshading through foliage will sel- dom occur. A few hours' sunshine during the day is sufficient for most plants which blossom after the latter part of May. The rock-garden is never appropriate in the center of a lawn. It is a dainty form of gardening, which should be enshrined by itself, rather than have its loveli- ness thrust upon one. A rock-garden in a glade of a wood would be charming. This would afford abundant shade and moisture for the shadow - loving plants and diminutive ferns, as well as shelter from rude draughts, notwithstanding the belief, which most of us had when we were children, that it was the trees that made the wind. Wherever it may be situated, it should be readily accessible to the garden-hose. I find a very fine dust-spray, which may be pinned into the ground and shifted from one point to an- other, the best means of watering. A coarse spray washes away the earth and is rude to the flowers. With sufficient moisture in summer and protection during winter, many species which are pronounced not hardy, or not to be acclimated, may be grown successfully. Oak and beech leaves covered lightly v;ith evergreen boughs 2rf)c 3llocfe:=<*KarTicn. 115 form the best means of protection. These should not be used until the ground is frozen, or plants may damp off, and mice harbor and cause de- struction under the leaves. Generally speaking, more especially where the space is limited, all plants with running, fast-spreading root-stalks should be avoided. Some of the harebells, for instance, desirable as they otherwise would be, are objectionable on this account. They must be hemmed in or have sufficient space, otherwise they encroach upon and soon smother their delicate neighbors. Some free-seeding plants are also to be guarded against. The Sediim, in many of its forms, is a pest, and with very few exceptions should never be introduced among rare and beautiful plants. I know of a rock-garden, admirably constructed at great cost, which had to be virtually torn apart to get rid of the Sedu7n. The way really to enjoy the cultivation of Alpine plants is to build a new rock-garden every year, says Rev. Wolley Dod, one of Eng- land's most distinguished plant-culturists and botanists. I have been content with two thus far, and, so great is the enjoyment they afford, I shall supplement them with a fern rock-garden, for the smaller and more delicate ferns. When referring to the toad, I omitted to ii6 E\)z CKarTien's . them into bloom ; perhaps they mourned the old lady's absence who had planted them and watched them and smelled them and compli- mented them, and given slips of them to her old lady neighbors — who knows ? I may add that, since being transplanted, the plants have become re-estabhshed, and now flower with their form^er luxuriance. In these same tumble-down farm- steads flourish many a colony of the double poet's narcissus, which neither you nor I can grow under trees or in the open border half so successfully. H. Kwanzo variegata is a large-leaved plant, attractive for its variegated foliage. H. Kwa7izo fi. pi. is a robust species, preferable to H. fidva, H. graminea is a smaller flava in flower and foliage, and would be desirable were it not for its bad habit of spreading much at the root. I have found this almost ineradicable where it has obtained a strong foothold. The least particle of its white rootlets, under favor- able circumstances, forms a plant if left in the ground, and it soon spreads and undermines its neighbors. None of the species equals the old- fashioned flava, one of the most satisfactory and beautiful of hardy flowers. It should be planted along the borders of a long drive -way, to realize its superb grace and beauty. 2r|)e Summer iFIotuers. 145 Another fine, old-fashioned, tall-growing per- ennial occasionally seen in country gardens is the fraxinella {Dictainnus fraxinelld), so named from its pinnate leaves, resembling those of the ash. Its two forms, the pink-purple and the white, bear showy terminal racemes of larkspur- like flowers in June. Apart from its flowers and graceful foliage, its most attractive characteristic is the spicy fragrance of both leaves and blossoms. It suggests anise, sweet-clover, and lavender. So powerful is the volatile oil generated by its flowers, that a lighted match held several inches above the plant,-on a still, hot summer's evening, will cause a flame to appear. A native of the Levant and southern Europe, it may be increased both from seed and root-division, the former being preferable. You should plant it along your favorite walk, with the lemon-balm and the anise-scented giant hyssop, so that you may pluck a leaf of them as you pass. I see, in many an old homestead along the shaded highway, the prim box-hedge inclosing the garden of old-fashioned fiowers. Often as the swallow returns do they rise anew and blos- som with perennial freshness. The flowering locust-trees, and the tansy-bed running wild out- side the fence, give a hint of the fragrance within, where I see the water-bucket ready for 146 2rt)e CiRarTjen's Stotj. its floral libation. I push open the wooden gate, to be greeted by the first snow-drops, the daffo- dils, the yellow crown-imperials, the grape- hyacinths. I see the blue irises, the larkspurs, the bell-flowers, the bachelor -buttons, the monk's-hood. I note the big double white pop- pies, the clumps of sweet-clover, the drifts of snow-pinks, the white phloxes. I see the Diely- tras, the sweet-williams, the tall, yellow tulips, the sword-grass and ribbon-grass, and Trades- cantia. I smell the sweet-peas, the valerian, the madonna-lilies, the white and purple stocks. I inhale the breath of the lilies of the valley, the brier-rose, the white day-lily, and the purple wis-' taria twining about the porch. I see, too, the double-flowering rockets, the spotted tiger-lilies, the dahlias, the rows of hollyhocks, and the phalanx of sunflowers. Then, the flowering shrubs of the old-fash- ioned garden — the snowberries, honeysuckles, and roses of Sharon, the storm of the snow- balls, the mock-oranges, and the great white lilacs leaning over the hedge, heavy with their blossom and perfume. Nor is the herb-garden of the Fourth Georgic forgotten, where Cassia green and thyme shed sweetness round, Savory and strongly scented mint abound, Herbs that the ambient air with fragrance fill. Ef)t .Summer iFlotocrs. 147 Here grow mint, marjoram, anise, sweet-basil, catnip, lavender, thyme, coriander, summer- savory, and, last but not least of the fragrant labiates, the pungent sage, that v^^ill ruin the dressing of many a Thanksgiving turkey. A sassafras-tree not unfrequently grows, by acci- dent or design, somewhere about the yard ; and there is sure to be a red horse-chestnut, or a trumpet-flower, for the humming-birds to plunge in. How the swallows wheel and dive over the weather-beaten barn, and twitter among the eaves they have visited generation after genera- tion ! And what a honey-laden wave surges over the neighboring clover-field ! I recall such a farmstead on the crest of the Livingston hills, where farm-life always appears at its pleasant- est. All around it extends the panorama of wood, ravine, and purple upland, changing with every change of atmosphere, open to every effect of sun and cumulus-cloud. Here, I thought, a philosopher might find the coveted stone. Life always seems so restful and its current so placid on the summer hills. But we forget the blight- ing frost, the moaning blast, the wintry shroud. In life, things are pretty evenly balanced, after all ; and while summer is delightful in the coun- try, to the most of us, in winter, it is pleasanter 148 2rt)e CSartien's Stotg. to think of in the city. Those who really love the country in its harsher aspects are few. I doubt if there exists another Thoreau for whom " the morning wind forever blows, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terres- trial music." I see, too, the neglected farm-garden ; one passes many such along the dusty road. Here, an old locust and mock -orange have been allowed to sprout at will ; the blue iris has crept outside the fence, with clumps of double daffo- dils turned over by the plow and flung on to the road-side. There, is a jungle of stunted quinces and blighted pear-trees. The spreading myrtle-patch has usurped the place of what was once a lawn ; tall thistles, hog-weed, pig- weed, and burdocks make and scatter seed year after year ; an army of weeds has overrun the path — the plantain, purslane, goose-grass, dandeHon, joint-weed, and mallow ; and a green goose- pond, over which are hovering yellov/ butterflies, exhales its miasma in the sun. Once the gar^ den was beautiful, famous for its old-fashioned flowers, and many are the " slips " the neighbors obtained from its floral stores. The grain-fields and fat pastures corresponded with the luxuri- ance within. But the farm changed hands on the death of the owner, and the new owner 5r!)e Summer JFlotoers. 149 cared little for the flowers, and has left the farm- lands mostly to themselves. I always hurry by the farmstead ; its dilapidated out-buildings look as if they might be haunted by the ghosts of starved and neglected animals. As I stroll through the garden toward even- ing, I find the brown May-fly has suddenly ap- peared in legions. Every bush and tree swarms v^ith them ; while, high as one can see, the air is throbbing with their undulating flight. Now up, now down they go, flitting on wings of gos- samer, their antennee and long tails balancing them in their graceful dance of an hour. Is it simply to gorge the bats and the trout, which make the most of the insect-manna, that the May-fly is sent .^— for the naturalists do not as- cribe a cause for its brief existence, in the rea- son of nature. The first of the innumerable young broods of sparrows are fledged, and have begun their interminable shrieking. The foliage is so thick that it is almost impossible to shoot them ; and to attempt poisoning them is out of the question, on account of the few remaining song-birds. How wretched they render human life ! What a constant burden for the ear to bear ! If they would only mew like the cat-bird, or do anything to vary the tedium of their incessant " Cheep ! 150 2rf)e ©fartren's Storg. cheep ! ! cheep ! I ! " I envy the deaf, and the fat men who drown all other sounds with the sound of their own wheezing. My neighbor's parrot, who yells like all the fiends of Dante's Inferno, has at least the merit of variety in his voice. If the sparrow continues to multiply, there will be a new verdict rendered at coroners' juries ; his monotonous cry is fast abbreviating the allotted span of mankind. Meanwhile, the floral procession is advancing in the flower-borders. The large Oriental pop- pies are rightly named, and, with their fine foliage and immense flame-colored blossoms, are undoubtedly the most gorgeous of garden-flow- ers. You could almost light your pipe from them. The variety bracteatum is the stouter grower, holding its stalks more firmly and erect, and is the superior in the color and beauty of its lustrous, dark scarlet flower. The petals of the Oriental poppy are oddly marked with pur- ple-black spots inside, forming a black cross. Parkman's Oriental poppy, originated near Bos- ton, is another fine form, as yet rarely seen. The Oriental poppies and the yellow day-lily, blossoming at the same period, should be large- ly employed in the border and other suitable places of the garden. I have planted the tall, late-flowering tulips JTfje 5&ummer iFlotoers. 