LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY MRS. NELLIE R. PREUSS ,- -\ A ,x. ' &-~(S- ' LANDSCAPE * * GARDENING NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS ON LAWNS AND LAWN PLANTING- LAYING OUT AND ARRANGEMENT OF COUNTRY PLACES, LARGE AND SMALL PARKS, CEM- ETERY PLOTS, AND RAILWAY-STATION LAWNS-DE- CIDUOUS AND EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS-THE HARDY BORDER-BEDDING PLANTS-ROCKWORK, ETC. SAMUEL PARSONS, JR. U-" SUPERINTENDENT OF PARKS, NEW YORK CITY ILLUSTRATED I should prefer the delights of a garden to the dominion of a world." JOHN ADAMS G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 27 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND Lnc fmicfeerbocfeer press 1891 COPYRIGHT, i8qi BY SAMUEL PARSONS, JR. TEbe ImCclierbocber press, Rc'v J2orft Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound oy G. P. Putnam's Sons CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION THE LAWN CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. THE TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS CHAPTER III. SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LAWN ..... CHAPTER IV. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LAWN CHAPTER V. THE FLOWERS AND FOLIAGE OF SUMMER CHAPTER VI. GREEN AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE CHAPTER VII. AUTUMNAL COLOR ON THE LAWN .... CHAPTER VIII. LAWN-PLANTING FOR WINTER EFFECT PAGE xi 3 2 53 1 06 114 135 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. GARDEN FLOWERS . . ^55 CHAPTER X. GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN 201 CHAPTER XI. BEDDING PLANTS 216 CHAPTER XII. THE ORNAMENTATION OF PONDS AND LAKES .... 238 CHAPTER XIII. LAWN-PLANTING FOR SMALL PLACES 255 CHAPTER XIV. CITY PARKS . . . . . . . . . . .271 CHAPTER XV. RAILWAY, CHURCHYARD, AND CEMETERY LAWN-PLANTING . 295 CHAPTER XVI. NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS 307 CHAPTER XVII. MY FRIEND THE ANDROMEDA 312 ILLUSTRATIONS. THE POND EFFECT LOTUSES AND WATER-LI LI KS .... Frontispiece LAWN IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK, NEAR THE NORTH END OF THE MALL . 17 ROUGH UNGRADED BANK 18 CLOSELY MASSED ROCKS ON FINISHED STEEP BANK 19 PARTLY FINISHED ROCKY BANK READY FOR PLANTING 21 ENTRANCE TO CAVE IN THE RAMBLE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK ... 23 STEPS LEADING TO CAVE IN THE RAMBLE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK . . 25 STONE BRIDGE ADJOINING LARGE NATURAL ROCK, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 27 YUCCA RECURVA 29 YELLOW JASMINE (Jasminum nudifloruni) 35 WEEPING GOLDEN BELL (Forsythia suspensa) 39 FLOWERING DOGWOOD (Cornus Florida) 40 DOUBLE-FLOWERING APPLE (Pyrus spectabilis) 41 THE DOUBLE-FLOWERING CHERRY (Prunus cerasus, Jt.pl.) .... 42 SOULANGE'S MAGNOLIA (Magnolia Soulangeana) 43 * JAPAN WEEPING CHERRY 45 JAPANESE MAGNOLIA (Magnolia stellata) 46 ENGLISH HAWTHORN (Cralccgus oxyacantha) 47 ENGLISH HAWTHORN (Cratccgus oxyacantha) ... ... 48 DEUTZIA GRACILIS 49 AZALEA MOLLIS 49 TREE PEONY (Paonia arborea) 50 COMMON PURPLE LILAC (Syringa vulgar is) 51 JAPANESE MAPLE 58 HORSE-CHESTNUT TREES, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 61 RED-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT (sEscnhts rubicunda) 62 WHITE-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT (.-Esculus rubicunda) .... 63 CHIONANTHUS VIRGINICA 64 RHODODENDRON 68 PINXTER FLOWER (Azalea nudijlora) 69 BROAD-LEAVED LAUREL (Kalmia latifolia) 69 GORDON'S MOCK ORANGE (Philadelphia Gordonianus) 72 * From a photograph taken by Mr. Paul Dana from a specimen on the lawn of Mr. Charles A. Dana, Dosoris, L. I. vi ILL USTRA TIONS. DEUTZIA CRENATA,/.//. T 2 EXOCHORDA GRANDIKLORA 73 SWEET-SCENTED SHRUB (Cafycanthus Floridus) YELLOW JAPANESE KERRIA (A'erria Japonica) 73 RED-FLOWERING WEIGELIA ( IVeigelia rosea) 74 VIBURNUM OPULUS 75 FOUR GOOD CLEMATISES 7 f > WISTARIA SINENSIS 77 WISTARIA ARBOR, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 79 JAPAN RAMAN AS ROSE (Rosa rugosa rubrd) 81 NOBLE SILVER FIR (Abies nobilis) 3 AMERICAN BEECHES (Fagtis ferruginea) 93 DOUBLE-FLOWERING ALTHEA (Hibiscus Syriacus, Jl. pi.) 99 SWEET PEPPER BUSH (Clethra alnifolia) 100 DWARF FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT TREES (^sculus parvijtord) . . . 101 CHINESE CYPRESS (Glyplostrobus sinensis) 102 JAPAN IVY (Ampelopsis tricuspidata 103 DUTCHMAN'S PIPE (Aristolochia sipho) 104 SWEET-SCENTED CLEMATIS (Clematis Jlatnmulo) 104 TRUMPET CREEPER ( Tecoma radicans] 105 INDIAN BEAN (Catalpa bignonioides] 108 WEEPING BEECH (Fagus sylvatica pendula) no WEEPING BEECH IN WINTER m ELJEAGNUS LONGIPES 112 * KENTUCKY COFFEE-TREE 121 * LIQUID AMBAR 125 EUROPEAN OLEASTER (Elccagnus hortensis) 127 * ORIENTAL SPRUCE (Picea Orientalis) M 1 WEEPING NORWAY SPRUCE AND DWARF PINE (Picea excelsa inverta and Pinus slrobus compactd) 143 CEDAR OF LEBANON (Cedrus Libani) 144 BHOTAN PINE (Pinus excelsa) 145 * MUGHO PINE (Finns mughus) . . . 14? GINKGO TREE, IRISH YEWS, AND WEEPING SOPHORA 148 * JAPAN PARASOL PINE (Sciadopilys veriicillatd) 149 * OBTUSE-LEAVED JAPANESE CYPRESS (Retinospora oblusd) . . . -151 PARSONS' SILVER FIR, WEEPING NORWAY SPRUCE, AND WEEPING LARCH . 153 HEART-LEAVED SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga cordifolia) 158 Moss PlNK (Phlox subulatd) 1 59 EUROPEAN PASQUE-FLOWER (Anemone pulsatilld) 160 STEMLESS GENTIAN (Gentiana acaulis) 161 ALPINE BARRENWORT (Epimedimn Alpinuni) 162 ASTILBE JAPONICA 163 NOBLE FUMITORY (Corydalis tiobilis] 163 BLEEDING HEART (Dicenlra spectabilis) 164 * From a photograph taken by Mr. Paul Dana from a specimen on the lawn of Mr. Charles A. Dana, Dosoris, L. I. ILL USTRA TIONS. vii PACE SPRING MEADOW SAFFRON {Bulbocodimn vernuni) 165 POET'S NARCISSUS (Narcissus poetic us) 166 TRUMPET MAJOR (Narcissus major) 166 DAFFODIL (Narcissus pseudo-narcissus) ........ 167 FRAGRANT JONQUIL (A T arcissus odorus) 167 CROCUS VERNUS iGS WINTER ACONITES (Eranthis hyemalix) 168 SNOWDROP (Galanthus nivalis) 169 SCARLET TURBAN LILY (Lilium pomponiuni) 169 CRUCIANELLA STYLOSA . . .170 LILY OF THE VALLEY 171 MAIDEN'S PINK (Dianlhus deltoides), AND THE NIEREMBERGIA RIVULARIS . .172 HERBACEOUS PEONY (Pxonia officinalis) 173 SLENDER-LEAVED PEONY (Paonia tenuifolia, Jl. pi.) 174 SEA LAVENDER (Slatice lati folia) 174 ROCK TUNICA ( Tunica saxifraga) 175 ACHII.LEA PTARMICA 176 YELLOW ASPHODEL (A sphodelus lutetis) 176 YELLOW CHAMOMILE (Anthemis tinctoria) 177 AMERICAN SENNA (Cassia Marylandicd) 179 GAS PLANT (Diclamnus fraxinelld) 180 GAILLARDIA GRANDIFLORA 181 GERANIUM SANGUINEUM 182 BOWMAN'S ROOT (Gillenia trifoliata) 182 PLANTAIN LILY (Funkia ovata) 183 GERMAN IRIS (Iris Germanicd) 184 LILIUM AURATUM 184 LILIUM SPECIOSUM 185 TURK'S-CAP LILY (Lilium superbum} 185 BUTTON SNAKEROOT (Liatris spicata) 186 DOUBLE SCARLKT LYCHNIS (Lychnis Chalcedonica, fl.pl.) 186 PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (Lythrum salicaria) 187 PURPLE FLOWERING RASPBERRY (Rubus odoratus) 188 PENTSTEMON BARBATUS (var. Torreyi) 189 LARGE BELLFLOWER (Platycodon grandiflorum) 189 MEADOW SWEET (Spircca ulmaria) 190 GENTIAN-LEAVED SPEEDWELL (Veronica genlianoides) 190 RED-HOT POKER (Triloma uvaria) 192 CARDINAL FLOWER (Lobelia cardinalis) 193 LEADWORT (Plumbago Larpenta-) 194 STONE CROP (Sedum acre) 195 SEDUM SPECTABILE 195 COMPASS PLANT (Silphium laciniatum) 196 GOLDEN-ROD (Solidago Canadensis) 197 NEW YORK IRON-WEED ( Vernonia Noveboracensis) ...... 197 CHRISTMAS ROSE (Helleborus niger) 198 COBWEB HOUSE-LEEK (Sempervivum arachnoideunt) ..... 198 viii ILL USTRA TIONS. HACK AUTUMN CROCUS (Colchicum aulumnale) 199 SINGLE DAHLIAS J 99 GARDEN PINK (Dianlhus plumaritis) 203 SWEET-WILLIAM (Dianthus barbalus) 203 FALL LARKSPUR (Delphinium elatum) 204 SINGLE HOLLYHOCKS 204 COREOPSIS LANCEOLATA 206 PRIVATE PLACE AT ORANGE, N. J., AS LAID OUT BY VAUX & Co. . . . 207 CANADA COLUMBINE (Aquilegia Canadensis) 208 ERIANTHUS RAVENNA .209 FESTUCA GLAUCA 209 STIPA PENNATA 210 HAREBELL (Campanula tenori} 211 LIVER LEAF (Hepatica Iriloba) 212 JAPAN WIND-FLOWER (Anemone yaponica Honorine Joubert) . . . .213 BLUE VIOLET 214 WHITE VIOLET 214 PURPLE FOXGLOVE (Digitalis purpured) 214 ORIENTAL POPPY (Papaver bracteatutri) 215 JAPAN IRIS (Iris Kampferi) 215 DIAGRAM OF DECORATIVE BED 218 BED OF CANNAS, COLEUSES, AND ACALYPHAS 220 STUDY FOR BEDDING OF FOLIAGE PLANTS AGAINST A WALL . . . .221 SWORD LILY (Gladiolus) 223 DIAGRAM OF BEDDING PLANTS 224 PLAN FOR ELLIPTICAL BEDS FOR MASSING COLORS 226 DOUBLE GERANIUM 231 SINGLE GERANIUM 231 SALVIA SPLENDENS 233 CANNA INDICA 233 BANANA PLANT (Musa ensete) 234 SOLANUM WARSCEWICZIOIDES 235 ELEPHANT EAR (Caladium esculentuni) 235 NEW SINGLE TULIPS 236 GREEN-LEAVED BAMBOO (Arundo donax) 242 PAMPAS GRASS (Gynerium argenteum) ........ 243 EULALIA (yaponica zebrina) 244 BORDER OF THE FOUNTAIN, UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, LOTUSES AND WATER-LILIES 245 ARRANGEMENT OF LOTUSES AND LILY-PADS 247 GROUP OF JAPANESE LOTUSES (Nelumbium speciosum) 248 ARRANGEMENT OF WATER-LILIES AND PAPYRUS 250 CENTRE OF THE FOUNTAIN, UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK 252 BETHESDA FOUNTAIN BASIN, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK .... 253 SMALL HOME LAWN 259 SUGGESTIONS FOR LAWN-PLANTING 263 A STUDY FOR LAWN-PLANTING 267 ILL US TRA TIONS. ix PACK THE MALL, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 275 * THE ISLAND, NEAR BRIDGE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK . . . .279 THE CAVE LANDING ON THE LAKE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK . . .281 NORTH MEADOW, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 283 OVERHANGING ROCK NEAR IIOTH STREET AND SEVENTH AVENUE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 285 A GORGE IN CENTRAL PARK 287 A CHURCH LAWN 299 A BURIAL PLOT 305 * From a photograph taken by Mr. E. P. Fowler. INTRODUCTION. N presenting to the reader the fol- lowing brief and unpretending chap- ters, I am fully aware that the subject of landscape gardening is receiving at my hands unsystematic and insufficient treatment. At the very outset, therefore, I wish to say that the principal feeling that has inspired the present undertaking has been a desire to arouse, by simple desultory talks, increased enthusiasm for lawn-making among men of moderate means. Most people have some land, or can in this country readily get it. As a rule, however, they accomplish little towards the proper development of the landscape-garden- ing capabilities of such land as they have. The hired man generally advises them to a considerable degree, and then carries out the plans agreed upon, without much let or hindrance from the employer, or comprehension of the com- parative value of the completed work. xii INTRODUCTION. There is no doubt that nurserymen's catalogues furnish much valuable advice concerning the best methods of growing certain plants, as well as extensive lists of their various species and varieties ; but this cannot be considered an adequate or even an attractive way of treating the sub- ject of landscape gardening. The discussions of plants are sufficiently alluring, I will acknowledge, and the colored pictures and woodcuts are unquestionably effective in arresting the eye and securing interest of a certain kind. In a word, nurserymen's catalogues are intended for one definite purpose namely, that of tempting the reader to purchase plants, and to that end they are admirably adapted. To the development of a sound taste for the practice of genuine landscape gardening these catalogues can of course contribute comparatively little. And yet the material, the trees and shrubs, they discuss, must always form an important and very essential part of any satisfac- tory treatise on landscape gardening. On the other hand, to write such works as those of Price, Gilpin, Reptou, and Downing, while requiring ability and experience of a high order, does not satisfy what seems to me a particular need of the present time. Wealth and taste are being rapidly diffused among all classes. The book, therefore, that is needed for this purpose is, it seems to me, one that will stimulate interest in an inexpensive style of landscape gardening by enunciating a few prac- tical fundamental principles, and giving an account of some examples of well laid out grounds. With this, should naturally be included a description of some of the best lawn-plants. INTRODUCTION. xiii My chief confidence in the value of such a work lies, I confess, chiefly in the superior effect the illustrations may have in inspiring interest in the subject, and leading the reader to pursue his investigations farther a-field. I have also myself lived among choice ornamental trees all my life, and had the opportunity of studying many examples of landscape gardening in numerous more or less professional visits to country-places in America. My position of Su- perintendent of Parks in New York for nearly ten years, moreover, gives some additional reasons for undertaking to make a few suggestions and notes by the way that may be helpful to others. The first chapter that I propose to undertake in the series of what should be termed talks, rather than serious discussions, will be on the subject of the actual lawn con- sidered by itself. Having duly considered the best methods of making a lawn, and arrived at the final convic- tion that lawn-making requires considerable practical knowledge and skill, we will be likely to meet the ques- tion, " But how do you make your roads ? " To this I shall be obliged to reply: "That, although I have arrived at certain conclusions about road-making, I do not deem the subject as clearly within the proper scope of landscape gardening." Roadmaking is distinctly within the province of the engineer, and all over the civilized world the subject has been exhaustively treated by learned experts, who have set forth their views in prize essays and more extended treatises. But I must say this much, earnestly and from an experience that has been checkered by good and bad xiv INTRODUCTION. results, that you had better give your roads only enough curve or crown to shed water properly. It will be also found in many places, even within the home grounds, that gutters by the side of the road are essential ; and invari- ably well-assorted broken stones should underlie the drive- way for the purpose of drainage. With the additional oft- quoted remark on the maintenance of roads, that "a stitch in time saves nine," I shall forego all further talk in these pasres about the construction of paths and roads. A O J- The question of the curves or course of paths and roads, in relation to adjacent lands and buildings, is, how- ever, a legitimate query for the reader to make, and of that I shall have something definite to say. Roads and paths are, it must be confessed, necessary evils that add no land- scape beauty to the place, and must be simply tolerated because they are needed to get about the grounds. In de- vising the location and course of roads and paths, it becomes, therefore, our duty to seek to minimize their essential ugliness, and to contrive how to manage with as few of them as possible. Constructing lawns and laying out lines of paths and roads having been discussed, the plan of my chapters next induces me to ask the readw to imagine a rough, undulating country-place with, perhaps, a ravine or two on one side of it. As one looks at the natural arrangement of rocks on the hillside it should be readily apparent that the treat- ment of steep and sloping grounds needs consideration as well as that of the more level lawns. Trees, shrubs, flower gardens, and level lawns, every one knows something of them. There are few, however, who have ever given seri- INTRODUCTION. xv ous thought to artificial sloping grounds and rockwork studied from natural models found in the hills about us. Some of us have without question studied such work in Cen- tral Park, New York City, and in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, L. I. There are, of course, a few other examples in the country of this genuine American landscape architecture, but to not many, I fancy, has it occurred to treat sloping grounds in any definite and specialized way. I used the term American landscape architecture advis- edly, for my words in these chapters are chiefly addressed to inhabitants of America, living in a region between North Carolina on the one side and Maine on the other, and bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains. The prin- ciples and general theory of arranging grounds will doubt- less be much the same the world over, but the selection and treatment of plants must vary constantly. The plants that do well in this part of North America will not necessarily succeed in England and on the Continent, while in the same latitude in California the same trees will perhaps fail lamen- tably. Trees and shrubs therefore must be studied carefully with due regard to their environment, and in these chapters I have moreover undertaken to classify them in a somewhat general way in accordance with their suitability to the dif- ferent seasons. I contend that this grouping of trees and shrubs is not sufficiently looked after when lawns are planted. On Morningside Park, New York, for instance, a whole hillside is systematically planted, on account of their rich color in autumn, with white dogwood (Cornus florida), An- dromeda arborea for Oxydendrum arboreumj, liquidambar, xvi INTRODUCTION. scarlet maple, sumach, Rhus Oslecki, etc. At another point many spring-blooming plants are massed, and throughout all the tree and shrub groupings come more or less spring-, summer-, or fall-blooming kinds scattered about at frequent intervals. In regard to the employment of bright-colored trees and shrubs, such as Japanese maples, purple beeches, and golden oaks, it is important to say that self-restraint is advisable. Coloring of the brightest kind is valuable duly and properly related to the general mass of the foliage of trees and shrubs. The color scheme of tree and shrub plantation should be, as a rule, in tones of green. Subsidi- ary masses may, however, have yellowish or reddish tones, and even a main mass might be, in some cases, attractively designed with only purple beech or golden oak. It seems fitting to explain here what I consider the proper way to treat shrubs viewed in mass and viewed individually. I approach this question with some hesi- tation, because it is easy, in talking of such matters, to find one's self landed in a tangle of imprecise phrases, such as mystery, blending, gardenesque, picturesque, etc., etc. There is doubtless a particular composition that should be devised for every landscape-gardening picture, and a broad comprehensive scheme of a high order of art may be thus unquestionably established. Foreground, middle-distance, and background need due consideration, and proper relations of this kind may be unquestionably established. Trees may be massed on the higher levels, and may straggle down hillsides, and may be grouped and em- phasized at certain points in a thoroughly artistic manner. The stretches of lawn and vistas of trees may extend, INTRODUCTION. xvii seemingly, to great distances on comparatively small places, and many charming effects and surprises in variation of sky-line and mystery of far-reaching background may un- doubtedly be contrived with success. Do not let me give the impression that I question the possibility of creating, as it were, all these delightful feat- ures of the lawn. Only, and here I will speak frankly and from considerable experience, do not undertake too much of this kind of thing yourself ; you may fail. Trees will die when they have grown to considerable size at artistically