151 freely among the poppies, the luxuriant foliage of the latter concealing the naked base of the tulips. A mass of tulips thus grown produces a much finer effect than when bedded by them- selves. The tulip invariably looks better in neg- lected gardens for this reason ; it is seldom seen rising from the bare earth, generally springing from the grass or shrubbery, or at least having a background of green. Seeds of these big Ori- entals should be sown in February in the green- house, so that they may germinate early, be pricked off, and form strong plants to set out as soon as possible in May. While they are per- fectly hardy, small plants are generally winter- killed. I find growing among my P. bractea- tiim, raised from seed, a distinct variety with smaller flowers of a peculiar and very beautiful cherry-red. We must go to the Orientals to learn the true use and significance of flowers. " Very beautiful are the flower customs here," says a writer from the lands of Kalidasa and Firdusi. " In Bombay, I found the Parsees use the Victo- ria Gardens chiefly to walk in, 'to eat the air.' Their enjoyment of it was heartily animal. The Hindoo would stroll through them, attracted from flower to flower not by its form or color but its scent. He would pass from plant to 152 E\)t C!5artrcn*s Storj). plant, snatching at the flowers and crushing them between his fingers as if he were taking snuff. Presently a Persian, in flowing robe of blue, and on his head his sheep-skin hat, would saunter in, and stand and meditate over every flower he saw, and always as if half in vision ; and when the vision was fulfilled, and the ideal flower he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit before it, and fold up his mat again and go home. And the next night, and night after night, until that particular flower faded away, he would return to it, and bring his friends in ever-increasing troops to it, and sit and play the guitar and lute before it, and they would all together pray there, and after prayer still sit before it, sipping sherbet and talking late into the moonlight ; and so again and again every evening, until the flower died. Some- times, by way of a grand finale, the whole company would suddenly rise before the flower and serenade it with an ode from Hafiz, and depart." I suppose we could not do without the June Pyrethrum, it is so floriferous, and has such feathery, deep-green foliage. Nevertheless, I see no excuse for littering up a garden with some of its crimson-magentas or magenta-crimsons. Weeded of its bad colors and bad centers, it is 5rt)c Summer i^lotoers. 153 certainly worthy of all praise. It lasts long, and its flowers are excellent for cutting. Speaking of bad colors, I think there is much in what a young lady once observed to me at a ball, the conversation turning on the newly deco- rated rooms. "I don't think the glaring combi- nations and unhappy uses of color we frequently see in houses and exhibited in dress so much the fault of individual taste as of a deficiency of the color-sense. Let us count the green dresses, of which there seem to be an unusually large num- ber present, and I assure you in advance that at least every third person you ask will pronounce the delicate shades of green blue. It is the same with reds. A hideous solferino looks all right to some ; it appears the same shade to them, doubtless, as a cardinal or a terra-cotta or some other shade does to you. I haven't the slightest doubt that color-bhndness is at the bottom of much of the distress that one's eyes are forced to encounter." Solferino and magen- ta, or shades closely touching upon them, should not be tolerated in the garden. They are weeds, that ought to be eradicated as soon as they ap- pear. A writer in the London " Garden " gives a simple rule to determine whether colors harmo- nize : " People who have no natural perception of 12 154 2r!)e ffiar'Oen'iS .Storj?. color can not be trained to arrange colors har- moniously by any code of rules ; but those who have a natural feeling for color can find out whether any two colors harmonize by a very easy test. Place the colors separately on a gray, white, or black ground. If they are brighter, richer, and fuller together than separately, they harmonize ; but if not, they should not be placed together." I could say more in favor of spiraea or Hoteia Japonica were it not so susceptible to the hot sun. Charming so long as it remains fresh, dur- ing average seasons its foliage is soon blighted and its beauty destroyed. The hardy, large perennial spirseas are beautiful with their grace- ful spikes and plumes and panicles. Of these, S. arimcus, the familiar goat's-beard, is among the finest when well established and allowed sufficient room to attain its full development. S. Humboldtii is equally robust, though its flow- ers are not so pure a white. The species fili- pendula and its double are worthy a place in the border if only for their graceful, fern-like foliage. S. ulmarza fl. pL, and its form with golden variegated foliage, are both desirable species. The prairie Spircea lobata, with its rosy carmine cymes, must take the place of the finest of all the meadow-sweets, the Japanese S. E\)t Summct iFlotoers. 155 palmata, which does not thrive in this cHmate. Under cultivation, all the herbaceous spirseas prefer partial shade, and, to appear at their best, should be supplied with water in hot weather, or their appearance is soon marred by withered foliage. What would the old-fashioned garden do without the sweet-william ; and the new-fash- ioned one, too, for that matter ? It is as indis- pensable as the snow-pink, the carnation, and the aster. '' Die fallen ins Aug'! " they fall into the eye, to quote from the gardener once more, an apothegm I think worth embalming. Gay they are, with their infinite colorings and their prodigality of bloom. The Dianthus are all of them pretty, notwithstanding the interminable appellation of one, Dianthus sinensis Heddewigi diademattcs Jiore pleno ! Leave them alone, and they will sow themselves ; sow the seed on good ground, and they reward you a thousand-fold. They vie with the auriculas in their merry eyes, and are almost as brilliant and fourfold as last- ing as the poppies, unless I except the Iceland- ers. Even the old maids love their sweet-will- iams. In Gerarde's day it was " esteemed for its beauty to deck up the bosoms of the beautiful, and garlands and crowns for pleasure." It is well to caution those who grow it, however, not 156 STfje €fartren's Storjj. to place it close to gravel-walks, where the seeds are apt to drop and cause no little trouble ; they germinate so freely. Seeds should be saved from the best kinds, most desirable colors, and strongest trusses. The Eschscholtzia and Core- opsis become almost a pest unless the seed-cap- sules are cut off, and the Calendtda is also troublesome in this respect ; but the latter may be excused, it^is so warm and steadfast in late autumn when we could hardly do without it for cut flowers. With the sweet-william is often associated another old garden^ favorite, the snow-pink {Di- a?ithus phmiariiis), a charming subject when well grown. I once saw an immense patch of this in front of a country cottage, growing so luxuriantly that the fragrance drifted far out on to the highway. I stopped to inquire of the genius loci, who was busy with her watering- can, how she grew them so finely and so pro- fusely. " I pinch them, give them plenty of water, and keep up a fresh stock from cuttings every two years." The old story, I thought ; new words to the old tune — " care." The large bell-flowers are doing excellent duty as flowering-plants, notably the old-fash- ioned Canterbury bells {Campanula inediimi). Their immense scalloped goblets of diversified 2ri)e .Summer i^lotoers. 157 colors are preferable in the single to the double and duplex forms. The several spfkes are stout and the species is of robust habit, altogether a grand border-plant. So also is the strong and taller C. macrantha with blue-purple bells. It should have a partially shaded place in the back row of every border. The peach-leaved bell- flower (C persiscifolid) is an excellent border- plant, but does not hold itself erect like the other species, and therefore needs staking. All plants, it may be observed, that require support should be staked early, instead of being left until they begin to flag. For supports iron stakes are the neatest. The Austrian harebell (C pulld), a small species with lovely, drooping purple bells, would be an admirable subject for the rock-gar- den were it not for its rambling root-stalks. C. barbata, the bearded harebell of Switzerland, I have not found as satisfactory as some of its relatives. To judge from the description and illustra- tion, the finest of the bell-flowers — if it may justly be termed a bell-flower — must be the Bokhara bell-flower {Ostrowskia magjiificd), just introduced into Europe, a grand chime of bells crowning a tall, leafy spire. The stem is stout, from three to five feet high, the leaves in whorls ; and the flowers, which are five inches or more 158 2ri)e ©fartten's Stor^. in diameter, placed in loose terminal panicles — pale mauve Varying to light blue, with a large, club-like stigma. A country that can produce such rugs as Bokhara, acquiring with time a color and bloom like that of a ripe peach and plum, ought to contribute an extraordinary flow- er; but whether the flower will improve with age and wear in a foreign climate is as yet unde- termined. I do not hear anything of the great Califor- nian poppy wort {Romneya Coidteri')^ which created such a stir on its introduction into Eng- land. Mr. F. A. Miller, of San Francisco, who introduced it twelve or fourteen years ago, wrote me, " There is no flower that combines so many good qualities — such a fragrance, beauty, and general effect — as this plant." Unfortunately, it will not survive our rigorous climate, and I believe it has failed to establish itself in most gardens where it has been tried in England. In her plants California is not accommodating, as a general rule. Nature having for the most part suited them only to the climate of their birth. They are ill adapted to our sudden snaps of winter returned. The roses are now in their prime. I had occasion to cut a collection this morning — June 22d — rising shortly after three o'clock. A rustling 3rf)e Summei: jFlotoers. 159 of the tree-tops was the first precursor of dawn — the breeze which nearly always precedes awak- ening day. At 3.20, before it was yet light, the cat-bird was first of the songsters to salute the morn. Five minutes afterward the wood-pewee drowsily voiced the first two notes of his refrain — " whe-ii whe, whee-u !" In just two minutes more a robin began his matin song, followed by the crowing of the cocks, which quickly ceased, until at 3.40 the wood-pewee began whistling merrily, immediately succeeded by the robins, wood-thrushes, sparrows, and various song-birds, all joining in the morning chorus. At four the crescendo was at its height, when it gradually dimiinished, soon leaving the sparrows in almost undisf)uted possession. I found the honey- bees busy among the raspberry-blossoms a few minutes after four, and the big bumble-bees but a little later to begin their morning task. Of all these early risers I for once was the earliest. The hollyhock may be termed a great power in July. Classed as a biennial, it might almost come under the head of perennials, being as permanent as many true perennials. It was a favorite of Wordsworth and is also of Tennyson. Tennyson's summer, . . . buried deep in hollyhocks, i6o JTfjc ©JarDen's ^torj. is expressive of the luxuriance of this Chinese flower. It should be seen in long rows, in well- drilled color-columns, to exhibit its most striking effect, each plant a sentinel in uniform, and each with rosettes brighter than his fellows. The hollyhock will grow anywhere ; it will grow doubly well with deep cultivation, and when lib- erally manured and watered during dry weather. Dampness being injurious during winter, it is recommended to remove the earth about the crowns in autumn and fill up with six inches of white sand. Propagation is effected from eyes, seeds, cuttings, and division. The thrip and red spider are fond of the hollyhock, and hence the rusty appearance so many plants present. If you have four or five gardeners, this may be obviated by syringing every leaf, upper and un- der side, of the long rows daily with whale-oil soap and tobacco-water. The hollyhock also demands an admission fee. The graceful spring bitter-vetch {Orobus vermis) is past its flowering, but still retains its handsome foliage. Hieraceiim aurantiacum has passed, after showing its peculiar orange-red flowers, even more odd in color than those of the native orange-red milkweed that stains the sandy places in midsummer. The creamy trusses of the tall valerian are a hive of sweet- 2rt)e Slimmer iFIotoers. i6i ness, and the yellow camomile {Anikemzs tinc- torid) is covered with its daisy-like flowers, re- joicing in the increasing heat. It will soon be succeeded by Coreopsis lanceolata, another of the showy yellow composites, with the ever- blooming pea, the double-flowering rocket, and the large-leaved day-lilies, of which Sieboldii has the finest foliage, and the white variety the finest and sweetest flower. Not without just reason is the larkspur in- cluded among the nine flowers specified in the garden of " Maud " — the woodbine, jasmine, vio- let, acacia, pimpernel, rose, lily, passion-flower, and larkspur. Keats should have included it in his sonnet on blue. Holmes alludes to it neatly in the " Autocrat " : Light as a loop of larkspurs — light in its poise, and light or dark, as you wish it, in its complexion, and beautiful in all its forms. Sauntering at dusk through the fragrant gar- den alleys, I hear as in a dream the last faint notes of the vesper-sparrow ; and see, kindling the edge of the covert and sparkling amid the shrubbery-glooms, the myriad fire-fly revelers merrily dancing out the last sweet night of June. toa (^arben favoxitcQ. I love the lily as the first of flowers, Whose stately stalk so straight up is and stay. Alexander Montgomery. . . . The coming rose, The very fairest flower, they say, that blows. Such scent she hath ; her leaves are red, they say, And fold her round in some divine, sweet way. Philip Bourke Marston. VII. TWO GARDEN FAVORITES. |LPHABETICALLY, the lily comes be- fore the rose ; and in the summer- garden, which would lack its greatest charm if deprived of either, the common orange- lily appears before the first June rose. Is this significant ; and shall I say the flower singled out in the sixth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel excels its sister in floral graces and vir- tues ? The rose, as we generally admire it, as it is eulogized by the poets, is a florist's flower. Its rival, equally well known, and almost if not as freely extolled in poetry, owes less to man and more to nature. I would not detract from the rose, when I say it is less graceful than the lily and its form more artificial. In comparative' merits of color and fragrance it would be difficult to discriminate; each has its claims that may 1 66 Efft ®farTien's Stotw. not be overlooked. I may add, on the other hand, if you smell of a lily you are liable to be stained by its pollen ; and if you pluck a rose, there lurks the hidden thorn. Perhaps the lily and the rose, or the rose and the lily, furnish a case in point where comparisons are odious, and each one may better decide for himself which is the superior flower. I begin with the lily, therefore, because it comes first alphabetically, and is first to appear. Whispered the white lily to me : I am the em- blem of purity, the type of saintliness ; at the altar and at the tomb I bring joy and consola- tion ; in the garden I am sweet beyond all my companions, and with my whiteness none can compare ; I am sweet, I am chaste, I am beloved by all. Do you know my origin ? " Jupiter wished to make his boy Hercules (born of a mortal) one of the gods : so he snatched him from the bosom of his earthly mother, Alcmena, and bore him to the breast of the god-like Juno. The milk is spilled from the full-mouthed boy as he traverses the sky (making the Milky Way), and what drops below stars and clouds and touches earth, stains the ground with lilies." So extensive and beautiful is the genus Liliimi, so varied in form, color, and periods of blossoming, that, like the daffodil, a garden might 5rb)o ^artien ifaborites. 167 be composed of it alone. We readily concede its beauty ; the next thing is to manage it. " The more I see of lilies, the less I know how to grow them," is a wise maxim of H. J. Elwes. One re- quires tact and perseverance to grow the lily. Very many of its numerous species are fastidious, quick to express their likes and dislikes ; some, indeed, refuse to yield to culture unless in a cli- mate of their own choosing. Yet, after all, most of the species may be satisfactorily grown if proper attention be paid to soil, position, and protection. While the majority of the genus are hardy, and very many are natives of cold climates or high elevations, w^inter protection to nearly all species is nevertheless advisable with us. If the ground remained covered with snow the entire winter, the bulbs would not suffer. It is the alternate and frequent changes from freezing to thawing which contract and heave the ground that causes the trouble, the bulbs themselves contracting and expanding with the changes of temperature. No less important is the matter of drainage : very few lilies will endure being water-logged ; very few, also, will endure ma- nure about their bulbs. The manure harbors wire-worms, which are fond of the lily's ten- der scales. To obviate this, and to strength- 1 68 E'tfz ^artren's Storg. en root-action, all lilies, on being planted, should receive a liberal sprinkling of sharp sand about the bulbs. With us the lily is even more susceptible to drought than to frost, and failure is oftener the result of shallow planting and. poor soil, than owing to the rigors of our winter climate. Very much depends on good, deep, and congenial soil, and healthy bulbs to start with. Partial shade, with some species, is absolutely necessary, and all are benefited by, and some will not grow at all without, a liberal supply of moisture. Differ- ent species are as different in their requirements as they vary in the character of their bulbs and their periods of flowering. What holds good of one climate often does not of another. I have seen magnificent beds of established Liliu7n aii- rattwi and speciosu7n on the Eastern coast in open sun, that it would be utterly impossible to grow without shade in the lower lake region. They liked not only the peat and deep trenching, but extracted a tonic from the sea-air, which just met their requirements. It is one thing to grow certain plants where the climate itself grows them ; it is quite another thing where they have to be cajoled into tractability. The more diffi- cult the task, however, the greater the satisfac- tion to accomplish it ; success is always pleasant, SrtDO ©artien iFaborftes. 169 whether to grow a capricious flower or banish a troublesome weed. The following is the last classification adopt- ed by Mr. J. G. Baker in his " Synopsis of all the Known Lilies," published in 1875 : I. Subgenus Cardiocrinum (leaves heart- shaped). Types : L. cordifolium, L. gigan- teum. II. Subgenus EULIRION (flowers funnel- shaped). Types : L. longijiorum, L. catidi- dum, L. Washingtonia7ium. III. Subgenus Archelirion (flowers open). Types : L. tigrznmn, L. speciosum, L. aura- tum. IV. Subgenus ISOLIRION (flowers erect). Types : L. crocemn, L. concolor, L. Philadel- phicum. V. Subgenus Martagon (flowers turban- shaped). Types : L. martagojt, L. superbtwi, L. pomponiiim, L. polyphyllum. If one would go distracted on the subject of forms and varieties, he should peruse the anno- tated " Alphabetical List of the Species and Va- rieties of Lilium," compiled by M. d'Hoop, a Bel- gian amateur, published in vol. xxvii, No. 692, of the London "Garden." Thus, under Z. Cana- dense, its principal varieties are described as L. C, superbiwt (intermediate between Canadense 13 170 2rt)c ffiartien*» Stotji. and superbum), L. C. rubruui, L. C, Hartwegi, L. C. minus, L. C. occidentale, L. C. parviflo- rimi, L. C. parviim, L. C. pubcrulnm, L. C. Walkeri. No less than seven forms of L. Phi- ladelphicwn are mentioned : L. P. andinuni, L. P. wanscharictmi, L. P. of Brentwood, L. P, of Connecticut, L, P. of Massachusetts, L. P. of the Orange Mountains, L. P. varietas Hookeri. First among the lilies is one of the three most common and easily-grown species, the tall orange- lily (Z. croceum). This would show to better advantage if it did not appear with the Oriental poppies, which overpower everything else in red about them. The orange-lily looks best spring- ing from the shrubbery, and, like the tiger-lily, needs to be seen in strong, well-established clumps, to show its real characteristics. The orange-lily is succeeded, a few days later, by one of the finest of lilies, the Caucasian L. colchi- cinn, much less frequently seen than its merit deserves — a soft canary-yellow flower, speckled with small dark-brown spots on either rim of the petals, and exhaling an intense and individual odor. It is a slow species to arrive at perfection, and, owing to the cernuous habit of its flower, is not seen at its best until well established and its stems rise to their full height. As it blossoms with the conspicuous lemon-yellow day-lily, it 2rbo CKartJcn J^aborftes. 171 should be placed where it may be seen by itself. This species varies not a little in the character of its flowers, some being larger and deeper-colored than others, and having the petals more freely spotted ; it is one of the easiest of lilies to raise from seed. L. colchicum does well in the open sun, but grows larger in partial shade, where it also holds its flowers and foliage better. The voracious rose-beetle is becoming more and more omnivorous. Prompt to appear with the first white Madame Plantier rose, his armies soon pounce upon the white pjeonias, which would be utterly ruined were he not kept in check. Last year he added the white Iceland poppy and Spircea filipendula to his bill of fare, and to-day I find him attacking the colchicum lilies. One can not gather a bucketful and toss them into one's neighbor's garden, for they would only fly back again. My neighbor, who lets his chickweed and dandelions go to seed, is, I think, the main cause of their increasing numbers, for he never lifts a finger to destroy them. Siberia contributes one of the smallest and earliest of the lily family in L. tenuifolmm, pret- tier as a cut-flower than when growing out of doors, where its many wide-branched blooms and sparse leafage on slender stalks give it a top- heavy appearance. Its small vermilion, wax- 172 Efft CKartJcn's Storj. like, and strongly-scented flowers are distinct among the turbans. Z. pulchelluni, another small red species, from Siberia, blossoms with tenuifoliu7n. Both of these do best in sandy soil, as does also the common Vv'ild orange-red lily (Z. Philadelphi- cu7n), a most beautiful early species. You have seen its single and sometimes two and three flow- ered blossoms lighting the June meadows and sandy hill-sides. Its blossoms seldom number more than three. A gigantic specimen I once found with eight blossoms, and which I carefully transplanted with a large ball, divided itself into four stalks the following season. I do not wonder that the Madonna lily (Z. ca7tdiduni) has been claimed as an emblem by nearly a hundred saints. It seems to have a special charm of its own, so chaste it is, so in- violable in its purity. The roses and the big blue larkspurs come into bloom just in time to set it off, and together, perhaps, form the most beautiful summer pageant of the garden. The Madonna lily is one of the most gracious of its graceful tribe, being not only unusually hardy, but quick to increase, and thriving in almost any soil and position. Though its white print is seen everywhere, it is a flower that is never common. One of the easiest to grow, it is no 2rtD0 ^artien JFaborftes. 173 exception to the rest of the genus in its dis- like to being disturbed. The right way is to think twice before placing any plant or tree, so that, when once planted, it will not be necessary to interfere with it. Where transplanting is necessary, the lily should be moved when its bulb is at rest — a period easily determined by the dying down of the foliage and stalk. Many lilies require several years to become established, and, so long as they remain healthy and flower well, they should not be disturbed. What ap- plies to the daffodil does not hold good with the lily ; and I think the rule laid down by many, that the latter is benefited by transplanting and dividing every two or three years, is wrong. None of the varieties of the white lily can com- pare with the type ; the double form is as great a failure as the rose-colored lily of the valley. The past year the white lilies were not as fine as usual, something in the late spring, or else the previous dry autumn, affecting them. The stalks were less strong, and the leaves often turned yel- low before the appearance of the flowers. The lily should not have its stalk cut down after blossoming, until the leaves have fallen off, and the stalk becomes yellow and shriveled. It is always a temptation to cut down the withered stems, which are unsightly. But to remove the 174 ®^5^ CKartJcn's ,Stori». green stems means to make the bulb go to rest prematurely, the result being that the next sea- son the flower-stems come up weaker and pro- duce smaller flowers. There is no objection to cutting the stems down gradually from the top as they become dry ; this does not weaken the bulbs, and at the same time avoids the appear- ance of untidiness. We would naturally expect much of the scar- let martagon or scarlet Turk's-cap (Z. chalcedo- nicicm), the true "lily of the field." Indeed, it is never disappointing, except when it is disturbed, the species being extremely sensitive to removal, and never being good for several years after transplanting. It is one of the grand things in red ; an old clump of it, in fiery scarlet flower, is a sight for a cardinal to dream of and a hum- ming-bird to admire. Its cultural requirements are as simple as those of the Madonna lily, and the beautiful cross between these two, the Nan- keen lily (Z. excelsum, L. testaceum, L. Isabelli- 7iuni). No garden should be without this fine hybrid to accompany the white lily. It inherits the stateliness and the combined perfume of both parents, with a soft apricot or buff-salmon color unique among its family. An overestimated lily, I think, is the yellow L. Hansom. It is to the Japanese species what 2rta)o OJartrcn JJ'aborites. 