critical points, or they will fail to grow to just the height and diameter required, and a weak realization of the desired effect will be attained. But to return to the question of treating trees and shrubs considered in mass and considered individually. The tendency of those who think of the trees in mass and in their mass relations, is to crowd them too much with their companions, to fail to comprehend their ap- pearance at maturity, and thus develop their proper effect imperfectly. Such a tendency is apt to " crib and confine " the trees, and to undertake to make them do duty after a fashion that is not altogether adapted to their nature; that is, if it is not altogether a case of round pegs for square holes, to force them just a little. On the other hand, the person who dwells specially on the development of the individual character of a plant is liable to err in another way, and to sacrifice the broad effects and harmoniously combined relations of trees to the exhibition of characteris- tic and highly perfected individual excellences. For most lawns a middle way of arrangement may xviii INTRODUCTION. be pursued with reasonable satisfaction which will secure good mass effects and a fair consideration for the character- istics of individual specimens. There will be the open centre of lawn grass and the border plantation of mixed trees and shrubs and herbaceous plants with a moderately diversified sky-line. Outlying specimens of choice trees and shrubs will vary the outline of the masses here and there, and perhaps stand alone at a few points without shrubs. Excessive cribbing and confining will bo prevented by planting the trees forty to fifty feet apart, and the shrubs eight to ten feet apart, with small ones two to four feet apart. A simple negative rule for the arrangement of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants is to never plant them in a continuous straight line, but in groups with curving boundaries and placed on the specially prepared crests of swelling spots or portions of the lawn. Trees and shrubs thus placed are favorably exhibited and enabled to show their peculiar beauties better than on a flat surface. There are a few simple things pertaining to landscape gardening, such as irregular sky-lines and border lines of shrub and tree groups, open lawn centres, and boundary plantations, attention to which will be likely to secure a pleasing effect, even though one foregoes any attempt to realize the higher and more subtle features of the art. An- other way to simplify and, to my mind, greatly improve the arrangement of trees and shrubs is to group a lot of one kind of plants together, a hundred Spircea opulifolia here, fifty Spircea Thunbergii there, and so on. It is a large and specially effective method of treatment, and really easy of accomplishment. INTR OD UCTION. xix Where a junction of two paths or roads is made, this method of arrangement looks well, for a considerable plan- tation should be here so contrived as to cover all points of connection and give the impression of an unseen way through a large grove or group. The question of shade and shade trees is one that must never be ignored. No landscape art can afford to slight the practical necessity for shade. All along, and about twenty feet from the drives and walks, and not less than fifty feet from the house, shade trees, elms, maples, etc., should stand at distances of from fifty to seventy-five feet from each other. But beware of, in this way, encroaching on the open centre lawns. Noth- ing can be a worse practice in landscape gardening. I shall have occasion to speak of pruning hereafter specifically, but I desire to say in a general way here that self-restraint in pruning is a good habit to acquire. To cut and chop trees and shrubs every year may be a more perni- cious practice than to leave them entirely alone. It is safe to say that what we want in a tree or shrub is to see its special and most characteristic beauty. If it naturally weeps or spreads, or is pyramidal, we want to see that special peculiarity naturally developed and not pruned into some monotonous semi-artificial shape. Rather if it be symmetrically inclined, lop off a branch here and there to emphasize its symmetrical habit ; if it be weeping, increase its weeping habit by cutting away shoots that may show an upright tendency. If it be an early-blooming shrub, do not cut off the already formed flower buds in winter simply because that season happens to be the natural season for pruning wood, whether bud-bearing or not. Let the spent XX INTRODUCTION. flowering wood be removed as in the case of Forsyifiic^ as soon as the plant has done blooming, thus relieving the interior of the plant from being clogged, and paving the way for increased abundance and beauty of flowers the following spring. Generally speaking, it might be said that trees and shrubs do not really require pruning at all, except the removal of dead and deformed portions of the growth. As regards the selection of trees and shrubs given in these chapters I have to say that, although it comprises a comparatively small list, it yet includes a number of the best kinds as well as such as in most cases can be readily obtained from leading tree and plant growers. I have endeavored to point out in every case the peculiar attrac- tions that render the plants suited to the lawn, and have avoided as much as practicable all technical botanical terms that might be puzzling to the reader. Every one should know these plants intimately, know them as friends that he ought to see every day on his lawn. And it is in the office of such house friends, as the Germans would say, that I have endeavored to consider them. My statements concerning the hardiness and time of blooming of plants must not be taken as absolutely precise. I can only offer the general conclusions of my individual experience. Nature performs strange freaks. A plant may bloom three weeks later next year than it did this, or two shrubs may have bloomed at the same time last year and this year one may flower a week earlier than the other. The same varying rule applies to the hardiness of plants. For years we will find a certain variety, say of rhododen- drons, hardy, and then will come a peculiar season, when a INTRODUCTION. xxi number of what we have previously considered tender kinds will survive, and the heretofore entirely hardy one will go. In judging and determining the value and pe- culiarities of a variety in any given locality we must be governed by the conclusions of a very considerable experi- ence and then be prepared for occasional and startling surprises. In the discussion of foliage bedding and the use of hardy herbaceous perennials, I have endeavored to give a dis- tinctly formulated system based on the fundamental and general principles of landscape gardening ; and to simplify their treatment and make it as definite and precise as pos- sible. The illustration of the herbaceous bedding treat- ment is to be found in the chapter on " Grandmother's Gar- den." I should like very much to recommend more highly the use of hardy herbaceous plants in rockwork, on edges of lawns, in the long grass, and especially in shady woods. They are veiy charming in such places, but it is not easy to manage them, and they will require much renewing. And that reminds me to say that the reason why many planta- tions of hardy herbaceous perennials grow beautifully less in flower and foliage year by year is that they need renew- ing. Once in three or four years many of the plants of herbaceous borders should be taken up, divided and set out again, and in spots where any of them have died, new ones planted. After discussing trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennial plants, and bedding plants, which constitute the material of landscape gardening, I have undertaken to set forth in a few sketches drawn from the resources of personal experi- XX11 INTRODUCTION. ence, the best way to use this material. There are doubt- less many other landscape-gardening problems to be solved and other kinds of grounds to be laid out than those indi- cated in these chapters, but I think, however, that a num- ber of the most constantly recurring ones have been fairly considered. Before concluding this introduction I desire to express my obligation for assistance in preparing these chapters to Mr. Calvert Vaux, Landscape Architect of the Department of Public Parks, New York, to Mr. George C. Woolson, Superintending Gardener of the Park Department, and to Mr. J. Francois Huss, General Foreman of Construction Work in the Park Department. In the preparation of the illustrations I am greatly in- debted to Mr. Paul Dana, Commissioner of the Department of Public Parks, New York, for the loan and reproduction of seven excellent photographs, taken by himself, from the unsurpassed tree specimens growing on his father's, Mr. Charles A. Dana's, great countiy-place at Dosoris, L. I. An excellent photograph of an island in the lake, Central Park, New York, is also reproduced with the permission of Dr. E. P. Fowler. CHAPTER I. THE LAWN. the minds of most readers the lawn suggests simply grass. We say we will walk on the lawn, and the thought of soft, velvety, newly cut grass immediately arises. In an ordinary sense, the lawn includes trees, shrubs, flowers, rocks, etc., but in actual fact, I believe, the idea of mown grass is first and foremost in the mind when the word lawn is used. I am therefore going to limit my remarks to the more or less level grass spaces that are open and agreeable to those who care to wander over their close- cut surface. Among shrubs, rocks, and flowers, one should not, and would not be likely to care to wander. Here the grass would be naturally allowed to grow longer, and the inter- lacing branches and irregular grass surface would impede progress. The open close-cut grass space is, moreover, the lawn proper for all purposes of occupation. THE LAWN. During hot weather, when it is not actually raining, we confine ourselves to the foot-paths or carriage-roads of the place where gravel, stone, boards, or asphalt afford safe and convenient promenade almost immediately after a down- fall of rain. Later on, however, when the sun comes out and dries up the moisture, we may enjoy perhaps for days, in the American climate, the great open spaces of green- sward, which we propose to call the lawn. Here, in a sense, the family may be said, during certain seasons, to live for a large portion of the time. As soon as the dew is off, should there be any, some elder member of the family will be found wandering about, looking for flowers, or simply breathing the fresh morning air. Soon little children dash out, chasing butterflies or tumbling over each other in simple glee of existence, revelling in the feeling of the rich, soft, thick turf. Later, perhaps, comes a game of ball or tag among the older boys, which can only be played satis- factorily on the lawn. Finally, in the evening, at sunset, and later, the family may again linger on the lawn to enjoy the soft turf and long shadows on the greensward. The pleasures of sight, and varied movement, it is ac- knowledged, are increased a hundred-fold by the studied comfort and adornment of the house itself in the special features of carpets, and walls, and chairs, and tables. Why should we not then seek to extend the sphere of our artistic endeavor to perfecting and ornamenting our lawns ? It should, after all, be considered as much a part of the house domain as the verandah. Feeling the importance, therefore, of making the lawn a place for the family to occupy, as though it were a part of the THE LA WN. actual house, I am going to try to tell the reader just how to go to work to make his lawn so that it can be actually used as well as looked at. In this country especially, we see a great many poor lawns and very few good ones, and a poor lawn should be considered as inexcusable a home-feature as a ragged or soiled carpet. We often fail to make good roads and walks, and tree and shrub plantations, but we more often fail to make good lawns. The reason for this may b'e found in the fact that when we make a road or walk of gravel, or asphalt, or other arti- ficial material, we generally have a clear idea of the result we shall attain ; when we plant trees we can foresee, with some degree of certainty, what their future comparatively unhampered growth will be, but, least of all, does this apply to lawns, as lawns are usually made in this country to-day. I do not propose in my present remarks to allow myself to be drawn, however, into the fascinating discussion, intro- duced by Mr. James B. Olcott, of the Connecticut Agricul- tural Experiment Station, concerning the use of selected pieces of pure grass sod for making lawns. Experiments in this direction may, and doubtless will, finally enable us to make lawns possessing a beauty and durability under the stress of daily occupation, of which we have little concep- tion at present. But I will say now and here, that sad experience has proved long ago that want of pure grass seed, and the right variety of grass seed, is one of the chief causes of the failure and uncertainty of lawns. Seedsmen cannot furnish pure grass seed, because no one grows pure grass seed, and cer- tainly not the best sorts of seed for making good greensward. THE LA WN. But in order to make the best greensward that we can reasonably expect to obtain, in view of the practice of the present day, let us take an ordinary piece of ground in the rough, covered with stones, wild turf, and weeds. It must not be an extreme case of sand or clay. Special ways of treatment would have to be devised for these, and we might imagine fifty cases, each of which would require a different mode of treatment. We had better, therefore, confine our- selves to an average or ordinary example of the way to make a lawn. This supposition would include a moderately heavy loam, some stone, and many weeds. The first thing to be considered in such cases is the drainage ; I mean the drainage of the lawn, and not of the roads. People are apt to stop when they have drained their roads and walks, and forget that the lawn requires such a thing as drainage. I am not, however, going to linger much on this ques- tion, supremely important though it be to many lawns. The fact is, our average lawn does not need any drainage, except where in some limited spot water is apt to lie a part of the year. In such cases, drains of horse-shoe, or four- inch round tile, should be laid to some main drain, or open gutter along a road or street. No doubt there are cases of only moderately heavy loam, where the moisture sticks and lingers, in an undue degree, and here under-drainage is needed. Under-drainage on ordinary lawns will be only re- quired in limited areas, that is in valleys or hollows made by the lay of the land. This question of under-drainage once settled and rele- gated to the realm of scientific treatises, to which this book THE LAWN. does iiot purport to belong, we should also point out that it is necessary to so grade the lawn as to properly distribute the surface water. What, then, is the first thing to be done to our lawn in the rough after the problems of under-drainage and surface distribution of water have been disposed of ? Why, sim- ply to cart off the stones and cut down the weeds with a scythe. The ground thus roughly cleaned, the next thing is to plow it up or spade it at least a foot deep. If the subsoil is not actually sandy, it will be well to go farther down. Deep culture is of great value to a lawn. It en- sures better resistance to droughts and a more even and luxuriant growth of grass. I am coming now to a point that is of the utmost im- portance to the development of a good lawn, and that is the removal of all weeds, stones, and roots from the soil to a foot or more in depth. On the proper removal and burn- ing of these weeds and roots the ultimate success of the lawn largely depends. Once plowing, raking, forking, and burning may not suffice ; twice may not, and even three times may not, but no matter how many may be needed, they must be given. Deep and thorough culture is a neces- sity to a lawn, absolute and fundamental. There is no cause, perhaps, more prolific of bad lawns than poor culture. I care not what tools you use, plow or spade (ordinarily the plow should suffice), tilth and cleanness of soil you must have. By cleanness, of course, I mean, at the best, approxi- mate cleanness, for millions of embryo seeds must lurk in most soils, clean them as often as you will. But if you will clean them again and again, by plowing and raking, THE LA WN. you will find that the young grass will get a better chance to occupy the ground with their root feeders before the roots of the weeds enter in and take possession. Having accomplished the plowing and cleaning, the next thing is to do the grading. Now the grading is a nice operation, which requires not only a good knowledge of landscape gardening but an intuitive, artistic conception of the best effect that can be produced under existing cir- cumstances. It is not easy to convey any broad and gener- ally reliable suggestions on this subject, so much depends on individual surroundings and peculiarities of position. However, I will endeavor to convey some idea of what I mean. In the first place, the reader may, for instance, fancy himself at his front door-step as the most important point from which he should view his lawn. From this point he must look on the view as a picture with an open centre and boundary enclosure, the lawn being, for convenience of illustration, the open centre, and the trees, shrubs, and flowers the boundary enclosure. I insist upon this illustra- tion because I want it understood that the lawn is to be open ; there may be allowed a few outlying trees and shrubs and flowers, but the lawn is to be practically open, closely cut greensward, suitable for people to walk about on and children to play on without obstruction. If this end is not accomplished, I consider the lawn a failure. Looking from the front door-steps, we must first con- sider our lawn as a comparatively flat surface in a word, as level. Of course nature does nothing stiffly or on abrupt or rigid lines. Her work is one of infinite gradations or THE LA WN. shadings. What appears to us as level at a little distance, when we approach it may prove to be a gentle swell. As we walk over a natural vale, or lawn if I may be allowed the term, we find a continual change in the grade of the surface. If we should attempt to make level an artificial lawn we could not do it. We would only succeed in making stiff lines and awkward transitions of grade. At the outset, therefore, long, swelling, easy lines of grade should be sought. For the better effect of the boundary enclosure of trees and shrubs and flowers, the lawn should be made hollowing, and for the better enjoyment of those walking over its surface, this hollowing should be easy and closely approaching the level. It is evident that this theory of grading will apply equally well to ground sloping down or up from the front of the house, only the general slope should be not too steep or the pleasure of walking on it will be diminished. I shall speak of this further when I consider the treatment of sloping grounds that cannot be properly termed lawns. I desire to say that so important do I consider it that all lawns should be in part at least more or less level that I would be willing in grading to remove a large amount of earth entirely, or mound it up at the front along the road or at the sides, in order to secure this level lawn effect. The sense of the repose, comfort, and beauty associated with the idea of a lawn