175 the panther lily {L. pardelinum) is to the North American kinds — there are many finer to choose from. But both are easy to grow, and the grand whorls of Hansom certainly are not to be de- spised. Its small turban is of a distinct yellow, with a peculiar Oriental odor — you would know it came from Japan with your eyes shut. I should, doubtless, admire it more if I could grow it larger. I place it above pardeli7ium, which passes by quickly, and has a loose sort of flower on limp stalks that always require support ; Montgomery would never have grown the latter in his lily garden. The Calif ornian L. Wask- ingtoniamim is, I think, also overestimated — difficult to grow, and very fleeting. Z. Hum- boldtii, L. rubescens, and Z. Parryi are finer. All the Californian species, except pardelinimi, are more or less difficult to manage ; they often remain in the ground a long time before appear- ing. These do better in some portions of Eng- land, where they are consigned by the thousands, to be sold at auction. No little confusion has ex- isted concerning the Californian species. There are differences in plants which florists readily recognize, but botanists will not. Thus Z. ru- bescens, one of the handsomest of the species, was formerly classed with Z. Washmgtonia7iiun, a distinct species in almost every particular. 176 2ri)e CKartJcn's Storw. Recently a yellow form of pardelinuni has been discovered, together with another species, which the discoverer, Mr. F. A. Miller, of San Francis- co, informs me he has designated as L. pardeli- mim Alpinum. This, he states, " grows on dry ground, and in general characteristics is not un- like L. parviim, which, however, only grows on very wet ground, or along water- courses. The flower is small, but vivid and rich in color ; near- ly half of the flower, which appears horizontally, is scarlet. I found it at an elevation of eleven thousand feet, higher than the altitude where any lilies grow usually." Where it can be well grown, L. speciosum, with its numerous varieties, is unquestionably one of the finest of the genus. The Massachu- setts climate, which produced the beautiful va- riety Melpomene, suits it ; but it is usually seen at its best under glass. L. Brownii, another Japanese species, is far more rare, but scarcely as handsome as the common L. longifiorum and its v^arieties. Contrary to general opinion, I have found the former extremely slow to recover after lifting. L. Ha7'risu, the Bermuda lily, is best suited to the greenhouse, on account of its tend- ency to start so early, and is not to be compared^ with the Japanese long-trumpeter for out-of-door culture. An easily-g^own lily is the European STtoo ^arTien JFaborites. 177 Turk's-cap {L. martagon), and its fine varieties, album and dalmattcuvt ; the latter is said to re- vert to the type after a few years' cultivation. There are scores of varieties to choose from in the Japanese species Thunbergia7imn or elegans, nearly all of which are dwarf in habit, and vary in color from pale apricot, orange, and orange- red, to blood and deep red. These are among the easiest of the genus to grow, and do not like shade. L. bulbiferum, somewhat like Thiiiibcr- gianuin, with orange-crimson flowers, is also one of the least fastidious species ; the variety umbel- lahmt is a stronger grower than the type. Both of these are valuable early species where a mass of red in lilies is desired in open sun. Of the many species we owe to Japan, none can compare with the great golden-banded lily (L. auratum) and its varieties ; if, in reality, it is not the finest of its tribe. But it is a coquette at heart, and, unless wooed earnestly and persistent- ly, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it will only smile bewitchingly the first year, to jilt you the next. Of the hundreds of thousands of bulbs imported annually from Japan by Europe and America, very few remain after the second and third year. This is not owing to its tender- ness, for it is among the hardiest of the genus. Neither is it a mere question of climate and cult- 178 E\ft ^artien's .Storw. ure. Climate and culture have much to do with it, but the main reason of its failure is beyond this. Investigation has only recently brought to light the chief cause of its disappointment. In its own home it is infested by a mite, which, however, does not seem to cause trouble until it leaves its native country. The enfeeblement in- cident to the removal of the bulb, together with the difference of soil and climate, cause its de- terioration. Some unusually strong round bulbs, which may not be so much affected, if placed amid congenial surroundings, are able to resist this tendency ; and it is only by selecting a quan • tity of the best bulbs to start with, and retaining the most robust of these after the first year's flowering, that we may hope to establish this lily ; that is, unless it can be grown more suc- cessfully from scales or seed, a process seldom tried in this country, where we have not the patience to wait. Of fifty bulbs, perhaps only one third, more frequently a quarter or less, re- main after the second year, even when grown under the most advantageous circumstances. This is what the term " home-grown Lz'/z'um aurahmt " means, or is supposed to mean ; for the loss is always so great that few care to deal in auratum bulbs, except as directly imported. CiiMO CISarticn JFabon'tcs. 179 Notwithstanding this, so desirable is the golden-banded lily, that it is worth any amount of trouble to establish. Peat, with the addition of sharp sand, seems to meet its cultural require- ments best, although it does well among Onoclea ferns, in soil largely composed of black " muck " or decayed wood. A sufficiency of water it must have, and abundance of shade is absolutely necessary to success. The midday sun is fatal to it. A flickering shade, I should say, is best for this and most lilies. It should also be placed where it will not be subject to high winds. The auraticm is one of the most protracted of the genus in its flowering period, and scarcely two of a number of bulbs planted at the same time come into flower simultaneously. There are numerous varieties of this species, all of which are beautiful ; the more pronounced the terra- cotta spots and vivid the color of the ray or cen- tral band, the finer the flower. I regard a well - grown Liliiim auratuin, Vvith a strong stalk rising to a height of five or six feet, supporting its dozen or more deliciously- scented blooms, as the grandest of all hardy flowers. It is worth planting a hundred bulbs to establish one such embodiment of floral beauty. When I stand in its lovely presence I am repaid for any trouble ; and I freely forgive i8o E\)t ^Jartien's Stors. the Japanese all the misery they have inflicted upon Kiota and Awata. It is scarcely astonish- ing that a country which can produce such a flower should produce artisans to whom nothing is impossible. It ought to inspire a transcend- ental literature. Under date of August 29, 1885, F. Bridger, Penshurst Place, Kent, wrote to the London " Garden " : " We have in the open ground here a Lilium auratiwi with forty flowers upon it at the present time, and over a hundred more still to open ; the plant has six stems seven feet high." The proprietor should go down upon his knees to such a gardener, and endow him with an annuity for life ! Remarkable among lilies, and differing en- tirely from the type, is the Himalayan species, L. gigaiiteiwi, termed the "king of lilies." It is, I believe, generally considered tender with us, and difficult to manage. Two years ago I experi- mented with three of a dozen small bulbs, plant- ing them out on the 20th of November, in rich loam and leaf-mold. These wintered perfectly, and the remainder, which were placed in a cool house, have since withstood the winter equally well, and are now vigorous plants, with immense Caladium-\'k& leaves, growing in partial shade ; these have not yet flowered. This species, in Europe, attains a height of ten feet, and bears 2riD0 €fart>en iFabovntes. i8i huge trumpet-shaped, nodding white flowers, in- teriorly stained with purple, and of powerful fragrance. It is a strong rooter, and, as it push- es up very early, it should be planted rather deeply, and protected with fine ashes from spring frosts. It is said to require years before it sends up its flower-stalk, and the longer it is in coming into flower the finer it is said to be. The tiger-lily (Z. izgrinum), an occupant of most gardens, is never common when well grown. Its odd Chinese color and pronounced spots must be seen in mass to do it justice ; the old - fashioned country garden invariably does well by it, because it is left undisturbed. L. tigrinum splendejis is termed the most beauti- ful, though the double variety is almost equally fine. All of the tigers are among the very easy lilies to grow. A single specimen of a beautiful native lily of the Canadense section was discovered in 1 840 by Dr. Asa Gray, on the Alleghanie's, North Caro- lina, and named in his honor L. Grayi. This is described as having flowers of dark-red orange, uniformly dotted within with rather small purple spots. Although since found in the same habi- tat, the species is as yet extremely rare. A lily distinctly American is the wild Turk's- cap {L. stiperbuTfi), an inhabitant of meadows 1 82 2r|)e ^artien's Stori?. and low grounds, the tallest and most numerous flowered of our native lilies. So variable is this in its size, shape, color, markings, and the num- ber of its flowers, that it is difflcult to specify it distinctly. It is a question, moreover, just when it becomes concurrent with L. Canadense ru- brum, as would not unfrequently seem to be the case. The most common forms of the species bear dingy red or yellowish-red flowers, and vary greatly in the robustness of the plants. L. super- bum, as usually sent out, is anything but the superb lily it is in certain favored localities, and none who have only seen its more common forms have any conception of its stately beauty in its rarer and perfected state. Along the Old Colony Railway, between Newport and Boston, and on the Shore Line between New London and Boston, the species is seen at its best. For miles it fol- lows one along the railway, steeping whole meadows in scarlet, the color of the flowers varying from the most intense bright crimson to dingy yellowish-red. There in the salt air it revels even on dry, poor soil, bearing from three to fifteen or more commonly three to seven flow- ers on a head. In its cultivated state, where well grown, the large form is still more free flowering, the bulbs throwing up from a dozen to three dozen blooms JTtoo CRartJcn jj'aborftes. 183 on stems eight to nine feet high. I have never seen it as brilliant under cultivation as it occurs wild in the localities referred to. Neither have I ever seen the lemon-yellow Canadense as vividly colored or as tall as it occurs near New London, Conn. Fine color and tall stalks with" L. super- bum under cultivation, however, will largely de- pend upon good selection made in the native habitat. This year a disease seems to have af- fected L. siiperbimt under cultivation in some places, causing the stems to shrivel and the leaves to rot off. Of the graceful Turk's-caps or turbans there are none, I think, unless I except the rare form of L. siiperbimi, equal to the red Canadense, our own wild wood-lily. I know of no lily more graceful or stately. It is as distinctly American as the cardinal- flower or the pink lady's-slipper. Something it possesses of the wildness, the sup- pleness, and the charm of cool leafy places — in its tall, polished wand, its fluttering whorls, and the pure whiteness of its rhizome. It always looks self-possessed, bending but never breaking before the rain and storm. Then its life and fire when rising from the foil of light-green Onocleas. I find it growing in low woods where water has lodged in spring, lifting its lithe stem along shaded ditches and hedges, and rising in flexile 184 2rt)e CKartren's Storg. grace amid the chosen haunts of the sensitive fern. Owing to its increased vigor the red form of Canadeiise is preferable to the yellow, though the latter is exquisitely beautiful in the color and poise of its flower. Certainly the yellow form of L. Canadense far surpasses any yellow form of Z. stiperbmn, the latter invariably having a washy appearance. L. Canadense rubruni is much earlier to blossom than superbum. The distinction of shape of flower, however — superbum being quite recurved in the Turk's-cap style — is, perhaps, more obvious than any other characteristic. I find the red L. Canadense extremely protean, plants of similar size occurring side by side with long, rather narrow leaves, and again with short and very wide leaves ; the number of leaves on a whorl also being very variable, while in some plants the flowers are much more nodding than in others. In low, damp woods, near by where it is extremely abundant and attains a very large size, I have also noticed much variation in the shades and spots. The largest and most dis- tinctly marked flowers I have seen occurred in strong plants having what might be termed vari- egated foliage, the leaves in these instances be- ing yellowish in tone, marked with dark-green veins and blotches. Some have the back of the STtoo Sfartren iFabotftes. 185 petals marked with pale-yellow bands on the edges. This is one of the most striking and ex- ceptional forms, though the numerous flowers are smaller. Some have flowers with the under side of the petals stained a deep vermilion ; some have large and some small dots ; others occur with flowers much larger than the type ; and the form I have specified as occurring with vari- egated foliage has the handsomest flowers of all, of medium size, with the back of the petals col- ored a glowing vermilion-scarlet. The large- flowered form has the petals the least spotted of all, no dots appearing on the terminal half of the petals. The latter is one of the most robust of the section. Another rare form occurs with the outside of the petals blotched and spotted with yellow, and I have met with still another form, intermediate between rubrum 2iX\A flavmn. All these, with the exception of the variegated form, I have found growing in the same woods in flickering shade, and all have preserved their distinguishing characteristics under cultivation. The yellow Canadense, while a less robust grower, withstands the sun better than the red variety. The latter is worthless grown in open sun. Placed among any of our native ferns ex- cept the big ostrich, which starts so early in growth as to choke or stunt the lilies, they 14 1 86 Etit ^artnen's Storjj, thrive luxuriantly, and are thus probably seen to the best advantage. Mr. Peter Henderson has justly remarked that the lily has no poor relations, and that in a general collection of the species all that can be imagined desirable and pferfect in floral forms will be realized. Indeed, it is beautiful in all its very numerous forms ; and when we consider that except one or two species it is a flower with no in- sect pests, the lily may well be regarded as one of the greatest treasures of the hardy flower-garden. The roses seem more beautiful than ever this year, a characteristic of this favorite flower j it is always more beautiful. Said a blush rose to me : I am the type of youth and voluptuous- ness ; I am red with the flush of health ; with my odor, with my loveliness, all are intoxicated ; I nestle m the bosom of beauty and I am the symbol of love ; my beauty speaks for me. Do I need to trace my lineage ? " I came of nectar spilled from heaven. Love, who bore the celes- tial vintage, tripped a wing and overset the vase ; and the nectar, spilling on the valleys of the earth, bubbled up in roses." There is so much to say about the rose that it were more satisfactory to recommend the reader to peruse the hundreds of monographs it has inspired than to attempt to allude to it within 2rU)o ©atticn i^aborftcs. 187 the confines of a few pages. The only way to do it justice is to begin at the beginning and treat it in all its phases of origin, history, culture, form, color, and fragrance. I imagine it would be delightful to study roses for a decade and then write a book. Even the subject of suitable manures would lose its taint if considered with reference to the rose. The species alone number upward of a hundred ; the varieties with their briefest possible descriptions would fill a ponder- ous folio. Of teas alone there are several thou- sands ; of hybrid perpetuals or remontants there is almost as great a multitude as the daffodils Wordsworth saw dancing by the shore of Ulls- water. An astronomer it would require to count them ; a Symonds to depict their colors. The rose, like the lily, will not grow itself, not- withstanding its hardy species are far less fas- tidious with regard to soil and climate. As the price of its beauty it requires care, if not " eter- nal vigilance." It is like a fascinating woman whom every one admires and who graciously sub- mits to the attentions of all, to her own annoy- ance and discomfort. Thus, Madame de Coigny, becoming tired of the attentions bestowed upon her, one day had a signet engraved of a rose besieged by insects, with the motto ~ This it is to be a Rose. 1 88 3rSe ^artien's Stov». The first leaves have scarcely appeared ere they are beset by the thrip or rose-hopper, al- most immediately succeeded by the green fly, leaf-roller, rose-chafer, and rose-slug. Were the sparrow of any earthly use, he would not leave these to hellebore, whale-oil soap, and Paris green. Nearly any one of these pests, if left to itself, soon ruins the foliage or flow- ers. Undoubtedly the easiest way to cultivate roses is to buy them ; the next easiest way is to have a posse of gardeners whose sole purpose shall be to stand over them continually with wisp, bellows, and syringe. Indeed, it is far easier to study the lily and cajole its caprices than to escape the omnipresent thorn of the rose. There are roses without thorns as there is a bee without a sting ; but a thornless rose nearly al- ways means a rose without fragrance. But what loveliness it gives us to make up for its poutings — a dimple and a smile on every flower ! Who shall decide which rose is the type of beauty or say which is the sweetest ? Can there be anything more beautiful than a Marechal Niel ? Is any rose finer than the combination of buff and peach-blow and salmon in the fragrant folds of a Gloire de Dijon } Is Louis Van Houtte or Marie Rady the sweeter flower, and are either of these as sweet as La France or Souvenir de la ?rb)o €Jartien iFaborites. 189 Malmaison ? And are these in turn as delicious as the little violet-scented white Banksza or the pungent breath of the white- clustered multiflora? Who shall choose between Marshall P. Wilder, Marie Beaumann, and Alfred Colomb? And which is the more bewitching, Madame Gabriel Luizet in her dress of pink Chambray, or Mabel Morrison in her cool white lawn? Which do you prefer, the old-fashioned climbers smothered in rosy bloom, or the mass of the Persian's beaten gold ? Can you decide between a pink Bon Silene and a moss-rose wet with dew ? Would you leave out the paeonia-flowered Paul Neyron for Madame the Countess of Serenye? And which is the more desirable in autumn, the colored hips of the dog-rose or the late-blossom- ing Marguerite de St. Amande ? Then the white Rosa rugosa, the sweet-brier, the little Pacquerettes, the Noisettes, the Ayrshires, the Bourbons, the Chinas, the Boursaults, the dam- asks, the Provence, the Scotch, and the hosts of hybrids. Which is my favorite in the hardy rose-gar- den ? I have tried for many years to decide, and if pressed hard for an answer I think I should name Marie Rady, although not a few of the varieties I have specified and some I have not mentioned approach it very closely in the 190 Ef)t ^cirTJcn's Storjj. attributes which go to form a perfect rose. It is an ideal rose in form, color, fragrance, and foliage when well grown, perhaps not quite as free blooming as one might wish, and possibly more satisfactory as a budded plant than when grown on its own roots. I know of no rose more rose-like in its large, full, vermilion-crimson flower, its full, delicious perfume, its red-thorned shoots, and free, lustrous foliage. But some like the brunettes and some the blondes. Both are beautiful, unless it be the type which loses its color with the first hot sun. Of course, there are many species which are not sufficiently hardy for the garden ; but there still remain enough to puzzle any one to choose from. Some one has said that roses in a garden are preferable to a garden of roses, the latter at times affording little poetry or pleasure compared with a few roses here and there in a garden. An ad- mirable plan, I think, is to plant enough of good forms and colors in the flower-borders ; of Per- sians in the shrubberies ; of climbers on the walls and pillars and trellises, and of all desirable hardy kinds in the kitchen-garden to cut from ; and ever, and still ever, when wet with morning dew — Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Young June is still a-flying. toarm-tocatljcr toisbom. Gods grant or withhold it, your ''yea" and your "nay' Are immutable, heedless of outcry of ours : But life z's worth living, and here we would stay For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers. Andrew Lang — Ballade of True Wisdom. VIII. WARM-WEATHER WISDOM. HE intense heat and long-continued dry weather are telling upon the flowers, and, at present, watering is the most important of garden tasks. Vainly have the hair-bird and tree-toad portended rain. It is one of the dry spells when all weather signs fail. The garden-hose, however persistently applied, only partially supplies the deficiency. The only thing that sounds cool is the plaint of the mourn- ing-dove from the depths of the thicket and the humming of bees in the lime. Even the swal- lows seem to fly less swiftly and the butterflies pass by less buoyantly. It is the sort of weather to reread the " Castle of Indolence " or the " Mid- summer-Night's Dream." Some one should make out a list of books for reading during the reign of the dog-star. I should recommend, be- sides numerous volumes I have previously al- 194 2[t)e CKarocn's Stotj). luded to, such books as these as a sort of mental julep to sip when the thermometer is in the nineties : " The Unknown River," " The Life of the Fields," " I go a-Fishing," *' Rambles among the Hills," " A Year aniong the Trees," " Wal- den," " Wind-Voices," " A History of Cham- pagne." There is no end of cooling literary beverages, volumes that one can take up and skim through, Bulvver to the contrary notwith- standing, that reading without purpose is saun- tering, not exercise — a winter rather than a sum- mer maxim. " The Haunted House " is cooling, and " In Memoriam " is nice to dive in. A fresh breeze blows perpetually from the " Penseroso " ; " The Faerie Queen " is cool reading, and so is " The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies." All the noted sonnets on sleep are cool. Dobson or Lang ought to collect them in book-form between snow-white covers for hot- weather use. I re- member a " Phantom Ship " (not Hamilton's sonnet) which used to provoke a cold shudder; but it is so long since, I have forgotten the au- thorship. There is also a " Phantom Fisher " somewhere in British verse — a spectral angler who draws ghostly trout from haunted shal- lows ; and Whittler, besides the " Dead Ship of Harps well " — " the ghost of what was once a Wnvnx-W^tntfftv WistKim. 