disappears when it grows steep. Let me say, however, that I do not wish to indicate that the lawn should be made only in front of the house. It may be even better arranged at the back of the house. All considerable lawns are improved by isolating from them the THE LA WN. carriage drives and even the foot-paths. The most agreea- ble way of arranging a house and grounds, if convenience will permit it, is to have the drives and walks come in from the highway, merely turning about a small grass plot. With the hall and kitchen and other business parts of the house on this side, it is desirable then to have the library and living rooms open out on the main lawn, and if possible the finest view. You have thus the best part of the home grounds to yourself undisturbed by carriages or undesirable foot passengers. Seclusion and the shutting in of the lawn as part of the actual home has always a peculiar charm of its own. I would not, as a rule, emulate the strict exclusiveness of our English brethren who, in so many cases, shut themselves in with great stone walls, but I would fence myself round about in some way. I would surround the home lawns with masses of trees and shrubs, and so dispose the main lawn in connection with the house as to make it my own special and peculiar domain. Having plowed, cleaned, and roughly graded the lawn into a comparatively level, gently swelling surface, the next thing is to cover it over with a heavy coat of rich manure, twenty-five, thirty, forty, fifty loads to the acre. Spread it on liberally, all you can get under, provided it is well decomposed. Use thoroughly decayed composted stable manure if you can get it ; if not, bone-dust, wood-ashes, superphosphate of lime, nitrate of ammonia, etc. What is required in the manure is plenty of ammonia, then phosphoric acid, lime, soda, potash, and magnesia, etc., but when you use these salts of soda, potash, etc., as con- THE LA WN. 9 centrated fertilizers, you may happen not to apply them in proper quantities. Bone-dust acts slowly on grass lands, though well, and so does wood-ashes with its phosphates and potash salts, but stable manure, with the one drawback of sometimes bringing in foul weeds, seems to act more quickly and at the same time as permanently as any other fertilizer. People try everything else, but come back to the properly composted heap of barnyard manure, with the feel- ing that therein lies their true source of strength for creating permanently rich grass lands. There is doubtless a large percentage of a load of stable manure that is of little use to the land, but the application of fifty loads of manure to an acre seems to present the nutriment in a form and combina- tion that will do the land the most good. There is not much scientific theory in these suggestions about manuring lawns, I know, but you will find it is plain common-sense. Experiment with artificial manures all you can, but let it be at first on a small scale, and it will repay your trouble by the information gained as to what your special soil actually needs. Do the bulk of your fertilizing with barnyard manure and your average results will be satisfactory ; then if your other experiments develop some peculiar need of your soil, you can give up the barnyard manure, and use for a while some concentrated special fertilizer. Now that your land is graded, and the surface covered with fertilizing material, the next thing is to dig or plow lightly the entire surface of the ground and .then harrow and hand-rake it thoroughly, and remove again entirely all stones, roots, and foul weeds that come to the surface. It is wonderful how these stones, roots, and weeds, crop out with 10 THE LA WN. repeated plowing, harrowing, and raking. The supply seems in many soils unlimited. As I have said, however, already, thoroughness in such work is of vital importance to the success of the lawn. The raking is of importance, more- over, to secure fine pulverizing of the top soil intended to receive the grass seed. But the question that now arises is, what kind of grass seed shall be used ? The seedsman will give you a mixture of lawn grass seed, and if the business firm be reputable, it will doubtless produce fair results. Let us, however, look a little closer into the matter. I have said that very little conception generally exists of the actual appearance of any lawn that is in process of construction, that is, that has been recently sown. And in considering this question of the best kind of grass seed, we begin to realize the truth of this assertion. In the first place, grass seed of any kind can be seldom secured reasonably pure. Any seedsman, if he be candid, will tell you that. He will, doubtless, say in addition, what is true, that grass seed is a great deal cleaner now than it was a few years ago. Better methods of cleaning grass seed have been devised, and more pains are taken to secure this desirable result. But the question still remains, what kind of grass seed shall we use ? There are, as all persons at all acquainted with grasses know, hundreds of varieties, many, very many that are not named in the catalogues of seedsmen. Of these, one perhaps is best suited to this particular soil, and on the next field another is required. This one does well here, that kind dies out there. What are we to THE LAWN. 11 do ? It is verily a puzzle. And then after all, we cannot hope to get really pure seed of the kind we select at last. We sow it, and with it will spring up some unknown grass or weed that will destroy entirely the effect we have expected. Grass sods of some pure, rich-looking, and permanent variety might be used with success, but where are they to be obtained in quantities ? To make a lawn with grass sod would be more expensive than with grass seed, but if selected grass sod could be obtained, it would doubtless produce far better, more enduring and attractive results. In view, however, of the entire lack at present of nurseries or plots of the right kind of sod, we are obliged to fall back on the ordinary grass seeds that can be purchased of repu- table seedsmen at the present time. In the first place, when you go to the seedsman do not buy a lawn grass mixture. Do the mixing yourself if there is to be any. It will be cheaper and better. Secondly and lastly, limit yourself to two or three kinds that are likely to grow well in the particular kind of soil you expect to sow. There is a prevailing desire to sow white clover on the lawn. Now I contend that white clover is out of place on the lawn. To me a greensward of red top or Kentucky blue grass is always more attractive than one mottled with white clover. Then as to the mixture of grasses, there is, to my mind, a great deal of current error. Why not select a strong, vig- orous variety that grows tolerably thick-set, and sow that only. If you sow twenty other kinds, they will all proba- bly be run out in a few years by this and some other strong- 12 THE LA WN. growing variety that may come in by accident. The important thing is to secure a variety that will spring up vigorously and take possession of the soil before other less attractive grasses and weeds occupy the ground. In order to accomplish this, we may be even obliged to select a somewhat coarse variety. On the lawns of Central Park, for instance, a great deal of Kentucky blue grass has been used, not because it is, by any means, the most attrac- tive of grasses, but because it is vigorous and holds its own even on sandy ground, and makes a fairly good-looking sod. This kind and herds' grass, or red top, form the staple of most lawn-grass mixtures used in the United States. Rhode Island bent grass is highly valued by many, and makes an excellent sod, particularly in a moist climate. Red top in a sandy soil is apt to die off in droughts occurring just after germination. Its first growth is not, in such cases, quite vigorous enough, although the quality of the sod it produces is much finer than that of Kentucky blue grass. Another objection to red top seed is its general impurity as found in the market. Having secured our seed, such as it is, the next question is, in what quantities and how shall we sow it ? Again comes in the question of the quality of soil, its comparative moist- ure, and its cleanness. Under the most favorable circum- stances a large proportion of the seed sown will fail to germinate. It is therefore wise to sow grass seed liberally. The price of grass seed is comparatively low. I have con- sequently not hesitated to use, in some cases, six bushels of Kentucky blue grass or red top to the acre, although seedsmen only advise two or three. The art of sowing THE LAWN. 13 grass seed properly requires some experience to acquire. The great difficulty is to sow it evenly. Like mowing and other farming operations, it takes trouble to learn how to sow grass seed properly. You must get up early in the morning before the wind has risen. You must consider the direction from which the wind blows and do a good many things that can hardly be set down intelligently on paper. When the seed is sown the next thing is to rake with a fine-toothed iron rake the entire lawn over thoroughly. Some people content themselves with a harrow for such work, but it does imperfect work at best. After the raking a heavy iron roller should be used at once over every part where the seed is sown. This sets the seed in the grouud firmly and helps wonderfully to secure an even mat of grass, especially if a drought sets in soon after the sowing. It is a good plan also to continue this rolling once or twice after the grass has started and before it is fit to mow. The first cutting with the mowing machine should come as soon as the grass is high enough for the knives of the machine to fairly take hold. Frequent mowing during the early development of the lawn tends to thicken and strengthen the growth of lawn grass and thus keep down objectionable wild grasses and weeds. Having reached this point, however, in the construction of a lawn, most people are liable to consider that nothing more than an occasional mowing is needed. And just here a great mistake is made, and the establishment of a reason- ably perfect lawn retarded, or, in most cases, absolutely prevented. Perhaps I may startle some one when I state that to keep up a good lawn, in many places, requires as 14 THE LA WN. much careful and continual culture, with our present quality of seed, as to keep a flower-bed in order ; but it is a fact. And why should we not consider the well-being of each spear of grass as important as that of each coleus or geranium in the flower-bed. The spear of grass is actually the most important factor in the enjoyment of the home grounds. Viewing the matter in this light, we should not hesitate to weed the lawn all summer if necessary, to water it daily in dry weather, and yearly renew bare spots with better soil, to cover it with seed again, and fertilize the entire surface with frequent applications of manure, and in addi- tion to roll it from time to time when the ground is soft. In the course of years, however, the good results of such work must tell, and the necessity for it become much diminished ; but vigilance and intelligent culture will be always and con- tinually required under the most favorable circumstances. CHAPTER II. THE TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. AM convinced that the reader will find this subject a novel one. The principles governing it are not, so far as I am aware, laid down in the books, and yet some of the most charming effects of our best park lawns come from an accidental or intentional arrangement of the kind I am about to describe. There are certain primary conditions or divisions that make up all parks or home-grounds. Walks, drives, green- sward or lawns, plantations, whether trees, shrubs, or flowers, and the intermediate spaces that may be called " sloping grounds," make up characteristic landscape-garden- ing effects. These sloping grounds may come down to the drives or walks or they may slope upward, in steps as it were, to higher lawns or plateaus. They may be made of turf, rocks, vines or trees, shrubs or perennial plants, of each alone, or of all, or of only part mingled together. The lawn itself we have decided to consider for the purpose of 15 16 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. comfortable and pleasant occupation as level or slightly hollowing. The accompanying illustration will convey some idea of what I mean by a slightly hollowing lawn. This surface is to my mind quite as irregular as one would desire for pleasant walking, and anything more irregular I should call sloping grounds, and not properly a lawn. We may find attractive sloping grounds all ready-made for us by nature or we may be obliged to humbly follow her lead and treat more or less artificially our sloping grounds after the fashion practised by the natural forces about us. The hardest part of such work is to keep from exag- gerating nature or repeating over and over again some one of her ways of doing things. It should be always remem- bered, in landscape gardening, that nature never repeits herself. A torrent of rain rushes down a hillside and ploughs furrows or heaps piles of stones in its path and partially covers them with earth from above, but it never ploughs the same kind of furrow twice or heaps up the earth and stones again in the same way. There will be, indeed a cer- tain similarity in the trend of the furrows and the course of the rolling stones. This may be largely established by the character and pitch of the slope, or it may come from the general direction of the storms. Keeping this in mind, we will proceed to consider the best way to treat sloping grounds of obvious steepness. There are two kinds of steep sloping ground in connection with lawns which require special modes of handling. One we may describe as artificially irregular, and the other as only in part artificially irregular. A portion of it may be 18 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. already found in place, and to attain the desired effect it may be simply necessary to supplement it with work of a similar character. The wholly artificial sloping ground will be required where it is necessary to support a steep bank connected with a terrace or upper lawn plateau. It may be also required in the immediate vicinity of a house, or, as in the illustration, along a skirting boundary wall. The second kind consists in great part of a mass of natural rock, which, cropping out of a hillside, separates a lower from a higher lawn, or borders a path or roadway, or body of water, or a plantation and lawn. In order to explain more satisfactorily the proper method of treating sloping grounds, I have employed three illustrations of the work of actually constructing such feat- ures. In the first illustration, a rough ungraded bank in Central Park is shown ; then another, where the workmen ROUGH UNGRADED BANK. have finished grading a piece of ground and a steep bank at one end. It will be noticed that the bank is very steep and needs to be kept up to its abrupt angle. If such a place were TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. ID subjected to the action of the elements for years, with the soil as full of boulders as it is in the immediate neighbor- hood, you would find that, in time, a state of things would be established like the one seen in the illustration below. CLOSELY-MASSED ROCKS ON FINISHED STEEP BANK. Gullies of different depths and like general direction would course down between half-uncovered rocks that may have been long embedded there or may have rolled down to this point. Above, just over the rocks, will appear mounded up earth as though soil had washed down and collected above the stone obstruction. Sometimes there will be several of these rocks clustered together and holding up a steep portion of the banks, and again, considerable spaces will occur without rocks, but they may still be slightly gullied or lightly scooped out, as it were, by the elements over a considerable area. The entire bank, finished on these natural lines, is sodded, as it is too steep to retain and properly germinate grass seed. Rains would be sure to wash the seed away. 20 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. It will be seen by this brief explanation that rockwork must be constructed on nature's lines after a careful study and analysis of nature's methods of doing such work. The illustration of the next bank shows the way to treat sloping grounds where the steepness is not so great. Here larger areas are open and longer gullies appear where the sweep of the water has apparently had more opportunity to leave broad marks. The placing of these rocks requires much art. It will be seen that they are not set parallel with each other, but that they have a likeness of setting, as if a gully had been opened behind them, and that its course had determined the dip and set of the rocks. The gullies naturally have also the same general similarity, although throughout the whole arrangement extends the greatest diversity of for- mation. Thus far I have spoken of and illustrated entirely arti- ficial rockwork, and of course artificial rockwork may take special forms. It may be a bank to be treated with rocks, as we have seen, or it may be a group of stones to protect a tree, around which earth is to be filled. The curves of drives may need rocks to fend off carriage-wheels, or there may be an extended terrace, in front or on the side of the house, that must be held in with rocks. In each and every case the simple object to be sought is to make the effect look entirely natural, as if it had been brought about in long course of time under the stress of wind and rain. There is also the second or semi-artificial rockwork to be considered, the kind that is a supplementary rockwork to that already standing naturally in place. Instances of 22 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. thi.s kind are to be found everywhere in countries where stone abounds, along paths and roads, between upper and lower lawns, near the house, and along boundary lines. In fact, they may be found everywhere as problems dis- tinctly in sight and requiring treatment. I except of course rocks that stand up in the middle of roads or paths. From such places the rock must be simply removed at least two feet below the surface of the ground. Many lawns turn brown in summer on account of the proximity of rock to the surface. If you will note the illustration of a charming lawn of Central Park near the Webster Statue and the head of the Mall, you will see how the rocks crop out of the outskirts of the territory. It is in the neighborhood of these rocks, where they have not been blasted away sufficiently, that the first effects of drought are felt. The lawn of the illustra- tion is like a shallow bowl, beautifully modelled, and, as already noted, it represents the extreme of irregularity that should be given a lawn. Many of the rocks around it are natural, but in order to supplement and complete their attractions others have been set contiguous to them in such a manner as to make the whole seem to be an entirely natural effect. Let us now turn to the illustration of the Cave in the Ramble, Central Park. It is an excellent example of this semi-artificial rockwork. In the first place, it should be explained that the entire Cave and the hollow space around it were found originally to be filled up to a high level with rich mould. For the sake of the mould, all the soil was carted out, leaving a great excavation not very unlike 24 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. what we see in the picture. Just here, however, came in the art. In carrying out the work of park construction, all the desirable effects were simply emphasized and completed. On top of the solid wall of rock adjoining, more rocks were set, while on the other side where little but earth probably appeared in the original excavation, many large rocks were set on edge as if they had accidentally slid down to their present position. The planting of trees and vines and the laying of a convenient walk to the Cave complete the entirely natural effect presented by the picture. The illustration of the steps to the Cave is introduced principally to show the proper method of treating such places. The most perfect rustic steps are of course rough- hewn slabs of stone, but as these are often hardly agreeable to the feet, good practice has accepted the cut granite step, roughly edged. This somewhat artificial-looking stone does not look well directly alongside the greensward, and the turf at that point is liable to be kicked to pieces by the feet of those passing up and down the steps. It will be seen in the picture how this difficulty is overcome by bordering all the steps with large stones set so as to look as natural as possible. No rustic steps should indeed be set without this border or natural coping of rockwork. In another illustration taken from Central Park will be seen the way in which a shore should be treated where a great mass of rock extends sheer down into the depths of the pool. By looking closely you will see two large rocks lying in the water. Although they seem to have only hap- pened there, it should be understood that they were care- 26 TREA TMENT OF SL OPING GRO UNDS. fully placed at the very point they occupy to increase the desired natural effect. Where the shore is less occupied by a huge mass of rock, and yet is steep, a good-sized stone, set here and there in the water, is very effective. The shore line should be diversified by pushing out a cluster of stones at one point, and at another flanking a bay with a broad long rock with its base in the water. At the lowest part of the bank there may be arranged with good effect a sandy beach. The rocks, I should explain, must not be clustered too thickly on a bank. There should be plenty of plant space between the rocks, otherwise they will appear to be simply an artificial heap of stones. Some rocks will of course be contiguous, but many of the others should in that case be kept farther apart. I doubt if, in most cases, such a bank should have more than half its surface covered with rocks. The rest should be turf, vines, or trees and shrubs, and the manner of using grass and plants in rockwork is a distin- guishing mark of the best landscape-gardening art. This reference to trees and shrubs leads me to the con- sideration of the remaining and specially important part of the treatment of sloping grounds, namely, the use of turf and plants of all kinds in connection with rockwork. The illustrations show many large trees and shrubs mingled with the rocks, and numerous Virginia creepers and other vines trailing over their surface in such a manner and thickness as to relieve the solid character of the stony masses. It is important to observe the practice of so pruning and training vines in such places as to always leave exposed something of the general effect and contour of the rock. 28 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. As a rule, the vines should be planted in the deepest soil near the top of the rock, and not at the base. The excep- tion to this rule is the Ampelopsis tricuspidata or Japan ivy. Wherever this excellent vine is planted in rockwork, it should stand at the base of a rock, and thus climb up by means of its rootlets, rather than fall over and lose its most characteristic effect. It is a thick-growing vine, and com- pletely covers any moderate-sized space it seizes on. Thin- ning out this vine is not easy. It does not look natural for some time after being thinned out, no matter how much care is taken. For this reason, the Japan ivy is not to be generally commended for covering rocks. Such vines as Virginia creeper, honeysuckles, Virginia silk, Akebia qui- nata, trumpet creeper (Tecoma radicans}, clematis, Dutch- man's pipe, bitter-sweet (Celastrus scandens), and above all Wistaria, are always found picturesque-looking on rocks. Trees and shrubs should be planted on the higher por- tions of the banks or sloping grounds, and not usually in the valleys or hollows. This arrangement tends to increase the effect of the irregularity of the grounds and emphasizes the higher points that manifestly require emphasis. Some of the best trees and shrubs for planting among rocks are those that weep or droop, or are irregular and pic- turesque-looking. Among trees I may name as specially suitable for this purpose, the varieties of Japanese maple (Acer potymorphum), the alders, Andromeda arborea, Aralia spinosa (Hercules' club), Aralia Japonica, white birch, European and American hornbeam, white-flowering dogwood, Crcdasgus Crus-galli (the cock-spur thorn), C. coccinea, weeping beech, honey-locust, Kentucky coffee TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. 29 tree, weeping larch, pyramidal oak, Lombardy poplar, RJius aromatica and Rhus glabra laciniata or cut-leaved sumach, the ginkgo tree ( 'Salisburia adiantifolia), Salix rosmarinifolia (rosemary-leaved willow), and tlie Japan weeping ( Sophora) . Some of the shrubs suitable for rocky regions are the Ghent or hardy azalea, Cletlira alnifolia, Cornus sanguined alba (the red-twigged dogwood), Daphne Genkiva, Deutzia gracilis, Elceagnus hortensis, Elceagnus longipes, Euonymus alatus, Forsyihia suspensa, Fothergilla al- nifolia, Genista scoparia (Scotch broom), Genista tinctoria, Itea Virginica, Kerria Japonica, Jiasminum nudiflorum, Lonicera fragrantissima, Lycium barbarum, Myrica cerifera, Prinos verticillata, Prunus mari- tima, Rhodotypus kerrioi- des, Rubus odoratus, Sam- bucus nigra aurea, Spiraea Reevesiana, 8. callosa, S. callosa alba, S. opulifolia, Symphoricarpus vulgaris, S. racemosa, Tamarix Afri- cana, T. Indica, Viburnum opulus, Yucca filarnentosa, and I 7 ] recurva. The best evergreens for rockwork are the weeping hemlock, the weeping Norway spruce or Picea excelsa inverta, Picea excelsa elata, Cedrus Atlantica, Juniperus Virginiana (the red cedar), J. prostrata, J. squamata, J. YUCCA RECURVA. 30 TREATMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. tamariscifolia (all three known as the creeping juniper), J. Sabina or savin juniper, Abies pectinata pendula, (weeping silver fir), Pinus Cembra, Pinus Mugho, Met- inospom obtusa, R. fllifem pendula, Sciadopitys verticillata, the Japan parasol pine, rhododendrons, Azalea amcena, Cotoneaster bnxifolia, Cratcegus or Cotoneaster pyracantha, Kalmia latifolia (broad-leaved laurel), Berberis or Ma- Itoiiia Aquifolium, and M. Japonicum. There are also a large number of hardy herbaceous perennials that are peculiarly well suited to rockwork. A word, before closing this chapter, on the kind of rock- treatment that generally passes for good work among garden- ers. It generally consists of an irregular pile of stones, with a little soil tucked in pockets here and there for the reception of vines and flowers. The stones chosen are frequently brought from a considerable distance in order to secure the very quality they should not have, viz., that of strangeness and unlikeness to the common rock seen at home. Flowers and vines may, of course, be attractive in themselves, grow- ing out of a pile of stones, but unrelated stones heaped up in a mass, that is in no sense in key or harmony with the rest of the landscape, have no excuse for their special arrange- ment in a landscape-gardener's picture. It is to be regretted that landscape gardeners so often fail to grasp the combined possibilities and proper relations of the different features of the places they undertake to treat. If they could only look upon their work in a large and artistic manner, they would see that rocks planted in the ground at the points where they would appear most natural and most needed contribute to secure some of the TREA TMENT OF SLOPING GROUNDS. 31 best effects of the entire lawn. Heaps of stones, on the other hand, set on end with their points sticking up, even with the nested vines and flowers, always serve to mar the repose of the place. CHAPTER III. SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. IPRINGTIME is the season of buds. Now everything is swelling with revived life and ecstasy. The new year is growing, and nature is burst- ing with all possible haste Into the full perfection of June. Some spe- cially endowed plants actually reach their goal of bloom before summer sets her seal-warrant on their perfection, but they do it in many cases only by pre- senting their flowers on twigs and branches, which scarcely as yet show their leaves. So many plants have this habit of flowering before their leaves appear that I propose to dwell chiefly on their intrinsic peculiarities as dominating the most charac- teristic portions of spring effects on the lawn. I always fancy April and early May as the true springtide of the year. Late May is generally June in appearance as far as the effects of grass, foliage, and flowers go. The hurry and activity of the bright early spring days have passed by the 32 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 33 middle of May, and we find ourselves fast settling down into the slumberous rich fulness of content inspired by the gracious conditions of early summer. The activities of spring have culminated into the restfulness of summer. It is the activities of spring, however, that I wish to consider at present, fully believing that no more charming subject can enchain our attention than the simultaneous unfolding, as it were, of the leaf and flower bud of all nature. It is a new birth, and inspires all the glad feelings associated with an actual resurrection. The very sight of nature at this season is a positive delight, and the lawn, so planted as to exhibit properly the glories of this season, will surely gain a charm unspeakable. Nor is the charm less for people generally, but rather more, because in a full com- munity of interest in this particular season every one feels, recognizes, and takes possession of the evident charm ^s common property. There is none of the elusiveness of some of the shy beauties of other parts of the year. As we walk upon the tender, emerald greensward we luxuriate and glory in the very bounteousness with which nature is renewing her mysterious powers about us. We are insatiable ; we demand the evident presence of spring everywhere on the lawn. The object is not yet the rich composition of color in fall effects, not yet the quiet subdued masses of late summer foliage, nor even the broad glow and gleam of June. In contemplating once more the wonderful mystery of renewed creation, exemplified by freshly budding leaf and flower, we simply seek with avidity something of special spring foliage and bloom eveiywhere. It is not enough to 34 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. see this foliage and bloom freshly put forth at our doorstep, but their beauty must appear on all sides, under the trees, down by the stream, in a part of every shrub group, on the vines of the porch or boundary wall in short, on every spot where their presence will not unduly usurp the province of the flowers and foliage of other seasons of the year. Unlike the fall effects, moreover, which are specially effective on a large lawn, the beauties of spring ornamental plants may be restricted to very small dimensions, and actually in such cases furnish lovely lawn-planting effecta from the very charm alone of their detail. You will perceive, therefore, that my endeavor in treating of spring on the lawn resolves itself into com- paratively simple descriptions of lovely bits of color and form in actual process of being wrought into the most charming lawn-planting combinations. I would not imply that these processes are not going on during the entire summer, only that now we feel them to be a dominant feature of the time. They are in full action all around us, and we are in sympathy with them more than at any other time of the year. There are several plants that sometimes bloom even in winter, if the season is mild. These plants must of course be considered the earliest of flowering shrubs, and bearing, as they must at this early season, their flowers before their leaves, our attention is naturally given chiefly to their flowers. The first I call to mind is an old shrub common in many unpretending gardens, Jasminum nudiflorum, the yellow SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. 35 jasmine which a mild February has often seen in bloom. The flowers are yellow, small, and bright, and studded on smooth, slender, green stems. It is vigorous and easily transplanted, and should have a place on every lawn, old- fashioned though it be. The yellow jasmine may occupy very suitably a position in a group, but it also makes a lovely sweet- scented plant for early spring bloom, or may be even trained on a trellis as a climber. At some point near a path or near the honse, or, best of all, on the outskirts of Rhododendron Catawbiense groups, may be used an allied and equally aristocratic plant, Rhododendron dauricum. Why aristocratic it may not be easy to explain in set terms, for the application of such an adjec- tive is doubtless fanciful ; yet YELLOW JASMINE. I always feel a certain respect OASM.NUM NUD^LORUM.) that is more than mere admiration for the dignified beauty of the rhododendron family. Its members are so excel- lent for their grand forms and exquisite color that they quite cast into the shade the homely though undoubted charms of the yellow jasmine. In this case I wish to pay my respects to the Rlwdodendron Dauricum, a species that in England often blooms in midwinter. Even in New England a few mild February days may coax and surprise 3ti SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. the dark glowing red of its flower into sudden full-blown beauty. This rhododendron is quite dwarf in its nature and not at all spreading. It is riot indeed specially conspicuous among its relatives, except for the extreme earliness of its flowers. The leaves are small, and not always as lustrous as the broad foliage of Rhododendron Catawhiense and R. maximum. But there are other trees and shrubs not far behind this Rhododendron Dauricmn and yellow jasmine. The scarlet maple, which we saw a few months since dyed during the yearly process of decay with lovely crimson, 'is now scarcely less attractive. Almost before we fairly begin to feel that spring is upon us we note with sudden pleasure the bare branches of the scarlet maple studded with minute red buds over the entire tree, literally je welled with the first bursting luxuriance of spring. These leaf-buds are accompanied, if not entirely outstripped, by the flowers, a common peculiarity of the inflorescence of all early spring- blooming plants. The flowers of the scarlet maple are of course most noteworthy, and are the special cause of the bejewelled appearance of the branches. Thus far we have dwelt particularly on the flowers of spring, but we must be careful not to forget the equally attractive charms of the unfolding leaf. The mysterious processes of the early development of the leaf reveal exquisite shadings and tints and a marvellous delicacy of form seldom to be found in such bright, rich beauty as in the budding of this maple. Who has not likewise enjoyed the pushing forth of the pussies or catkins of willow and alder ? Delightful in their SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 37 rich, cool green last fall, we find ourselves again in early spring dwelling on the same pleasant leaf colors gradually developed, but preceded by the lovely silvery flower-buds known as pussies or catkins. There are European alders and several well-known American alders that it would be well to employ for their charming appearance at this season. Alnw imperialis laainiata, the cut-leaved alder, and Alnus firma, the Japan alder, are also fine in early spring. All willows are effective in early spring, but the goat willow, Salix caprea, parent of the weeping Kilrnarnock willow, is particularly noteworthy for attractive early spring development. In similar fashion the royal willow (Salix regalis), the common weeping willow, and the rosemary willow distinguish themselves, furnishing us the delightful bits of cool silvery-gray or olive-green color so characteristic of much of the foliage of the early days of spring. It would seem as if the birch was lovely during eveiy hour of the year, for even winter landscapes are greatly beautified by the birch's picturesque white stems and delicate branching. In spring, however, the soft delicate satin sheen of its unfolding leaf-buds are dainty and surpassingly beautiful to those who will take the trouble to examine their refined charms. For early spring purposes the ordinary American birches, the canoe birch, and black and yellow birches and the common European birch are sufficient. The cut-leaved and purple-leaved birches of course stand eminent among rare trees for their distinctive beauty. While on the subject of attractive early spring foliage, we should dwell especially on the larches. The tender soft 38 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. shining green of their young foliage is not surpassed in color by their leaf clothing of any other season of the year. It matters little which larch we take the vigorous Japan lep- tolepsis,'or glauca, or the grotesque weeping form, or Da- hurica, or even the common European and American species or type their charming spring tints are alike lovely. Larches look well and do well in outlying low portions of the lawn, and are especially valuable for this soft and tender spring- time beauty. If planted too near the house, the rusty hue of midsummer they present, obtrudes itself unpleasantly on the eye. The aspen poplar (Populus tremuloides ) also develops beautiful early unf oldings of the leaf. It is, moreover, almost as attractive in form and tint as the alders and birches. All this we must remember is embryonic foliage, for early spring is properly the season of leaf, buds, and early flowers. Indeed, flowers are the crown and charm of spring, just as leaves almost exclusively adorn the noteworthy plants of midsummer and fall. As a rule, we have properly no de- veloped foliage with early spring effects ; so although during our discussion we have been led, almost unconsciously, into dwelling on certain lovely leaf-buds of spring, we will hence- forth devote ourselves conscientiously and exclusively to the flowers that constitute spring's special wreath of glory. We have considered one charming yellow flower, Jos- minum muliflorum, but a better and more effective bloom appears almost as early on the long sweeping branches of the well-known Forsythia viridissima or golden bell. This shrub graces the dooryard of nearly every home that attempts to grow any ornamental plants whatever. Yet its SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 39 fresh bright charms never weary the eye, especially when we come to realize its hardy vigor and fitness for ready transplanting and its abundant display of flowers. There are two or three kinds, but viridissima is the favorite, with little show of justice, for suspensa presents more regular and attractive curves, and is particularly effective on rock- work, and Fwtunii, an erect form, is fine in every way. One of the commonest and best shrubs that bloom in these early spring days is the Cydonia Ja- ponica, the Japan quince. It has grown to be a favorite deciduous shrub, alike in the office of hed<2:e, O * group, or single specimen, and proves itself worthy of all its popu- larity by its rich bloom, great har- diness, and bright green foliage. Pyrua Japonica we used to call it, before botanists taught us better, and few who enjoy hardy trees and shrubs at all have failed to note time and again its many excellent and lovely qualities. But the blossom, its chief and peculiar spring attraction, is not always of the glowing brilliant red so familiar to all who have known the Pyrus Japonica at all. Red is indeed the color of the best-known kinds ; but there are varieties bear- ing pinkish-white flowers, and others, like alia simplex, pure white in their loveliness. Others are distinctly striped WEEPING QOLDEN BELL. (FORSYTHIA SUSPENSA.) 