195 ship " — has a phantom " Farm-House," wraith of a dead home. But, cooler than all of these, or any chill-provoking verse 1 recollect, is Til- ton's "Phantom Ox," a rendition of the old Swabian superstition that a specter in the form of a white ox glides through the ^^■llages and farms, and that any person on whom he breathes at once sickens and dies. A little child, fright- ened in from his play, tells his mother, with blanched cheek and trembling lip, how, while wading along the brook in quest of lilies, a ghostly ox came down to drink. Through his body the trees, meadow-grass, and stones showed as through a crystal glass : He wandered round, and wherever he went He stepped with so light a tread, No harebell under his hoof was bent, No violet bowed its head. He cast no shadow upon the ground, No image upon the stream ; His lowing was fainter than any sound That ever was heard in a dream. " I quivered and quaked in every limb ! I knew not whither to flee ; The further away I shrank from him, The nearer he came to me. " My handful of lilies he sniffed and smelt :; His breath was chilly and fresh ; 196 Ett ffiarticn's Stoti?. His horns, as they touched me softly, felt Like icicles to my flesh. " I rushed through the water across the brook, And high on the shelving shore I stopped and ventured to turn and look, In hope to see him no more. " He walked in my wake on the top of the flood, And followed me up the bank ! A blast from his nostrils froze my blood ! My spirit within me sank 1 " I hid in the reeds, O mother dear, But swift as a whiff of air He followed me there ! he followed me here ! — He follows me everywhere ! " Oh, frown at him, frighten him, drive him away ! He's coming in at the door ! " And down fell the lad in a swoon, and lay At his mother's feet on the floor. The mother looked round her, dazed and dumb, She saw but the empty air, Yet knew if the Phantom Ox had come. The shadow of Death was there. She caught the pallid boy to her breast. And pillowed him on his bed ; The white-eyed moon kept watch in the west ; The beautiful child lay dead ! * * Theodore Tilton, " Swabian Stories." 3!^arm=5!5^eatt)cr 512^isTiom. 197 This is as powerful as the " Erlking," and it deserves a place as a companion-piece to Schu- bert's grand rendition of the German lyric. Doctors in summer should prescribe a light literary course, tonic rather than stimulating, not only to the weak-kneed, but the robust as well — on the same principle that salads, cooling vegetables, and dainty entrees are craved by the stomach during the tyranny of Sirius. I would fur- ther proscribe heating music : Strauss's waltzes. Von Weber's " Invitation to the Dance," Men- delssohn's " Wedding March," even Beetho- ven's " Adelaide," are entirely out of place during the heated term. Rather let us listen to the solemn chords of the " Dead March in Saul," the " Lacrymosa " of the "Requiem," the sob- bing of the " Serenade." The worst of existing hot-weather customs is that of sending bills in July. A law should be passed rendering this an indictable offense, if, withal, creditors should not be compelled to de- duct a liberal percentage from all accounts fall- ing due during the summer solstice. Planchet's motto, " Laissons faire et ne dzsoiis rien,'' is a good one for summer, and preferable to D'Artagnan's, '' Faisons bien et laissons dire." Happy in July is the man on the sea-shore ! How refreshing it is to get it all wet on one side 198 E\)t CKarlJen's Storrj. of you, to have the ocean-breeze spraying you all the way in from the horizon, and to know the privilege of bathing with your lobster before eating him ! Under the lime-tree's shadow I find the cool- est place of the garden. Is it due altogether to the shade, or partially to the myriad insect wings hovering unceasingly over the blooms above me ? The ferns in the fernery near by look cool. Does a fern ever look otherwise than cool, and is not green always the coolest of colors ? Cool are the lilac-scented white stars of the partridge- vine, almost covering its deep - green leaves. Cool, too, are the aspens on the hill-side which the wind visits v/hen he passes by all other trees. And are not the tall, wild lilies cooled by their fluttering whorls ? Despite their warm color, somehow their red Turk's - caps do not look warm, whereas the brick-red of the meadow- lily and the live coals of the scarlet martagon do in comparison. The wild lilies are now mostly in full vermilion bud and flower, some of them rising six feet high amid the ferns. The sight of their great candelabras of from six to a dozen flowers more than atones for the sting of the nettles and the labor of extracting their brittle rhizomes from the network of roots amid which they were entangled. W!^nxnuW&tnt\)tx SJ^fstrom. 199 I thought the bouquet of the wild grape the most delicious breath of June ; but now beneath the lime-tree's shade, lulled by the drowsy mur- mur of the bees, there seems no summer odor quite so fresh and uncloying as that of the blos- soming lime. No wonder the honey probed from its scented cymes in the Lithuanian forests rivals that of Mount Hymettus thyme and is considered "the finest in the world." The lime, a summer home of murmurous wings, sings Tennyson. It is a very Mecca for the bees, and rivals its near neighbor, the Japanese honeysuckle, in the numbers of insects it at- tracts. What a motley throng of pilgrims are drawn to its nectar-laden shrine I Can it be the sweetness of its sap, which yields a sirup simi- lar to the sugar-maple, that the ants and borers seek beneath its rind, eventually splitting the bark and destroying the tree ? I believe this is peculiar to the European lime when grown in this country. De Gelien observes : " Many are fond of bees ; I never knew any one who loved them indifferently — on se passionne pour elles ! " The ancients were good bee-masters, in proof of which it may be cited that the Greeks had three terms at least for the different qualities of propo- lis or bee-gum — TrpoiroXis, KojifKocris, and macro- 200 2ri)e Cffartrcn's Storg. KTjpos. The mead or metheglin of Shakespeare, the drink of the ancient Britons and Norsemen, and a favorite of Queen Bess, is very plausible, if not true, from the Greek, fxeOv alyXrjfv. Who- ever is interested in bees will have read the fourth Georgia, and pondered the rules laid down by Butler. A better bear and bee story than that contained in " Reynard the Fox " is related by Butler, the raconteur being Deme- trius, a Muscovite ambassador sent to Rome: " A neighbor of mine," said he, " searching in the woods for honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree, and there sunk into a lake of honey up to the breast, where, when he had stuck fast two days, calling and crying out in vain for help (because nobody in the mean while came nigh that solitary place)— at length, when he was out of all hope of life, he was strangely delivered by means of a great bear, which, com- ing thither about the same business that he did, and smelling the honey (stirred with his striving), clambered up to the top of the tree, and thence began to let himself down backward into it. The man, bethinking himself, and knowing that the worst was but death (which in that place he was sure of), beclipt the bear fast with both his hands about the loins, and withal made an out- cry as loud as he could. The bear, being thus suddenly affrighted (what with the handling and what with the noise), made up again with all speed possible ; the man held and the bear pulled, until with main force he had drawn Dun out of the mire ; and then, being let go, away he trots, more afeared than hurt, leaving the smeared swain in a joyful fear." Scarcely less amusing is Butler's account of honey as a medicine, or his directions to avoid being stung by bees. They are as quaint as some of Walton's passages, or the directions by other old masters of the line for capturing a wary tenant of the stream. Walton has con- tributed one of the best mots that has appeared, on the frog : the instruction he gives Venator for baiting a hook with a live batrachian, which he commands him to use " as if he loved him, that he may live the longer." This is almost as realistic as another injunction by a Michael An- gelo of the piscatory art, mentioned by Jesse, who would have a frog attached " to a goose's foot, in order to see, good halynge, whether the goose or the pyke shall have the better." Still another master of the antique school, speaking of the best bait for a pike, exclaims, with an en- thusiasm for his art not to be met with in these degenerate days : " But the yellow frog, of all frogs, brings him to hand, for that's his dainty 15 202 2rf)c ©Jartien's Storw. and select diet, wherein Nature has placed such magical charms that all his powers can never resist them, if fastened on the hook with that exactness, that his life may shifie, and the bait seem undeprived of natural motion." When Theocritus sang, " Sweet is the life of frogs," he little thought of the pike, and the use the classic Rana would be put to bythe modern angler. 1 think these old angling authors should be read during a midsummer drought — their stories are so cool, and ripple from their quills so sponta- neously. In connection with bees and insects, Jesse himself provokes a smile when he declares that, together with wasps and bumble-bees, the hor- net "may be perfectly managed. . . . Two or three whiffs of tobacco-smoke, used as a fumi- gator, with a rose-nozzle — a very small one, that can be held between the teeth, is large enough — will instantly tranquillize all such insects, and render them quite harmless as to their sting ; making them appear as if they had forgotten they possessed such formidable weapons. . . . The sting of a wasp is the least painful of all," he paradoxically continues ; " the sting of a hornet I have never felt, nor that of the largest bumble-bee." But Jesse is not often caught napping, despite this paradox and his SS^arm^Sffi^cnttjcr ®®fstiom. 203 itinerant fumigator. It is, nevertheless, to be regretted that he thus dehberately denied himself the pleasure of a sensation which every one ought to experience at least once in a lifetime. I consider Dr. Talmage a better authority than Jesse — he has felt the hornet's sting, I did not know him as an entomologist until he preached his sermon on " Stinging Annoyances," from the text, Deuteronomy vii, 20, " The Lord thy God will send the hornet." How vividly he describes him ! " It is a species of wasp, swift in its motion and violent in its sting. Its touch is torture to man and beast. We have all seen the cattle run bellowing from the touch of its lancet. In boyhood we used to stand cautiously looking at the circular nest hung from the tree- branch, and, while we were looking at the won- derful pasteboard covering, we were struck with something that sent us shrieking away ! " The hornet is used as a simile for the stinging vexations of life which beset mankind in a thou- sand forms. If Talmage had a garden, he would see a swarm of hornets in the rose-pests, the dry weather, the overplus of rain, the plant- staking, the weeds, his dandelioned neighbors, the east wind, before which all plants must bow and many break. Indeed, he refers to the hor- net as visiting us in the shape of friends and ac- 204 ^5^ CKartien's Stor». quaintances who are always saying disagreeable things, and selects him as the type of the insect- ile annoyances of the world — these foes, too small to shoot, that are ever puncturing us one way or another. The Colorado beetle, the cur- culio, the locust, the Western grasshopper, the slug, the aphides, the currant-worm, the cod- ling-moth, are all hornets in disguise. Perhaps the parson's solution, that the hornet is sent to " culture our patience," is the most rational one yet assigned for his existence. And yet the hornet is useful in another way, in feeding his young with the soft parts of other insects, in- cluding mosquitoes, which are thus largely de- stroyed. The honey-bee is the most frequent among the insect visitors to the blossoms overhead, though the gnats and flies are also numerously present, banqueting on the sweets. I see vari- ous bumble-bees, wasps, and hornets as well, the former being the most numerous, after the honey-bees. From all of these many wings there arises a soothing, sonorous murmur of industry, a humming as from a vast hive. It is one of the sweetest of Nature's voices ; less ethereal but not unlike the aerial music which one sometimes pauses to hear near woods and streams at this season. After Beethoven re- ffl2^arm*®5^cati)cr 3!5^fstiom. 