40 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA IVN. red and white, and still others glow with rich salmon color. There is a large-flowered kind recently introduced from Japan called Cydonia Japonica grandiflora, hearing flowers nearly double the size of our common form, with richly blended colors of salmon red and white. Do not forget, there- fore, to use the different varieties of these Japan quinces. The white flowering dogwood ( Cornu8 florida) should stand on every lawn. It is hardy, picturesque in growth,. and charming in spiing with its masses of pure white flow- ers, and is, moreover, an American shrub or tree, and there- fore deserves employment for American planting. There are two or three dainty little flowers that come very- early in spring, before the leaves appear. I dwell on them with special pleasure because their beauty is shy and mod- est, more like that of the violet, and because they af- ford a strong contrast to the glowing brilliance of the Ja- pan quince. Ehodora Cana- densis, the choicest of these, is little known except to botanists and true plant lov- ers, not certainly because FLOWERING DOGWOOD. (CORNU8 FLORIDA.) it is rare, for ill tllC it of England in considerable quantities, and could be trans- planted while young with little difficulty. Indeed, I cannot account satisfactorily for the neglect of such a beautiful and abundant native flower. Perhaps like a good many other SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA IVN. 41 beautiful things that do not flaunt their charms before the eye of the passer-by, it has been simply overlooked. Ex- quisite as all its tints are, they are yet quiet, Quaker-like, and almost neutral in effect. The slender stems or branches are a delicate drab, and the flowers have that tender violet or mauve tint so difficult to describe and yet so charming to dwell on minutely. These flowers are numerous and appear early. When we light, therefore, unex- pectedly on a cluster of rhodoras in some retired nook, they impress us as one of the most exquisite indica- tions of settled spring. Only less dainty than the rhodora is the Daphne Mezereum, bearing many early small flowers on brown erect stems. The color of these flowers is also neutral, a violet purple, very different and less ex- quisite than the rhodora. Very different, too, are the leaves. In- DOUBLE-FLOWERING APPLE. (PYRU8 SPECTABILIS.) deed, the entire plant is less choice in every way, but, bearing flowers very early, before the leaves appear, it forms on the outskirts of deciduous groups, or better still, standing alone, a noteworthy feature on the lawn. Smaller and more exquisite is the Japan Daphne Genkwa, another, but more dwarf, slender-growing shrub, with nu- merous long downy twigs, which in early spring, before the leaves appear, are thickly garnished with violet-colored 42 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. tubular flowers rather less than an inch long. This daphne seldom attains a height of more than three feet, and has fine delicate foliage. It is one of the more recent valuable in- troductions from Japan, and should be planted in angles of the house or in similar retired spots where numbers of it can be set out together without being overwhelmed by the more striking effect of other plants. Almost as early as the plants already mentioned are the blossoms of the various fruits, apples, cherries, plums, and peaches. In this case, however, I do not refer to the simple blossoms familiar to all in dooryard or orchard, but to special varieties that have changed developed their fruit-producing blossoms into larger and more beautiful, though sterile flowers. These flowers are variously colored, and double the size of the ordinary forms. THE DOUBLE-FLOWERING CHERRY. (PRUNUS CERASUS, FL. PL.) SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 43 There are several vaiieties of double-flowering apples, some with blooms more or less shaded with pink, some red, and others with leaves variegated. Aucubcefolia is an instance of the last form, and among the others are SOULANGE'S MAGNOLIA. (MAGNOLIA SOULANGEANA.) coronaria odorata, double pink, double crimson, and, above all, Malus HctUeana and Sfpectabilix from Japan, with flowers of a deep lively rose at the base, and a lighter shade at the edges. This last is unquestionably the most ornamental of the double-flowering apples. The old white double-flowering cherry is another early and most charming tree, only surpassed in form by the highly-prized weeping cherry of Japan, the flowers of which, however, are smaller and more pink than those of our flowering cherry. Double- flowering cherries, peaches, and plums are all attractive at this season. The Japan Judas tree must receive a distinguished position among the early spring flowers of any lawn, for 44 SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. its long shrubby stems look rich and peculiar at that season, wreathed and studded with reddish-purple clinging flowers. Of like peculiar habit are the Asiatic magnolias, chief among which for early blooming is the Japanese Magnolia stellata, with its delicate white star-like blossoms resting on firm compact stems. The better-known Chinese mag- nolias, conspicua, Soulangeana, Norletiana, and Lennei, are each grand in their way, but come later than steUata y al- though still before the leaves appeal 1 . Soulangeana is the most vigorous and hardy, and best fitted for general popu- larity, but conspicua is, after all, the magnolia chief and peculiar among its race for choice beauty. It has not as sweet an odor or so dainty a development as M. stellata, but it is grander and more generally effective in appearance. A large tree of M. conspicua is a beautiful sight when arrayed in full bloom, especially if there has been, as often occurs in April, a light fall of snow. The great white regular cups of the flowers cover the entire contour of the tree, until as we gaze on it we could fancy, in the absence of foliage, we were looking on a white cloud. Snow adds greatly to the effect by harmoniously blending with the mass of these myriads of flowers. Like many plants, however, it is in this peculiar attractiveness of the early flower that we find its weakness. Late frosts sometimes catch and destroy the blooms of conspicua, which fact, notwithstanding the superior excellence of conspicua above Soulangeana, gives a decided advantage to the latter on account of its somewhat late^Moom. Norbetiana is but a slenderer, smaller form of Soulan- , with flowers of similar tint and time of blooming. JAPAN .WEEPING CHERRY. SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. M. Lennei, however, is later in flowering, the latest of the Chinese magnolias, if we except perhaps the bloom of M. purpurea and its variety gracilis, which come about the same time. Lennei has the inner surface of its petal slightly tinted with red, but the outer side is solid, rich, royal purple. The flower itself is large, larger than those of any of the hardy magnolias, if we except possibly tripetala, and, of course, the enormous petals of M. macrophylla. The lawn planter must not neglect the attractions of M. grcieilis. It is, indeed, a variety of M. purpiirea, an Asiatic magnolia, by no means hardy in America, but its seedling, gracilis, is hardier. M. gra- ailis displays on its petals the deepest purple of the family. It is, moreover, a low shrub like M. Halleana ( stellata ) with a comparatively slender and more elegant growth. Few hardy plants possess more noble ornamental quali- ties than Asiatic magnolias, but it must be conceded that while young they are some- what more liable to injury from sudden changes in winter and early spring than some other plants. This is a weakness truly, but such excellence is surely worthy of a little protection for a few years and frequent transplanting in the nursery before permanent setting out, in order to secure the fibrous roots necessary to successful removal. JAPANESE MAGNOLIA. (MAGNOLIA STELLATA.) SPRING EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 47 The consideration of the weakness of magnolias reminds us of the difficulties in growing the early flowering Euro- pean thorns in many sections of this country. Notwith- standing the blight that attacks the thorn, it is easy to find ENGLISH HAWTHORN. (CRATAGUS OXYACANTHA.) enough healthy specimens here and there to warrant our employing it in well drained, rich, loamy soil. The early and rich-hued blossoms of the thorn give it a charm that must always make it welcome as one of our choicest spring 48 SPRfNG EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. flowers. Bright bark and fresh young budding foliage add to the beauty of the flowers, but the flowers are quite suffi- cient of themselves to justify the renown for beauty belong- ing of old to the hawthorn of England. This hawthorn has been improved and improved until there are double white varieties, double pink, double scarlet, double crimson, or single flowering scar- let, pink, etc., of less striking color and form. Paul's double red stands very high among red haw- thorns, and some of the white flower- ing varieties are equally excellent. Hawthorns should be planted either singly or in groups by themselves. Their peculiar habit does not allow them to form entirely harmonious re- lations with other shrubs in the same group. I must not forget to mention among eai-lv-bloouiino- plants the low-ffrowine: ENGLISH HAWTHORN. (CRATES OXYACANTHA.) f orm o f J) eu tzia eculiar because the strong purple tinge is con- fined to the under side of the leaf, so that in order to do it justice it should be seen more or less ruffled by the wind. Then there is the silver variegated and golden-tinged varie- ties, and a fine distinct kind striped and barred with white and red and green. There are other golden varieties vari- ously blotched and suffused with yellow, such as Leopoldii or Intescens, and n purple-leaved kind more variegated in tint than the one generally termed purple-leaved, and which doubtless is the best variety noteworthy for that color. All these curiously and richly tinted maples are, however, peculiar only for the short time their rich colors continue to be striking. They come almost with June, and generally go with June, for the heat of midsummer dulls them sooner than those of most other trees, although the same heat affects unfavorably the abnormal purple and gold color of nearly all deciduous leaves. But to realize the effect of rich color in June we must turn to the varieties of Norway maple, Acer platanoides, and to platauoides Schwerdlerii especially, with its broad red purple leaves. The leaves of the Norway maple, in any case, are massive and noble. They are not, perhaps, larger than those of the sycamore, but they are more nume- rous, have shorter stems, and are piled together in a more effective manner. The purple Acer platanoides Schwerdlerii glows espe- cially when viewed against strong evening or morning sun- light. At such times, its colors literally flash and sparkle. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 57 June, or late May, again is the season to which this maple confines the display of its charms. Its size resembles that of its parent, the common Norway maple. Usually, how- ever, variegated trees and shrubs are apt to be more dwarf than the parent form. Acer Lorbergii is another red-leaved Norway maple of considerable value, but less attractive than A. Schwerdlerii. I must also mention here one of the most interesting of maples, Acer Colck'icum rubrum, or more properly Acer Icetum, a true Japanese maple, although sometimes supposed to come from the region of the Caucasus. The great charm of this maple lies in the lovely tints of its young growth in June. Young red leaves and leaf-stalks at this season com- pletely variegate the tree, while at the same time we behold elegant contours and refreshing green tints. Otherwise the tree is of medium size, and, unfortunately, defective in hardness while young in many parts of the United States. Acer Colchicum rubrum (Icetum) is rare and somewhat difficult to propagate, as well as slightly tender, and there- fore deserves a position both prominent and protected. Maples generally make a most interesting feature in June, whether for their young growths of glowing red or for their refreshing green. I question, indeed, whether the lovely colors of June foliage are not more rich and varied among maples than in any other genus of hardy trees. But of all maples, the most remarkable, the most gifted in color, are the Japanese maples. Every tint of green, gold, sil- ver, red, and purple meet and commingle on their elegantly and most strangely formed leaves. The many-formed Japan- ese maple, Acer polymorphum, is positively rainbow-dyed JUNE EFFECTS ON THE 'LA WN. \ with color, but other kinds, like Acer Japonicum, with its fine red flowers, and A. Japonicum aureum are perhaps more noble with the greater mass and richness of color of their leaves. The subtle beauty of tint and form among these maples all combine to render them (I am tempted to say) the very highest de- velopment of complex, delicate beauty among hardy trees and shrubs. And June also is the month wherein we may see the most perfect development of Japan- ese maples. Later in the season their tints are liable, like those of all variegated-leaved plants, to become dulled by intense heat. Hot summers and cold winters are indeed liable to damage them at times. We regret to acknowledge it, but nevertheless it is an undeniable fact. Then there are the leaves of the purple birch, not only noteworthy for their deep purple tints, but also especially effective in combination with the characteristic white bark of the European birch, of which it is a variety. As a single tree this birch is very striking, more so indeed than any other purple-leaved tree, except the purple beech, which in its way stands supreme. JAPANESE MAPLE. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 59 The beeches, indeed, are all facile princeps among trees, both for beauty of color and nobility of form. No trees have cleaner-cut and more elegant contours of trunk and adjacent branching, and few more symmetry combined with picturesqueness. As we look at them, the thought at once arises how complete and enduring they look, what a sense of reserve power and noble perfection they convey. And among them, perhaps among all trees, the purple beech stands pre-eminent for broad masses of rich glowing leaves in June. If we look at the young growth of the purple beech against the evening or morning sun we shall find displayed a peculiarly rich sparkling red, quite inde- scribable. The finest tints appear on the outer portions of the foliage, where the sun's magical influence can work most effectually. August finds broad, shining masses of more or less purple leaves on this beech when viewed from certain directions, but its prime is past for color, although it still holds high rank for its other excellent qualities. Another interesting tree for color of foliage is the Keel- reuteria. Its ornamental value, though much inferior to that of the purple beech, is considerable on account of the warm, sunny tone and peculiar feathery conformation of the foliage on the outer ends of the branches. Among shrubs, a fine dark purple- or red-leaved shrub during June is the purple berberry. It is generally richer- colored than most purple-leaved trees and shrubs, but in June the color is particularly fine on the new growth. Another shrub of as rich color in its way is the dwarf variegated-leaved Weigelia. Both have rich, pure golden tints, but the dwarf variegated Weiyelia is the most useful 60 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. for lawn-planting, because it forms one of the limited class of shrubs suited for occupying the outskirts of shrub- gi-oups, or some limited space where low, compact-growing plants are specially valuable. It is a thrifty, vigorous shrub, well known, and deservedly popular. The purple hazel shows very rich colors in June. Its leaves are deep purple, us deep as those of the purple beech, but it is more straggling in habit than the purple beech and otherwise less attractive, although a valuable ornamental shrub. Its main fault is a tendency to winter-kill at the tips, but the effect of this is to dwarf the plant rather than to do it any other harm. And thus you have briefly, and with scant justice I con- fess, a rapid survey of the best purple- and variegated- leaved trees and shrubs specially effective in June. It is my desire to gain by means of this consideration a greater and more enthusiastic regard for the lich, subtle tints of the leaves of trees and shrubs, whether used singly or in groups, and certainly nothing can illustrate better these wonderful colors of hardy plants than the phases presented in June by the trees and shrubs just mentioned. Let us turn now to the flowers of trees and shrubs in June. They make in truth the crown and summit of nature's summer efforts. Full, fresh vigor at this high tide of the year intensifies the loveliness of all vegetation, but flowers are specially lovely now, both for numbers and de- lightful color and odor. How and where shall I begin ? It would seem actually as if all flowers bloomed at this season, and one might easily construct a most attractive lawn of exclusively June flowering plants. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. (31 Very numerous and distinguished are the flowering shrubs of June, but the more noteworthy trees perhaps should have our first attention. If the horse-chestnut were as fine in August as June, it is possible we might deem it as valuable an ornamental tree as the Norway maple or purple beech. In addition to finely rounded contours and HORSE-CHESTNUT TREES, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK. broad light-green foliage, the horse-chestnut has conspicuous flowers in May, which few hardy trees have at any time of the year. And what lovely flowers the horse- chestnut has ! There are many varieties distinguished by either peculiar leaves or flowers shaded with various de- grees of white and pink, but perhaps the finest of all is the red-flowering horse-chestnut. The odor of the flower is not, 62 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. in any of the varieties, specially attractive, but the color of the lic-li ml tlowcrs is very beautiful, particularly if the hue of the leaf is light-gold, like several varieties that are by no means rare. Indeed, few more attractive objects can be seen on the lawn than a red- flowering horse-chestnut in full bloom, and its beauty is specially peculiar to the months of May and June. The catalpa should be men- tioned doubtless for its large purple flowers in July. These flowers grow in spikes and are attractive. It is a hardy, large-leaved tree, but strag- gling and irregular in appearance. Among summer-flowering trees, RED-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT. (*KULI RHONDA.) however, if not among summer- flowering shrubs, the white fringe ( Chionantlius Vircjinica) stands almost pre-eminent, whether we view it as a shrub or tree. The foliage, to begin with, is broad, solid, and lustrous, rich enough to make the fortune of any ordinary plant. Yet in June we forget this attractive foliage as we lose ourselves in admiration of the cloud-like mass of fleecy flowers, which, examined closely, seems veritable lace of the most delicate texture. So numerous are these flowers that I have seen a specimen of white fringe stand out against a background of dark evergreens like a pure white cloud attached to the greensward. The fringe-tree is choice, JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 63 and by no means common, though a well-known plant. It behaves well during the most trying vicissitudes, whether of winter or of transplanting. It needs little or no pruning, and should occupy the most distinguished positions on the lawn. The laburnum is a lovely tree of medium size, with June flowers of exceeding beauty, long clusters of yellow blossoms, which often sport remarkably in color, turning sometimes to a deep purple. There are several varieties of both the Scotch and common laburnum, but they resemble each other much, and what differences do exist are somewhat difficult to define in words that would be in- telligible to the ordinary reader. The laburnum can hardly ever be a popular tree throughout America, for it suffers from blight in many sections to a degree that is discouraging to the lawn-planter. Many trees have such beauty of foliage in June as to fairly overshadow the attractions of the flowers. The tulip tree ( Lirioden- di'on Tulipifera) is a notable instance of this peculiarity. Notwithstanding its flowers are so curiously and finely formed and tinted, we scarcely notice them at first glance WHITE-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT. (/tSCULUS RUBICUNDA.) 64 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. buried as they are among the broad, glistening and beautiful leaves. These flowers bear a distinct resemblance to those of the bulbous tulip, and cannot therefore be other than interesting. But let us turn again to one of the most impor- tant families of flowering plants to be seen upon the lawn. I refer to the mag- nolias. Few genera show bloom, by means of one or other of their varieties, as long as the magnolias. From mid- April to mid- summer we fail not to have beautiful flowers on some one of these plants. In June we have at least eight or ten species and varieties presenting their full glory of inflorescence. Old familiar forms are here, as well as one or two as rare as any plant to be found on the choicest lawn. Nothing should be more familiar among trees than the cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata), but its flowers in June are of moderate size and somewhat in- significant in appearance with their greenish-yellow tints. A much finer variety than M. acuminata is M. cordata, an American tree not very unlike the cucumber tree, but far more choice and uncommon. It has a fine pyramidal shape, and a comparatively small heart-shaped leaf, whence the name. Magnolia cordata is a strangely disregarded ornamental plant, exhibiting one of those curious in- JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. 65 stances of the neglect with which we treat our finest native trees. A better and more widely known June flowering mag- nolia is M. glauca, the common, sweet-scented, white swamp magnolia often sold by boys in our railroad cars. Of all the better-known magnolias, whether American or Asiatic, this has by far the sweetest scent. It is a comparatively low-growing shrub, however, and bears numerous flowers, therein differing greatly from most other summer-blooming magnolias. There are two or three interesting varieties of Magnolia glauca, such as M. Thompsoniana and longifoUa. The first is remarkable for its sweet odor, and the latter for long, ornamental leaves, and also for a harder nature than M. Thompsoniana, which is sometimes lacking in this respect. M. glauca is generally quite hardy, although I have known winters severe enough to nip its young growth, especially if that young growth was not sufficiently matured during the previous fall. But of all American deciduous magnolias, the most noteworthy is the great Magnolia macrophylla with large leaves two feet in length, and so like in size and general aspect to those of the palm of the tropics, that scarcely any other hardy tree of the North suggests Oriental vigor in the same degree. Amid these huge broad leaves, we find great up-like flowers, which are curiously monstrous, rather than beautiful. A foot wide the white petals extend, and the cup in the centre Avould hold nectar for the quaffing of gods rather than fairies, who are usually credited with using flowers for chalices. It is to be regretted that this great 66 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. striking flower dispenses a distinctly disagreeable odor r otherwise it would be a tree of specially excellent orna- mental qualities. Magnolia tripetala likewise blooms in late May and early June in its home in America. Except Magnolia macro- phylla, there is no larger-leaved native magnolia than tripetala, hence the common name umbrella magnolia. This large foliage lends a grand aspect to a well-grown specimen of Magnolia tripetala, and in other ways it proves. itself much superior to M. acuminata. The flowers are creamy or yellowish-white in color, rather than greenish- white like those of M. acuminata. Turning to the Asiatic magnolias, we find several othe~ varieties that bloom finely in June. There are one or i/wa late-blooming Asiatic varieties, that, long known in this country, have failed to make a favorable impression because, like M. Kobus, for instance, they bloom seldom and sparsely and only in late maturity. Two recently introduced mag- nolias are, however, free from all such objections, and have, besides, very decided advantages peculiar to themselves. They are termed respectively M. liypoleuca and M. parviflora, or Wateonii, and are rare. We have seen already that few summer-blooming magnolias have flowers that will bear comparison with many other blossoms of June ; hence the two magnolias, liypoleuca and parviftora, become doubly valuable on account of the late season at which their flowers appear. Let us look at them a moment. They impress us as noble trees, not as shrubs, bearing in this way a certain resemblance to M. tripetala. The foliage of M. hypoleuca JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 67 is more like that of tripetala than perhaps any other magnolia, although it has also a fine distinct character of its own. Of a bright silver on the under side of the leaf, whence the name hypoleuca, the beauty of the foliage is made still more attractive by a distinct flush of red per- vading the leaf stem, mid-rib, and even the more complex veiniug of the leaf. Held up against the light the appearance of this leaf is fine, but the flower, nevertheless, forms the chief attraction of this as well as of all other magnolias. It blooms in June, is large and milk-white, and above all is very sweet-scented, qualities that would render valuable any flower, but joined to the other characteristic traits of the magnolia they become doubly precious. When the 31. hypoleiwa was first seen in this country, it was believed that the highest development in the way of a June-flowering magnolia had been obtained, but this proved not to be the case. ^Icujnolia parvijlora has shown itself, even during the short time it has been introduced, the gem of the entire collection of magnolias ; finer, perhaps, in the sense of combining the greatest number of excellent qualities, and certainly much the best for the exquisite character of its odor. In a greenhouse one hundred feet long, the scent of the flowers borne on a young plant of this magnolia is delight- fully apparent throughout the entire length of the building. Magnolia hypoleuca has certainly a delightful odor, but this odor of M. parviflora is more pungent, more delicious and subtle. The petals and their arrangement suggest those of M. glauca, but they, as well as the leaves and entire plant, are much larger, and the centre of the flower 68 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LAWN. acquires far greater beauty from a deep-crimson flush that suffuses the very curious and formal arrangement of pistils and stamens. This arrangement and color give the flower the appearance of having a deep-red heart. The foliage and general habit of M. par-viflora is neat and thrifty. The purple fringe, Rlius cotinus, although somewhat in- ferior to the white fringe in general characteristics, and to which, indeed, it bears no relation except in name, is exqui- sitely subtle and lovely in the coloring of its flowers. These flowers come in June and envelop the entire bush or tree in rosy-purple, rounded masses of soft, fleecy clouds. It is well-named the smoke tree, for I know nothing to which the disposition and coloring of its small, numerous flowers can be more aptly compared than a mass of smoke suffused and penetrated with sunlight. On first turning to the consideration of summer- flowering plants, we are at once attracted to the most splendidly gifted of the entire class, viz. : Rhododendrons and lianh a/alcas. They seem intended to be grouped together and are usually employed in that way. The azalea is, in every way, smaller fa^ fo Q rhododendron, and when planted on the outskirts of a group of the latter, shade off harmoniously the outline of a mass of the former. RHODODENDRON. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. t>9 PINXTER FLOWER. (AZALEA NUDIFLORA. ) The flowers also of these two shrubs serve to perfect each other when associated together. One, the rhododen- dron, is splendid, glowing and complex in detail ; the other, choice, exquisite, sim- pler in form, and yet most subtly and richly tinted. It is difficult to decide on the comparative excellence of their beauties, because these beauties are so individual and different. For the rho- dodendron, we can say it has more effective, shining evergreen foliage, but on the other hand, the hardy azalea endures more steadfastly win- ter and summer vicissitudes. Such plants as these should be employed in fa- vored nooks, on a hillside, if possible, where the eye may look down upon their charms. The employment of both of these attractive plants is rapidly becoming an actual necessity to the well-ordered lawn. Nor does the fact that the rhododendron occasionally suffers from sudden changes, both in summer and winter, seriously check its growing popularity. Many, in fact, are BROAD LEAVED LAUREL. (KALMIA LATIFOLIA. .1 70 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. already learning that a little protection by planting in the lee of other trees, and a practical consideration of the pedi- gree of the variety used, considered with regard to the more or less hardy nature of its ancestors, will secure general results of the most satisfactory character. Azalea nudi- flora is a good example of this genuine American plant of the azalea type. In this connection, however, I must not fail to offer meet tribute to the excellent beauty of the common laurel of the American woods, Kalmia latifolia. While its flowers, perhaps, are not as splendid in form and mass as those of the rhododendron, nor as vaiied and subtle in coloring as those of the hardy azalea, the curious, quaint construction of its flower-cup is yet quite as distinguished in its way for its exquisite daintiness and charming symmetry. It surpasses the rhododendron, moreover, in hardiness, and possesses the attraction of comparatively large evergreen leaves, which the deciduous hardy azalea does not possess. When grown in the nursery, i. e., transplanted now and then, the Kalmia latifolia may be readily moved at any age, but to tear old plants from their native haunts in woodland nooks and plant them successfully on the lawn, has been repeatedly proved to be a difficult operation. As we give our attention more closely to deciduous shrubs, we are impressed by the number of specially note- worthy genera that distinguish themselves in June either by their foliage or their flowers. What a lovely group, for instance, are the various June-blooming spireas. There were, as we remember, fine spring-flowering spi- reas like S. Tlmnbergii, but how lovely, also, are June- JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 71 flowering S. Reevesiana,fl. pi. and S. trilobate, a similar but still more attractive species. The branches of these spireas hang during June in the most graceful curves studded to their very tips with lovely rosettes of pure white flowers. Then there is prunifolia with upright habit, neat, bright green leaves and numerous white flowers coming in late May oftener than in June. Red-flowering S. Fortunei and Fortunei macropln/lla and Iwvigata are also June-flower- ing, while among other kinds blooming in the same month may be noted the choice and delicate little spireas bella and aricefolia and the more common-looking and larger-growing diamcedrifolia, nepalensis, and ulmifolia. One of the most striking of all spireas on the lawn, however, is the June-flowering S. opulifolia aurea. The leaves of 8. opulifolia aurea are broader and larger than those of any other spirea, which is generally a small-leaved race, and the colors, especially at this season, are delicate shades of gold. Indeed so effective is this golden color that had the white flowers studding the entire stem been less lovely I would have classed it among the golden- and purple-leaved plants. If we add to these qualities excep- tional vigor and hardiness, it will be readily seen that 8. opulifolia aurea is a shrub peculiarly adapted to lawn planting. Indeed the general habit and the flowers render the common type opulifolia almost as fine as the golden variety. But I must not linger on these interesting spireas too long, while there are other interesting June-flowering shrubs waiting to claim our attention. Every well-planted lawn must have some Philadelphtises or mock oranges, with 72 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. June flowers like veritable orange blossoms. Philadd- phus cormiarim is the most sweet-scented and in other ways the best variety, although grati- diftoruSj laxus, speciosus, etc., are larger and more easily propagated. There is a fine dwarf golden Philadelphus that does not receive the attention it should. A well-known JmJe-flowering ge- nus of shrub is the Deutzia, not Deutzia gracilis only, but Deutzia crenata, fl. pi., a Japan plant, strong- growing, and bear- ing masses of attrac- tive pinkish-white flowers, and also the smaller D. scabra, fl. pi. There are also Deutzias Fortunei. crenata and Stfflfo^ both intei'eSt- ing, hardy, rapid-growing shrubs. The vigorous bright-green bush honeysuckles are also attractive in June, with the red and white flowers of Tartarwa, the white of excellent drooping fragmntissima, and the yellow and yellowish-red of wylosteum, flexuosa, and Ledebowrii. The sweet-scented shrubs Calycanthus floridu* and C. Icevigatus likewise offer the spicy fragrance of their GORDON'S MOCK ORANGE. (PH.LADELPHU8 OORDONiANUS.) DEUTZIA CRENATA. FL. PL. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 73 chocolate-brown buds and broad rich foliage. These are choice shiiibs and can scarcely be used too much in the salient points of shrub groups. Exocliorda grandiflora should have been mentioned perhaps among the spireas, where it properly belongs, but it is so different in every way, so specially suited to distinct single posi- tions, that I have ventured to consider it apart from the "OCHORDA QRAND.FLORA. other varieties. Few shrubs are more difficult to propagate than this spirea, hence its reputation for rarity and choice- ness. But aside from these quali- ties the leaves and flowers of this plant are very at- tractive, the leaves for their light green, slightly bluish tint, and the flowers for their number and pure white color, wonderfully bright and effective in mass. The general habit of the plant is broad, bushy, and vigorous. In this climate the YELLOW JAPANESE KERRIA. (KERRIA JAPONICA.) SWEET-SCENTED SHRUB. (.CAUYCANTHU8 FLORIDU8.) 74 JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. flowers appear in late May and early June. The pretty, small-leaved Kerria Japonica also bears attractive yellow flowers in June and makes an interesting shrub on the outskirts of shrub plantations. Among the large shrubs specially suited to the centre of a mass of deciduous foliage are the Weigelias or Diervillas. They are rapid-growing, bearing abun- dant leaves and flowers, and are generally popular. They form one of our staple plants for the construction of any group of shrubs. Some of the ^Veigelias bear light-red and others striped flowers. Weigelia rosea is justly considered one of the best kinds. Among the most attractive of June- flowering shrubs is Tamarix Africana. There are one or two other kinds that bloom during this month, but none better than T. Africana. The charac- teristic feathery habit and great vigor of the tamarisks renders Africana specially valuable in a group of shrubs where variety of form and beauty of flower are desired. There are several RED FLOWERING WEIGELIA. , , , , . . , ~ 77 . (wEioEUA ROSEA.) late- blooming tamarisks, such as (jf-aUwa and Indica, which makes this June-flowering Africana particularly valuable. Pruning is absolutely essential to keep the lanky growth of tamarisks in subjection. We come now to a very noteworthy genus among June- flowering shrubs. The snowball or viburnum genus is a JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. 75 large one, but only half a dozen hardy varieties are thoroughly well suited to lawn planting. The common snowball ( Viburnum opulus) is, perhaps, one of the most generally useful on the lawn, because it is fine, singly or in mass. It grows vigorously, and is broad, and bears numer- ous balls of snow-white blossoms. The only serious fault it has is an openness of foliage or naked- ness of stern that makes it less effec- tive when planted singly than it would otherwise be. As a June-flower- ing viburnum, how- ever, there is nothing like the Japan snow- ball ( Viburnum pli- catuni), already spo- ken of in the high- est terms elsewhere. Dark green and glos- sy leaves, crinkled and compact, especially if well pruned, and large white balls of flowers, persistently retained on the plant for weeks, are, as we have also seen, its distin- guishing characteristics. Good judges have commended this plant as in many senses the best of deciduous shrubs. Another June-flowering shrub of considerable merit should not be neglected. Lycium larbarum, etc., is an old plant, but very pretty, especially when trailing over rock- VIBURNUM OPULUS. JUNE EFFECTS ON THE LA WN. work. The flowers are small and of a purple or violet color. Many of these fine old hardy plants are in danger of being forgotten in the rush for uew and rare varieties. A special glory of June, a glory entirely unequalled in its way at any other time of the year, is found in the several genera of hardy climbing vines. Many of them are, of course, familiar to the reader, and probably none more so than the honeysuckles. They make a numerous family of varieties, with thick, glossy green leaves and abundant sweet- scented flowers. The Belgian, or striped monthly, red and white, is perhaps at once best known and most generally popu- lar. Canadensis is pink and straw color, with the straw color pre- dominating. One of the best yellow ones, indeed one of the best of all honeysuckles, is Halkana from Japan. This varie petal. It is sometimes a little diffi- cult to grow. L. Batemanniw is also a beautiful summer lily from Japan, with flowers of a clear orange-apri- cot color, unspotted. L. speciosum is another favorite Japanese lily of easy growth and general adapta- bility. There is a beautiful white LILIUM SPECIOSUM. form and also a white tinged and spotted with rose. One of the best native species is I/ilium svperbum, Turk's- cap lily, with flowers of a bright orange, marked with purple spots and beautifully recurved. This kind is very hardy and tenacious of life, and is particularly effective and suc- cessful planted among rhododen- drons and other similar shrubs. The tiger lily, Z. tigrinum, is very showy and stays in bloom a long time during summer. There is a grand variety of this tiger lily (tigrinum splendens) that has tall stems and fiery scarlet flowers. Lilium Canadense is a showy summer - blooming species, with nodding yellow or orange flowers spotted with brown. There is also a deep-red variety of Canadense. Lilium pardalinum, leopard lily, is a summer- TURK'S-CAP LILY. ( LILIUM SUPEHBUM.I GARDEN FLOWERS. 