205 turned from wandering about a wood near Vien- na, where he listened long to this aerial melody, he composed the grand Pastoral Symphony. This same sound puzzled the Selborne rector, in the Money-dells, over a century ago. Did this not also suggest the sound — That sometimes murmur'd overhead, And sometimes underground, of Hood's " Elm-Tree " — Hood's lines being de- scriptive of the characteristic rising and falling of this woodland voice ? I remember hearing it repeatedly, years since, on still, hot days, in a small copse on a high ele- vation ; and on revisiting the locality, recently, the same mysterious music followed me through the wood. Who are the performers of this gos- samer-spun sound, this invisible harpsichord, this elfin music of the air ? I have not seen a cause ascribed to it by the naturalists, though, it would seem, it must proceed from the trembling wings of myriads of midges, engaged in the dance of rivalry and love. Swinton's exhaustive volume on " Insect Variety," which treats so fully of the noises and dances of insects, throws no new light on the subject. Insects, and the swallows who pursue them, soar higher as the temperature becomes hotter ; and it is, therefore, 2o6 Srtje CSarticn's Storjj. not improbable that the music produced by the fanning of innumerable wings should be distin- guished when the performers are invisible. I see a humming-bird visiting the wild lilies — he can not resist his favorite color — red. In a moment he darts to the lime-tree, but only for a moment, when he is rifling the blooms of the Japanese honeysuckle, where he remains sus- pended for a long period, often joined by the female. The boom of his swiftly-vibrating wings is audible where I sit ; it seems as if they cooled the air ! In the garden he skims rapidly over the borders, pausing a minute over the blue larkspurs, invariably visiting the scarlet lychnis and Chalcedonicum lilies ; never neglecting the red monardas, and always returning to the honeysuckles. In Prof. Grant Allen's " Pleased with a Feather " I learn that the metallic luster of his topaz, emerald, and ruby-tinted throat is due to the fine lines of the feather barbules; and these it also is which give the sable sheen to the crow, whom I admire treading his favor- ite corn-field. ittg Snacct bisitors. EiN Bluraenglockchen Vom Boden hervor War friih gesprosset In lieblichem Flor ; Da kam ein Bienchen Und naschte fein : Die miissen wohl beide Fiir einander sein. GoTHE, Gleich und Gleich. IX. MY INSECT VISITORS. S I listen to the humming of the bum- ble-bees, I think the term " bombina- tion," formerly applied to the droning of the large Bombus, should be retained. It is expressive, and carries the sound shed by him of the black - velvet coat and winnowing wings. Sir John Lubbock's experiments with regard to the color-sense of bees are interesting as de- tailed in Chapter X in the volume " Ants, Bees, and Wasps." Repeated experiments made with honey placed on papers of different colors not only indicated a liking for blue on the part of bees, but showed a very decided preference for this over all other colors. Since the researches of Lubbock, Darwin, Wallace, and Miiller, it is now well known that special colors in flowers are definitely designed to attract certain special kinds of insects; as, for instance, flowers that 2IO 2rt)e ©JartJcn's Stori>. are intended for fertilization by various small flies are generally white, those which are de- signed to attract beetles are usually yellow, and those which depend upon bees and butterflies are almost always red, lilac, purple, or blue. Blue flowers. Prof. Allen observes, are, as a rule, specialized for fertilization by bees, and bees therefore prefer this color, while conversely the flowers have at the same time become blue be- cause that was the color which the bees prefer. As in most other cases, the adaptation must have gone on pari passu on both sides. As the bee- flowers grew bluer, the bees must have grown fonder and fonder of blue ; and as they grew fonder of blue, they must have more and more constantly preferred the bluest flowers.* A singular preference of the large bumble- bee {Xylocarpa Virginicd) has come under my notice in the case of the big bee-larkspur {Del- phiniuju W heeler ii'). One of the most robust and large-spiked varieties, 'I should not recom- mend it for the flower-border, both its small flower and peculiar color being less pleasing than numerous other varieties. It is growing side by side with handsomer and equally con- spicuous kinds, and I should have discarded it * Cornhill Magazine, " The Colors of Plowers." IWj Kn»ect VmtoxB. 211 long since were it not for the fascination it has always offered to the bumble-bees. The color of the sepals is a peculiar sky-blue, rayed with pale violet ; the two spur-petals that project above the two yellow-bearded petals being dark brown and showing almost black against the contrasting color. Between these the bee or- dinarily plunges his proboscis into the nectary ; but the large black bumble-bee I refer to rarely if ever does this, but drives his spear into the spur of the flower from the outside, close to the base of the spur where the honey is stored. Perhaps this is done to save time and labor, or it may be owing to his short proboscis. He performs his work rapidly and assiduously, often remaining until stupefied from his banquet. This species has a habit of hovering over the fiowers or in mid-air with a loud bombination, while chasing his mate, and seems more alert and quickly alarmed than others. When D. Wheelerii is in blossom little attention is paid to any other larkspur or any other flov^^er of the garden, though numerous varieties of the bee-larkspur are far more odoriferous. The dark centers of the flowers are, of course, a conspicuous guide to the nectary ; but similar centers exist in many other varieties. So marked is the preference shown by this 212 E\)t ^Jartien's Storg. species of bee for the variety specified, that on placing a large bunch composed of four other varieties of the bee-larkspur side by side with Wheelerii and experimenting with nearly a dozen different bees, in every case the insects when intercepted by the foreign flowers merely alighted on them for an instant, and, without in- serting their proboscides, at once deserted them for the variety they were frequenting. I have been unable to determine whether it is the pe- culiar shade or some special odor of the flower which causes it to be sought out above the others, or whether it is on account of its being richer in honey. Besides this species I find other principal visitors in Bombus terrestris and the smaller bumble-bee, though none nearly as numerous as the large black species. B. ter- restris also usually obtains his sweets from the outside of the nectary ; but the smaller bumble- bee generally draws his nectar in the legitimate way. An occasional honey-bee searches for sweets through the aperture which has been made for him by a stronger lancet than his own. With regard to the perforation of the corolla by bees, Darwin states that those plants, the fertilization of which actually depends on insects entering the flowers, will fail to produce seed when their nectar is stolen from the outside ; iWw J^nscct ITisftors. 213 and even with those species which are capable of fertilizing themselves without any aid there can be no cross-fertilization, and this, as we know, is a serious evil in most cases.* Aristotle noticed that all kinds of bees and certain other insects usually visit the flowers of the same spe- cies as long as they can before going to another species, and it is a well-established fact, readily observable in any flower-garden, that bumble- and hive-bees will visit plants of the same species of opposite colors ; but I am puzzled to account for the marked preference in the instance cited. The plants referred to are situated in a long row, and are considerably more numerous than any other variety. Yet this fact would hardly ac- count for the preference I have noticed, for sev- eral seasons. I think we do not accord- the Germans suffi- cient credit for what they have accomplished by their painstaking and invaluable investigations in the interest of plant knowledge. The ear-split- ting terms they have to make use of and con- tend with ! Just think of having to know that the " Sauerstoffabscheidung " of green plants is an " Ernahrungsvorgang," and that the latter is closely connected with the " Lichtvermittelter * Self- and Cross-Fertilization, chapter xi. 214 5riDe ^articn's Storj?. Desoxydationsprocess " ! Is it any wonder it requires a " scholar of Trinity College, Cam- bridge," to translate a German scientist ? The first stimulus to more exact observation and distinction of plants was necessity — to know the countless medicinal species and to avoid con- founding them with others. The old herb- gatherers were the first botanists. But since Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides, who were herbalists rather than botanists, how much is the present system and knowledge of this sci- ence indebted to the Germans ! What flowers have not been analyzed through their busy mag- nifying - glass — beginning with Brunfels and Fuchs ; continued by Erhart, Hoffmann, Kom- pler, Rumph, Hermann, Schreber, Sprengel, Gothe, Humboldt ; and followed by Meisner, Endlicher, Meyen, Link, Schleiden, Von Mohl, Seubert, Miiller, and others ! To all who would look beneath the surface and grasp the real purport and significance of flowers, Hermann Miiller's volume, " The Fertili- zation of Flowers," recently translated into Eng- lish, will be found of signal interest. Christian Sprengel, in 1787, was the pioneer to discover these fundamental truths : I. The nectar of most flowers is secreted for the sake of insects, and is protected from ifttjj finsect Visitors. 215 rain, that the insects may get it pure and un- defiled. 2. The colors and odors of flowers are de- signed to attract the attention of insects. 3. Without the aid of insects very many flowers are incapable of fertilization, and there- fore the secretion of honey in the flower, its pro- tection, the odor of the flower, and the coloring of the corolla, are Nature's contrivances to cause its fertilization by insects. While bringing forward the fact, however, that the pollen was conveyed by insects to the stigma, no greater advantage was assigned by Sprengel than direct contact of the reproductive organs — in itself no advantage over natural fer- tilization — without suspecting that the real value of insect-visits to the plant consisted in the pol- len being thus carried to the stigmas of o^/ier flowers, and by this means accomplishing cross- fertilizatioji. So, Sprengel's work, " The Se- cret of Nature in the Form and Fertilization of Flowers discovered," was allowed to lie fallow until called up again by the advance of knowl- edge and the researches of modern scientists, more particularly by Darwin's great work, " The Origin of Species," and his later book, "The Fer- tilization of Orchids." Miiller's work, published much later than those of Darwin, besides the 2i6 5ri)e CKartJcn's Stotg. author's own marvelous researches and observa- tions, includes references to everything of im- portance which had been written upon the sub- ject prior to its publication. Of the mass of information here presented, the enumeration of the various flower species, with their throngs of visitors, is one of the most noteworthy features. It will prove interesting, perhaps, to recapitu- late briefly the forms and character of insectiv- orous life which serve to carry on the process of cross-fertilization. " A review of the mode of life of insects which visit flowers, and of the families to which they belong," says Prof. Miiller, " shows continuous gradations from those which never visit flowers to those which seek them as a secondary matter, and finally to those which entirely depend upon them. This shows clearly that insects which originally did not avail themselves of flowers gradually became more and more habituated to a floral diet, and only became correspondingly modified in struct- ure when they had learned to depend upon such a diet exclusively." In the scale of importance as fertilizers, the order of Hymefioptera, to which belong the bees, takes the highest rank, its members in the perfect state being entirely dependent on flow- ers. Bees, which confine themselves exclusively I^n JJnsect Ufsitors. 