186 blooming species bearing numerous large orange-scarlet flowers. It is one of the best and easiest grown of the Pacific-coast species. Lilium Pyre- naicum, yellow-turban lily, is a fine ^($K- 1 i showy species with yellow flowers * i * spotted with black. Most, if not all of these lilies are easy to cultivate, and simply require good garden soil. The blazing-star, BUTTON SNAKEROOT. IUATRIS SPICATA.) feather, is a genus of very showy plants from the Western and Southern States. They have tuberous roots, straight stems two to five feet high, and generally very narrow leaves, the upper part of the stem being crowded with flowers that form a long, dense spike of some shade of purple. L.pycnostachya, Kansas gay-feather, comes from the prairies of the far West, and grows five feet high, with a very dense spike of flowers ten to twenty inches long. It flowers in summer later than Liatris spicata. Lychnis Chalcedonica, scarlet lychnis, or Maltese cross, comes from Russia, and grows two to three feet high. This is one of the oldest as well as one of the most brilliant of hardy garden plants. It has been neglected for much less showy summer flowers. Lytkrum Salicaria, purple loosestrife, is a beautiful plant. It grows about three or four feet high during July, DOUBLE SCARLET LYCHNIS. (LYCHNIS CHALCEDONICA, FL. PL.) GARDEN FLOWERS. 187 PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE. (LYTHRUM SALICARIA.) August, and September, with numerous square, stout, woody stems branching a little at the top, and terminating in long spikes of rosy purple flow- ers. L. Viscaria splendens, German catchfly, is a dense tufted species twelve to fifteen inches high, with brilliant scarlet flowers in summer. Monarda didyma, bee balm, grows about three feet high, with erect stems clothed with large egg-shaped leaves. The flowers are in close head-like whorls at the extremity of the stem, and are deep red, appearing in June or July, and lasting a couple of months. It is sometimes called the Oswego tea, and comes from North America. One of the most showy and interesting flowers that bloom all summer is the evening primrose. Many bloom for a very long time, and have unusually large flowers of striking and attractive appearance, and are besides pleasantly fragrant. (Enotlwra Missourieiisis is perhaps the most showy of the group. The plant pro- duces many prostrate stems, branching freely about a foot high. The leaves are large and lance-shaped, and the flow- ers are very large, several inches across, and bright yellow. It grows luxuriantly in warm, sunny aspects and light rich soil, but in soil that is not exactly favorable it soon dies off and needs to be replanted every year or two, like an annual or biennial. Opuntia Rafinesquii, Western prickly pear, forms curi- ous broad mats six to ten inches high. It is a hardy cac- 188 GARDEN FLOWERS. tus, with round, very spiny steins, and yellowish flowers, often with a reddish centre. It blooms in summer, and is excellent for rockwork. Among the best garden flowers of summer are the poppies, I mean the hardy herbaceous pop- pies, not the annuals, which are also very pretty. The hardy type of these showy poppies is the Oriental poppy ( ' Papa- ver orientate), of which there exist several showy varie- ties, such as P. bracteatum, etc. P. hractcat'iim, great scarlet poppy, is a splendid tall-growing species, producing dense rounded masses of long leaves roughish to the touch above and below. The flower stems are almost leafless, very rough and shaggy, and three or four feet high, sup- porting each an enormously large bright orange-scarlet flower marked, at the base of petals and sepals, with a large intense dark crimson spot. It is a native of Siberia. Other kinds come from Greece and the Pyrenees. Papaver nudicaule var. croceum, Iceland poppy, is an entirely differ- ent plant from the last. It is a pretty d\varf-growing plant, with bright saffron-colored flowei's grow- ing on stems one foot high. It is excellent for rock-work. JBubus odoratus, purple flower- ing raspberry, is an old well-known plant of the highest excellence. Its large massive foliage is effective, PURPLE FLOWERING RASPBERRY. an( l 1* gTOWS 111 tllC shade aild iii the most unpropitious places. The flowers are an inch or more in diameter, and a deep purple. GARDEN FLOWERS. 189 PENTSTEMON BARBATUS. (VAR. TORREYI.) Pentstemon cobcea is an early variety blooming in sum- mer and also Pentstemon barbatus, var. Torreyi. It is somewhat rare. The foxglove-like flowers are two inches or more long in a spike of purple striped with white. Petalostemon decum- bens is one of the prettiest pros- trate plants with stems a foot long, on the ends of which are borne dense spikes of deep violet-purple flowers. It commences to bloom in summer and lasts till frost. Platycodon grandiflorum, large bell-flower, is the same as Waldenbergia and Campanula grandiflora. It is the largest of all the bell flowers. The buds, before opening, become inflated like a balloon. The flower is a shallow bell, two inches or more across and deep blue. It blooms all summer and is very attractive. Salvia pratensis, meadow-sage, is twelve to eighteen inches high, comes from Europe, and bears long spikes of rich blue flowers all summer. Scaliosa Caucasica is a handsome plant only a foot high. It grows vigorously and bears free- ly beautiful soft lilac flowers, that, when cut, last a long time in water. There are several herbaceous spireas that merit well a place in the flower-garden. Spirce-a Filipendida, fl. pi. LARGE BELLFLOWER. (PLATYCODON GRANDIFLORUM. 190 GARDEN FLOWERS. .lEADOW SWEET. 'SPIR/tA ULMARIA.) dropwort, grows three feet high, has fern-like foliage and numerous double white flowers in summer. It is an old and favorite plant. Then there is the red flowering and fragrant 8. lobata or venusta, queen of the prairies, and meadow-sweet, 8. Ulmaria, from Great Britain and Northern Europe and Si- beria, with fragrant white flowers and from three to four feet high, loving inoist places and water-courses. There is a pretty speedwell blooming long in the summer-time. It is Veronica (tmeihystina, a better kind than gen- twelve to eighteen inches high, and bearing V. the speedwells, bearing a larger flower-spike and larger indi- vidual flowers of a brilliant amethystine blue, which con- trast finely with the rich green foliage. It is one of the Japanese acquisitions. Yucca jilamentosa belongs to the sum- mer season, with its tall spikes of bell- like flowers and strange tropical-look- ing leaves suited for rockwork. This plant is hardly an herbaceous plant, and yet it seems to belong here rather than among shrubs on account of the ap- GENTIAN LEAVED SPEEDWELL. pearance of the great spikes of flowers. (VERONICA GENT.ANOIDES.) We come now to the fall-blooming, hardy, herbaceous plants, which give us so much enjoyment during the showy amethyst-blue flowers in pyramidal clusters. longifolut) var. subsessilis, is, however, the best of GARDEN FLOWERS. 191 decadence of the plant-life of tlie year. Their colors supplement and perfect, if they do not enliven, the charm- ing tones of " the melancholy days," and as long as they last we seem to have about us still a remnant of the special loveliness of summer. The autumn monk's-hood, Aconitum autumiiale, is one of the best, with dark-blue flowers on stems three feet high, lasting a long time in perfection. It associates itself well with Anemone Japonica, and bears bold racemes of dark-blue flowers, is very robust, and has large, deeply cut leaves, and is a native of China and Japan. The best-known and appreciated, perhaps, of autumn flowers are the asters, starworts, or Michaelmas daisies. In this country we know the New England aster the best, A. JVovce-Angliw. The large violet-purple flowers appear in great profusion along our roadsides. Every park and flower border should have them. They grow four or five feet high. A. longifolius, var. formosus, is more showy and grows in the form of pyramidal bushes completely clothed with bright rose-colored flowers blooming all the fall until frost. A. Shortii is a tall-growing species and bears in fall large bright-blue flower-heads. Chrysanthemums gen- erally bloom late, on the edge of winter, but there are seme kinds that come earlier in autumn. Among these are o lacustre and maximum, much alike, with large flowers three or four inches across. The first grows four to five feet high and likes moist soil, while maximum is of a dwarf habit, only one foot high. There are few more showy and satisfactory plants dur- ing summer and early fall than Coreopsis lanceolata often mistaken for grandiflora. Its large lemon-yellow flowers J92 GARDEN FLOWERS. bloom very freely on long stems two to three feet high. Gentiana Andi-ewsii, closed gentian, is a pretty, late- flowering species with fine blue flowers an inch long. It likes a good garden soil, especially if it be sandy and moist. Some of the sunflowers bloom late in fall, notably Helia/nthus Maximiliani which grows six to eight feet high. It is very free-flowering and large-growing, and should have plenty of room. It comes from Texas. The finest sunflower is perhaps H. orgyalis, graceful sunflower, also hailing from Texas. It grows six to ten feet high, has, great flowers three or four inches in diameter, and has narrow leaves that give it a very graceful habit. The sunflower is splendid in inflorescence, but coarse in general effect, and should therefore be planted somewhat in the background or in the midst of large shrubbery. Stand- ing alone it suggests a coarse, greedy plant that seems inclined to seize upon and exhaust all the ground around it without regard to the rights oi other plants. Hemerocallis Thunbergii is a fine late - blooming day-lily that bears yellow sweet-scented flowers on stems four feet high. One of the most splendid of fall blooming herbaceous plants is the rose-mallow. The common marsh rose-mallow (Hibiscus Mosclieutos), growing three to five feet high, with light rose-colored flowers in August larger than hollyhocks, and continuing long in bloom, is the best known. Hi- RED-HOT POKER. (TRITOMA UVARIA.) GARDEN FLOWERS. 193 biscus Californicus is, however, the largest, growing five feet high, and bearing white flowers four to six inches -across, with purple centres. Among the best fall plants, especially when mixed with grasses, such as the Aruiido, etc., are Kniphofias or Tritomas, the red-hot poker plant. Like the Arundo, it is better, although it sometimes winters well, to take it up and winter it in a cellar. It blooms splendidly in autumn until frost. There is no more strange and intensely colored flower than that borne by this plant. It is like flame partially .at white heat. Trito- ma divides, often called Uvaria, is a well- known kind that grows three or four feet high. There is a variety, gmndiflom, that grows five feet high, and there is also a smaller species, corallina, that grows only eighteen inches to two feet, and bears bright coral-red flowers. The Lathyrus latifolius, everlasting pea, is an unjustly neglected plant, looking well trailed over bushes or on the ground, where its pretty rose-colored flowers last nearly all summer. There is also a pure white variety. Most of the everlasting peas have large roots, and if left undisturbed improve with age. Lobelia cardinalis, the cardinal flower 13 CARDINAL FLOWER. (LOBELIA CARDINALIS.) 1 94 GA RDEN FL O WERS. of New England woods and waters, displays one of the brightest scarlets among herbaceous plants. It grows three to four feet high, and is easily cultivated. Mafoa Alcea, garden mallow, is a rosy-purple flowering plant that blooms in late summer. It grows two to three feet high, and has flowers two inches across. M. moscJiata alia is a similar species, with pure white flowers. CEnotlwra speciosa, a late-blooming, evening prim- rose, with large, fragrant flowers, the white petals of which become rosy purple when fading. The garden phloxes, de- rived from Phlox paniculata, P. maculata, etc., have been much hybridized and crossed. The height varies from one to four feet, the foliage from narrow and shining to broad and dull. The flowers grow in a broad, pyramidal head, often six inches across, and continue in bloom in late summer and autumn for two or three months. There are colors, shades, and markings innumerable. Among the self-colored i. e., all of one color, w T e find pure white, cream, salmon, rose, lilac, carmine, purple, violet, and crimson. In some varieties two colors combine, either beautifully shaded, or with a distinct centre of one color and the rest of the flower of another. There are also beau- tifully striped varieties. This is truly a magnificent group of flower- LEADWORT & plants, and should be planted (PLUMBAGO LARPENT/E.) among deciduous shrubs or among other large herbaceous plants where there will be other foli- age to support and mask the lower portion of the phloxes. GARDEN FLOWERS. 195 STONE CROP. (8EDUM ACRE.) Plumbago Larpentce is a beautiful blue-flowering plant of a dense spreading habit, six to ten inches in height. The flowers are in terminal clusters, fine bright blue at first, but changing afterwards to deep vio- let. They appear in August, Sep- tember, and October. Pyretlirum uliginosum, giant daisy, is a fine, effective, fall-blooming plant, growing five feet high, and bear- ing large white flowers with yel- low centres. Rudbeckia maxima, large cone-flower, is also a striking plant four to six feet high, with large glaucous leaves and bright yellow flowers with brown centres. The Sedums, live-for-evers, are excel- lent plants for poor, shallow soil, and especially for rock- work. Sedum acre, the common stone-crop, is one of the best, as it is low-spreading and moss-like. It is particularly good for carpeting, and displays num- erous yellow flowers in summer. There are two excellent Japanese stone-crops or Sedums that grow in large tufts, with thick glaucous leaves and rosy-purple flowers in clusters. They bloom in late fall. The two species are Sieboldii, special He or Fa- baria, of which the last is the larger and perhaps more showy. Senecio Japonica, a little-known groundsel, belongs to the same family as the ragweed, one of the most extensive in point of species to be found among SEDUM SPECTABILE. 1JM) GARDEN FLOWERS. plants, having, it is said, nearly a thousand different kinds known to botanists. Senecio Japonica is one of the handsomest members of the family. It is of striking habit, grows five feet high, with leaves nearly a foot across, divided into nearly a dozen divisions. The flower-heads are about three inches across with the narrow outer florets of a rich orange color. It is a moist- ure-loving plant, and should be grown in rich, moderately stiff, loam. The SilpJiiums are large-growing coarse plants, with sunflower-like blossoms, in summer requiring places in the background with plenty of room. 8. laciniatum is the largest and most showy of the family. Dr. Asa Gray writes of this plant : " On the wide, open prairies the leaves are said to present their edges uni- formly north and south, whence it is called the compass-plant." The Solidagos, golden-rods, present one of the most characteristic and fa- miliar flowers of the United States, and should be planted in clumps like the SilpJiiums where their graceful habit and masses of yellow flowers will display their beauty effectively. In the eyes of most they are weeds, but in cer- COMPASS PLANT. (SILPHIUM LACINIATUM.) GARDEN FL O WERS. 197 GOLDEN-ROD. (SOLIDAGO CANADENSIS.) tain parts of the flower garden few more striking plants can be set out for autumnal effect. The species rigida, Shortii, and Canadensis are among the best, the last growing fully five feet higher. Stokesia cyanea, from the South- ern States, is one of the rarest and handsomest of native plants. The flower-heads, three or four inches across on strong plants, are a fine sky- blue, somewhat like a large China aster. It blooms till frost. Ver- tionia Noveboi'ocensis, New York iron-weed, grows two to six feet high, with dark-purple clus- ters of flowers at the end of straight stems. It should also be given plenty of room and kept rather in the background. There are of course plants suited for carpeting portions of the flower garden and rock garden that are not used for their flowers, which are generally insignificant. Such are most of the Sempervivums, or house-leeks. There is 8. araclmoideum, cobweb house-leek, an alpine plant, with its small rosettes covered with cob- webby hairs ; tectorum, the common house-leek, and, one of the finest and largest of all, S. calcareum. The last named has regular bluish leaves tipped each with a purple spine. Before closing this brief list of hardy herbaceous peren- nials I must refer to the Christmas roses, Helleboms niger, NEW YORK IRON-WEED. (VERNONIA NOVEBORACEN8I8. ) GARDEN FLOWERS. CHRISTMAS ROSE. (HELLEBORUS NIGER.) which I cannot exactly term autumn flowers. They bloom so late that, by using a frame over them and thus securing a little protection, their beautiful white flowers may be had at Christmas. They should be planted in a shady position and moist soil, as they are impatient of dry weather. H. niger altifolius is one of the best varieties, with pinkish white flowers and the char- acteristic dark-green foliage. The magnificent Japanese and I Chinese chrysanthemums should be 'given liberal space, but my excuse for not considering them is their lack of hardiness. They may live and thrive with some protection, but there is no certainty. The proper way to grow them is to cultivate strong plants in pots and set them out in early fall, just before they GARDEN FLOWERS. 199 AUTUMN CROCUS. bloom, with the expectation of lifting them when the flowers have gone. Colchicum autumnale, common meadow-saffron, is known as the autumn crocus, and is one of the latest flowers to appear in our beds and borders out-of-doors. The flowers appear alone without leaves, and consist of six lance- shaped somewhat spreading petals, rosy purple in color, and supported only an inch or two above ground. The leaves begin to grow after the flowers cease, and reach (COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE - ) their fullest development the following spring and early summer. They are lance-shaped, dark olive-green, and about nine to twelve inches long. The dahlias constitute a well-known class of late flowering-plants, and pre- sent a rich variety of color at a season when flowers are scarce. Their forms, however, are stiff and ar- tificial looking, and the more they are "perfected" by cultivation the stiffer they seem to become. These objections, how- ever, do not apply to the single dahlias, that have been deservedly increasing in reputation of late. Their colors are quite varied and their single petals graceful. SINGLE DAHLIAS. 