217 to a floral diet, have led to more adaptive modi- fications in these flowers than the Orthoptera and Neuroptera, the Heiniptera, the Coleoptera, and the Diptera and Tkysanoptera combined. To them we owe the most varied, most numer- ous, and most specialized forms, the flowers adapted to the Apidce probably surpassing all others together in color-variety. The Heiniptera, to which belong the bugs, stand higher than the Orthoptera and Neurop- tera, to which belong the cockroaches and dragon-flies, several species being fitted by their small size to creep into and suck honey from very various flowers. The Coleoptera, to which belong the beetles, are of much greater impor- tance as fertilizers, for many species in widely different families feed at times on flowers, and a still greater number confine themselves to such food exclusively. On the other hand, the vora- cious beetle does much harm to numerous flow- ers by nibbling their reproductive organs. The Diptera, to which belong the flies and gnats, stand on a still higher plane than the Coleoptera in the matter of adaptation to a floral diet, and are of far more importance for fertilization, the majority of Diptera resorting to flowers. In the habits of the EmpidcE of the general order Diptera, Miiller clearly sees the 10 2i8 JTfje CKarticn's Storj). transition from blood-sucking to honey-sucking. Sometimes in a single species the females, which require more nourishment, are blood-suckers, while the males seek honey only. In Paltosto- ma torrentium {Blepharoceridce), two different kinds of females exist together, one blood-suck- ing, the other honey-sucking ; while the males are all alike, and all feed on honey. In like manner, Miiller states that several flowers seem to have acquired an offensive smell correlative to the habits of certain anthophilous flies which at times feed on putrid flesh and excrement as well as flowers. Tiny species of midges, which people dark corners by day and leave them in the evening, are regular fertilizers of many flow- ers which afford somber hiding-places for their visitors. In almost all bees highly specialized for fer- tilization, the body is more or less thickly clothed with long, feathery hairs, that in many flowers become dusted, without any direct effort, with a considerable quantity of pollen, which is then cleared off by means of the tarsal brushes. Easily as the hairs take up pollen, they return it with equal ease to viscid or rough stigmas. So greatly has the hirsute covering of the hind-legs increased, and so perfect has become the development of tarsal brushes in the exceed- ifttw Knscct Uisitors. 219 ingly numerous species of Halictus and Andre- na, that the practice of feeding the young on pollen collected by these hairs is exclusively or mainly relied upon. In all species which pro- vide for their own young, the males are of far less service for fertilizing plants than the females, as they are merely interested in their own main- tenance, and neither collect pollen nor visit flow- ers very diligently. Yet, in all species in which a more or less thick coat of feathery hairs has become developed upon the bodies of the fe- males, it has become transmitted by inheritance to the males, so that they also serve as pollen- collectors. Think of the number of bees alone that take part in the process of fertilization ! — bees with abdominal collecting-brushes and long probos- cides ; the specially long-tongued Bombtis and Anthophora ; other bees with long or moder- ately long proboscides ; bees of the genus Pro- sopis, themselves possessing a peculiar odor, and preferring highly odorous flowers ; Andre7iadce and ApidcB ; hive-bees and bumble-bees ; work- ers and drones ; big bees and little bees ; and almost every variety of Hymenoptera with a sting in its tail. The Lepidoptera, to which belong the but- terflies and moths, are likewise highly important 220 2rf)c CKartrcn's Storj?. agents in the evolution of flowers, for which they are peculiarly fitted by their long, thin probos- cides, enabling them to probe the most various flowers, whether flat, long, or tubular. Even at night, in fragrant gardens, in lonely meadows, in the most sequestered woods, the process of in- sect fertilization goes on continuously. Then it is that the great nocturnal hawk-moths, their two immensely long, hollow laminas coiled in a spiral, emerge at twilight to haunt the lighter- colored flowers, which exhale their odor most powerfully at night. Verbenas and petunias, always intensely fragrant at this time, are espe- cially sought out by the crepuscular Lepidopte- ra. Like the humming-bird and swallow, the body of the great sphinges, tapering at the tail, and the stiff, pointed, sharply-cut wings, are framed with special reference to agility and sus- tained flight — agility to avoid their pursuers, and great strength of wing to sustain constant sus- pension in mid-air. I have seen the deliciously scented Japanese honeysuckle {Lonzcera Halle- ana), on warm June and July evenings, swarm- ing with the large Sphinges, including S. Caro- lina, S. cinnerea, and the smaller S. drupif era- rum, the former being present most numerously. The humming of the rapidly vibrating wings, the quick, furtive flight, the perpetual hovering i«i) Knscct Uisitors. 221 over the flower-chalices, the curious coiling and uncoiling of the great suctorial tubes, are a feat- ure in the strange processes of Nature that, once seen, can scarcely be forgotten. Miiller, from whom I have already drawn largely on this fascinating subject, referring to the dusk-loving Lepidoptera, explains that the rapid movements always characteristic of this species may be due " to the shortness of the period suitable for their flight, or to the pursuit of bats." In cases which have come under my own observation, I have noticed that ih^ Spkz'ngcc appear most numerously at dusk, haunting their favorite flowers with little diminution for about two hours, and apparently decreasing in num- bers as the night advances. Bats, I have repeat- edly noticed, seem most abundant during the early hours of night. Tennyson's passage in " Mariana " — After the flitting of the bats, When thickest dark did trance the sky — would corroborate this, if the poet meant to italicize the anterior preposition. While angling for speckled trout at night in summer, I have observed, where the bats were very numerous, their sudden departure and sub- sequent appearance, at perhaps quite long inter- 222 STfje CGattien's ^torij. vals. Attracted by the abundance of stream- frequenting Lepidoptera, the Cheiroptera dis- continued their aerial chase so soon as the quar- ry withdrew from the neighborhood of the water, returning with the reappearance of their prey. Upon the retirement of the bats, the trout in Hke manner ceased to rise freely to the artificial white moth, the time of the " take " being ap- parently regulated by the presence of the bats, though governed really, of course, by the return of the insects in their merry-go-round over the surface of the stream. Finally, the flowering period of my Japanese honeysuckle I have always found a certain index to the commencement of night-fishing. I am not aware whether the great sphinx is too big a mouthful for the bat ; he is certainly a bonne bouche for the greater and the lesser owls. Several summers ago I was awakened suddenly, about midnight, by a strange noise, as of some one raising the awning and tiptoeing on top of the veranda. A bright moon was shining, and not a breath of air was stirring. On the veran- da's rim, looking down upon the honeysuckles and their honey-seeking visitors, stood two small screech-owls ; while, startled from his perch upon the awning, a great horned owl flew away without a sound. ifHj? Knsect Vfsftors. 223 " The swift, violent movements of the Lepi- doptera," the author of " Die Befriichtung der Blumen " continues, " is of very great impor- tance to the plants they visit ; for the more flow- ers that will be visited in a given time, the less the time spent on each, and the shorter the time spent in the flight from one to another. This explains how many flowers have adapted themselves specially to nocturnal insects, both by their light colors visible in the dusk, and by their time of opening, of secreting honey, or of emitting their odor. The SphittgidcE perform their work as fertilizers with peculiar rapidity, dropping their long proboscides into a flower while hovering over it, and instantly hastening away on their violent flight to another. Accordingly, most nocturnal flowers have adapted themselves specially to these Lepidoptera, hiding their honey in such deep tubes or spurs that it is only acces- sible to the SphmgidcE." To the Lepidoptera is assigned- the sec- ond or third place as fertilizers before or after the flies. No special mention of the humming-birds as flower-fertilizers is made by Miiller, who confines his observations strictly to insects. Very many flowers that are only accessible to the butterfly, moth, and humming-bird, on ac- 224 5ri)c CKattJcn's .Stora?. count of their long, contracted nectaries, have become, as we have seen, gradually developed or modified through the agency of their visitors ; w^hile the colors, odors, and periods of opening of flowers generally are in relation to the tastes and habits of the insects that frequent them. Odor, no less than conspicuousness, is a power- ful magnet to the insect tribes ; indeed, strong scent is even a greater attraction than brilliant colors. Many flowers are both conspicuous and odor- iferous. On this point Darwin observes : " Of all colors, white is the prevailing one ; and of white flowers a considerably larger proportion smell sweetly than of any other color, namely, 14.6 per cent ; of red, only 8.2 per cent are odor- iferous. The fact of a large proportion of white flowers smelling sweetly may depend in part on those which are fertilized by moths requiring the double aid of conspicuousness in the dusk and of odor. -So great is the economy of Nature, that most flowers which are fertilized by crepus- cular or nocturnal insects emit their odor chiefly or exclusively in the evening. Some flowers, however, which are highly odoriferous depend solely on this quality for their fertilization, such as the night- flowering stock {Hesperis) and some species of Daphne ; and these present the if^w insect VmtoxB. 225 rare case of flowers which are fertilized by in- sects being obscurely colored." * Thus we see how important a part the insect world has taken in the evolution of the floral world, and how much the beauty and variety of the garden owe to the myriad murmuring wings which ceaselessly ply their appointed task of de- velopment and improvement. * " Cross- and Self -Fertilization," p. 374. igttrbj) 6l)rubs anb (Sllimbcrs. Among the links between man's mind and Nature we may place, as one of the most obvious, man's earliest attempt to select and group from her scattered varieties of form that which — at once a poem and a picture— forms, as it were, the decorated border-land between man's home and Nature's measureless domains, The Garden. — Bulwek, Motive Power. X. HARDY SHRUBS AND CLIMBERS. INCE the lilacs were in bloom there has been no lack of other shrubs to extend the blossoming season. The slender-branched Deiitzia {D. gra- cilis), the rough-leaved {D. scabrd), D. Pride of Rochester, D. crenata fi. pL, and others of the species, are all indispensable flowering shrubs, appearing in the order named. Scarcely less effective are many of the shrubby Spirceas, which flower in the following order, from the middle of May to the middle of August : {\) Prunifolia fi. pL, Thtmbergii ; (2) Nicon- derti ; (3) chamccdrifolia ; (4) cratcpgifolia, lanceolata, lanceolata fi. pL, lanceolata robus- t<^ / (5) uhnifolia ; (6) opulifolia aurea, cre- nata ; (7) Fontejtaysii, salicifolia, sorbifolia ; (8) Billardi ; (9) ariccfolia ; (10) callosa, cal- losa alba, callosa superba, species Japonica. S. 230 2ri)e ^Jarticn's Storj. opuUfolia aiirea is a valuable variety, with gold- en-yellow foliage. It deserves a place by itself, or plenty of room to develop in the shpubbery. Soon after its blossoming period, the four-cleft seed-pods of the cymes, which are thickly clus- tered along its drooping branches, turn to a rich terra-cotta shade. This shrub, when once pruned into symmetrical shape, should receive as little pruning thereafter as possible, or the light, graceful effect of the sprays will be de- stroyed. 5. Japotiica is of recent introduction, a graceful, medium-sized species, covered in July with attractive, rosy-red cymes. The native white fringe {Chionanthus Vir- ginicd), though classed as a tree, should be in- cluded among flowering shrubs. It is distinct and beautiful, with its glossy leaves and feathery plumes of pure white, fragrant flowers. Its odor reminds one somewhat of the native yellow- wood {Cladrastis tinctoria or Virgilia luted), one of the finest of ornamental trees, with wis- taria-like racemes of fragrant white flowers, pro- fusely produced during midsummer every other year. This vies with the lime-tree in the attrac- tions it presents to the bees. Of the snow-balls there are a score of varie- ties to choose from. Among these, the com- mon Guelder rose ( Viburnum, opulus sterilis) is ?i^artJjj