200 GARDEN FL O WERS. Notwithstanding the great beauty of many double flowers* there is much to be said in favor of the more humble single-blooming kinds. The employment of herbaceous plants in the woods or in grass is a charming method of displaying their most characteristic beauties ; and for natural effects in connection with rock work very many varieties are invaluable. Within the limits of the garden, however, and in the soil that can be there readily prepared, hardy herbaceous plants will thrive and grow as nowhere else. It may be somewhat less natural, and perhaps less artistic, but it is human, and it suits the flowers. I believe that the suggestion of any diagram arrangement of herbaceous plants will be hardly profitable. One would as easily suggest an arrangement for a bouquet of flowers. It should be irregular, and so disposed as to prevent one plant from obscuring the beauties of the others. The large ones should come, as a rule, somewhere at the back,, and the next size nearer the front, and so on to the smallest. It is simple enough. A knowledge of the habits of the plants and good natural taste will do the work well if the above general rule is followed. These herbaceous plants may be planted effectively on the lawn in connection or in front of the shrubberies. First trees, then shrubs, then herbaceous plants or wild flowers, and finally grass. This is the natural arrangement of such lawn plantations. CHAPTER X. GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. URINGr early boyhood, I paid long visits at the home of a dear old grandmother, in one of the most thoroughly crystallized towns of New England. Grandmother was a Quaker of the old school, and a pillar of the meeting, conse- quently everything about her was of the approved old-time sort. The garden, certainly, was no exception to the rule. I think I see now, the sober, dignified Quaker ladies, attired in suitable dove-color, pacing the garden walks or daintily plucking flowers. Surely finer flowers never grew than were reared in that garden, for the maintenance it received was exquisite. What sunny hours we children spent in it. And it was truly a charming spot, though something must be allowed for the glamour of boyish freshness and spirits. I feel, indeed, after seeing all the modern inventions, that I could cheerfully forego 202 GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. the most blazing effects that we behold nowadays on expensive lawns, for the privilege of enjoying once more the old garden behind grandmother's house. I wish you could see the quaint old place us I recall it after the lapse of many years. It was, I confess, a somewhat formal and prim affair; but there was nothing commonplace or vulgar about it, as in the baser sort of what is now called ribbon gardening. On the contrary, there was a distinct flavor of individuality in the character of its appearance. The de- signer, being either a practical housewife, or inspired by one, had thought of many things besides mere ornament, and even the ornament had a distinct difference, which gave this garden a special suggestiveness of its own. The paths were laid out with entire regularity, and marked with long rows or borders of dwarf box ; but there the regularity and sameness ceased, unless we count as regu- lar the scrupulously kept gravel of the walks, bedded with white pebbles. Such a garden naturally had its grape-vine, trained on some suitable supports, which, in this case, hap- pened to be the stable wall. The next-door neighbor, I remember, had an arbor for his grape-vines, that began, as it seemed, nowhere in particular, and ended twenty feet off with the most delightful neglect of any why or wherefore, except that it existed for the grape-vine; that was evi- dently enough for Deacon Jones. Nowadays such an arbor must have done duty alike as a place for seats, for a promenade, and also for the display of architectural ornament in the Queen Anne style. Not that such a triple performance of duty is not proper enough, but only it was not the way of gardens of those earlier days. GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. 203 GARDEN PINK. 'DIANTHUS PLUMARIUS.) For the economies of the house, there were all sorts of fragrant herbs, such as thyme, sweet-marjory, sage, mint, and half a dozen other sweet-smelling and savory plants, that were on this account, however, none the less attrac- tive as ornaments of the garden. They were not only delightful in themselves, but delightful because they reminded us of grandmother's wonderful store- closet, from which issued so many good things. But grandmother's garden was, before all things, a productive flower garden. Unlike modern gardens, created for external show alone, it was a real storehouse of color and odor, out of which one could, day after day, gather rich treasures, and yet leave its beauty apparently un dimmed. Everybody about the house, boys included, was welcome to pluck a flower occasion- ally without let or hindrance. The flowers, indeed, seemed actually to enjoy being plucked. They were not, of course, specially rare, and yet I am sorry to say that it might be difficult to find some of them nowadays. Their simple charms have, in fact, been al- most entirely obscured by the glitter- ing novelties of the modern horticul- tural world. For instance, there were those rich old damask roses. They are seldom if ever seen now ; and yet what SWEET-WILLIAM. (DIANTHUS BARBATUS.^ 204 GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN. masses of them there were in grandmother's garden, and how well I remember their rich color, and the delightful odor they exhaled when the dew was resting on their petals. Where shall we find now such beds of s\veet-scented pinks, not car- nations, but real hardy pinks, and such sweet-williams? In few places; for they are out of fashion now. Tall clusters of phloxes stood here and there. Blue lark- spurs, tall, quaint, and lovely, nodded above carpets of portulaca vine, studded with scarlet flowers. Broad patches of the gorgeous herb- aceous peony were striking in effect, close by the strag- gling foliage and flowers of the sweet-pea. Great hollyhocks were there, too, with richly colored single petals, the pure outlines and decorative appearance of which fail not to charm the eye even now, amid the multitudinous resources of the mod- ern gardener. Snowdrops, crocuses, and other bulbs used to spring up as if by magic, year after year, in secluded spots of grandmother's garden. Evidently no FALL LARKSPUR. (DELPHINIUM ELATUM.) SINGLE HOLLYHOCKS. GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN. 205 definite arrangement had been applied to any of these plants, but somehow they were seen to be greatly to the advantage of the general effect. All stood together, just as they happened to come, behind the borders of box, in the rich, weedless brown earth. Ho\v fresh that brown earth smelled as it was dug up in early spring ! Of other climbers than the grape-vine there were few. Wistarias, clematises, and the long list of similar plants of the present day were little used then. Filling their place in their own attractive way, were delicate morning-glories and graceful cypress vines, trained with some formality and with almost reverential care. These reminiscences may and should have a distinct purpose and effect on present landscape gardening undertak- ings. Let our circumstances and intentions be what they may, we can certainly build up for ourselves once more some genuine development of these quaint old garden recollections. We can, I think, do it all the better if we are poor and have only a half acre or a scant 25 x 100-foot lot. In that case we should make a pilgrimage to Sunnyside (Irvington, N. Y.), and see how Washington Irving did, by fine instinct alone, for he was hardly a landscape gardener, what few landscape gardeners would have the simple self- control to attempt. A plain rambling house set on the banks of the Hudson with one walk winding from the pic- turesque lane to the porch and door-step, half a dozen or more elms and maples, a few simple flowers, blue and white, along the base of the dwelling, and you have literally all there is of the lawn. Not a coleus bed, not a shrub, noth- ing but exquisitely kept turf and a few stately old trees. 206 GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. The repose, the dignity, the quaint simplicity, and uncon- scious self-restraint of Sunnyside is my ideal of what a small place should be with a grandmother's garden behind it. But the reader will say, perhaps, I have my acres of land with drives, rhododen- d ron groups, shrubberies, green houses, beds of cannas and co- leuses, and yet why cannot I too have my grandmother's garden ? You can have it, without doubt, but since it will be necessarily out of keep- ing with the general scope of your place, you will have to isolate it and shut it from view with large trees and shrubs, so that it will be a surprise when discovered, and not count in the general effect of the lawn. In order to explain what I mean, I have introduced a plan of a place near Orange, N. J., where just this arrange- ment for a grandmother's garden was undertaken. It is not, of course, exactly what we remember our grandmoth- er's garden to have been, oilier times, other manners, -but it is built on the same plan, amplified and perfected in ac- cordance with the richness of our modern list of peren- nial garden plants. It is less quaint, I acknowledge, less COREOPSIS LANCOLATA. 207 PRIVATE PLACE AT ORANGE, N. J., AS LAID OUT BY VAUX & CO. old-timy, but it has as much quaintness as the old rooms with the grandmother's fur- niture seen in modern houses, and is quite as much in keeping. Let us look at the plan. It represents a place of three acres. There is a broad drive that sweeps up to the front of the house and then turns and passes out to the barn. All along the sides of the CANADA COLUMBINE. UQUILEOIA CANADENSIS. ) GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. 209 ERIANTHUS RAVENN/E. place are planted continuous borders of mixed trees and shrubs intended to secure a sense of seclusion, while in front are left two openings to give a view of passers-by and a glimpse of outside life and companionship. On the left of the house a walk winds from the front door to a fine old shade tree with a seat around it, and so along the outside border of shrubbery to a summer-house in the rear. At the back of the house the ground originally sloped up rapidly so that it became necessary to form a terrace in order to manage the drainage successfully. Between this terrace and the house, shut in by shrub- bery on both sides, was arranged a mat of carpet bedding carefully designed with Alternantheras, Echeverias, Pyreih- rumSy and Gnaphaliums, so as to secure an artistic arrangement of vivid green, yellow, red, and white. The spot is isolated, and part, as it were, of the architecture of the house. In such places only, on country places, do we consider planting of this kind admissible. In any other spot, away from the house, such designs are artificial and out of key. Passing up two flights of stone steps that ascend to the terrace with their intervening terrace walk, we come to the FESTUCA GLAUCA. 210 GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN. terrace gardeii, or to what comes as near to the grand- mother's garden as we ought to expect to get on such a place. It consists of a plat of green turf with the corners cut to an octagonal line, and then a border of eight feet for the regular hardy garden flowering plants, lined on the farther side by clipped walls of California privet. On either corner of the grass plat are tall urns for flowers, and still farther in are tall clusters of grasses, making four keypoints of effect. One of these is made of the dazzling white variegated bamboo (Arundo Donax varie- gata), sometimes called ribbon grass, mingled with a blazing spike or two of the red - hot poker plant or KnipJiofia alceoides (Tritoma Uvaria grandiflora ) . These plants are not entirely hardy, and need protection in a STIPA PENNATA. cellar during winter. Another of these groups is made up of a tender but splendid- looking grass, Gynerium argenteum, pampas grass, with graceful foliage and long silvery plumes. The third clump consists of the hardy Erianthus Ravennce, resembling pampas grass, and growing ten or twelve feet high. Eulalia Japonica, variegata and zebrina constitute the fourth and best clump. They are entirely hardy and very ornamental with their leaves striped and banded with white, and their stalks four to six feet high, bearing curly-feathered plumes. JFestuca glauca and Stipa pennata have also their places as attractive grasses. GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN. 211 And now we may in- dicate the special points of resemblance in this design to the grand- mother's garden. They are to be found princi- pally in the border of plants eight feet wide that skirts the walk and grass plat. Each angle of this grass plat is cut off, making a large eight- sided figure with four long and four short sides. A strip of turf two feet wide is first left, and then comes the mixed skirt- ing border of hardy perennial plants, relieved against the dark green clipped wall of privet. Here, as in the grandmother's garden, there is plenty of color and odor scattered about in some- what promiscuous fashion, and ready to the hand for plucking or not, as the passing mood may determine. In a general way, the large- growing plants are placed at the back, beyond a row of lower habit, and next the path we HAREBELL. (CAMPANULA TENO 212 GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. find the smaller specimens. Taken as a whole, however, the appearance of the plants, one to two feet apart, would be called entirely irregular, and instead of bare spaded earth, generally considered necessary in such places, the entire sur- face beneath the plants is covered with varieties of hardy creepers, such as moneywort, periwinkle, sedum, sandwort, moun- tain everlasting, arabis, or rock cress, not for- getting the pretty creeping forget-me-not, and the turfing daisy, with its lovely little flowers. All the plants in this border are entirely hardy, and will last for many years without being renewed. Any one may enjoy here abundant color and odor of the most charming kind, for the greater part of the year. First, in early spring, peep out flowers of the lovely blue hepaticas, of the trailing arbutus, the dainty New England mayflower, and certain of the anemo- nes or wind-flowers. The bloodroot, ( Sanguinaria Cana- densis) too, very dwarf, is always eagerly looked for in early spring, on account of the delicate charm of its pure white buds tenderly enfolded with leaves ; later on, a clump of its opened flowers are very showy. Then in May come still more, and, if possible, lovelier flowers, many of which last on far into summer. Such are LIVER LEAF. (HEPATICA TRILOBA.) GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. 213 larkspurs, garden pinks, the exquisite stemless gentian (Gentiana acaulisj, candy tuft ( ' Iberis), the asphodels, fa- vorites of the ancients ; several beautiful species of violets, and charming species of anemone, still blooming on into sum- mer. Strictly summer-blooming kinds of herbaceous plants there are, of course. Here, in summer, are bright yellow JAPAN WIND-FLOWER. (ANEMONE JAPONICA-HONORINE JOUBERT.) Achillas, the quaint and exquisite blue and yellow Aquile- gias, or hardy columbines, with strangely formed petals, the dainty harebells, showy Coreopsises, day lilies, certain lovely species of gentian, the wonderful scarlet cardinal-flower, brilliant red poppies, rich blue and scarlet foxglove like Pentetemons, Veronicas, white Astilbe Japonica, the garden phloxes, JJidtris or blazing star, and the purple foxglove. 214 GRANDMOTHER'S GARDEN. BLUE VIOLET. Autumn flowers are not forgotten. Masses of golden- rod (Kolidatjo), and orange-colored milkweed (AsclepiasJ, and purple asters are scattered through- out the border; the blue Aconitum autumnale, or au- tumn monk's-hood, the curi- ous chelone, or turtle's head, and the dwarfer kinds of sunflowers. Last, but not least, just before winter sets in, we dwell with delight on the brilliant yellow and purple flowers of the chrys- anthemums and Christmas roses. Your atten- tion has been directed in this description to only a few of the plants in this border of mixed hardy flowers. More than a hundred and fifty varieties are used. Before leaving the subject, it seems worth while to dwell for a moment on the Japan irises, planted in distinct lines within three formal recesses of the California privet, arranged for PURPLE FOXGLOVE. ^^ "COptlci!. They appear in the WHITE VIOLET - spring, and present, with their curious forms and hues as strange and beautiful in their way as any orchid one of the GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN. 215 most unique and charming effects in the entire garden. The broad, straight paths that run past all these flowers, and the grass plat and croquet ground make a worthy frame for our border, and everywhere the eye meets, at almost any season of the year, objects of interest. This place has, therefore, an attraction that is related some- what to the charm grandmother's ORIENTAL POPPY. garden possessed tor us in early (PAPAVER BRACTEATUM. > days. There is, first, the neatness and perfect keeping that suits the level space adjoining a terrace and the architectural lines of a house, and then there is all the profusion, and far more than the variety, that characterized the floral treasures of the old-fashioned exam- ple. More than that, we have indi- viduality of beauty, which is, in one sense, the best of all beauty, fostered in the highest degree. One's eco- nomical instincts are satisfied with the idea of possessing flowers that need no re-setting year by year, and one's instinct for beauty can certainly ask for no more abundant feast than is here spread out. JAPAN IRIS. (|RI8 IOCMPFERI.) CHAPTER XI. BEDDING PLANTS. HE terms flower bedding, color bed- ding, or carpet bedding are famil- iar to every one who gives flowers the slightest consideration. Farm door-yards and Newport lawns alike disport themselves in the gay but unfortunately often garish colors of the coleus and geranium. No need to advocate their use. They have achieved a foothold that is not likely to be soon shaken. The uni- versal delight in rich color is satisfied by their employment and the expense of their employment is comparatively small. They have long ago come to stay. It therefore behoves us carefully to consider here how they should be employed in any definite attempt at a harmonious arrangement of a well-appointed lawn. As we find them presented on many grass plats, their appearance is vulgar, inharmonious, and barbaric. The discord of color shocks one like an accuinu- 216 BEDDING PLANTS. 217 lation of false notes in music. So common, moreover, lias this bad composition grown, that some of the most refined and enlightened spirits among landscape gardeners have declared unqualified war against all color and carpet bed- ding whatsoever. It seems to me, however, that this is a prejudice and a narrow one. The reasonable view, the artistic instinct, would be, I am sure, to consider each coleus and geranium as a single beautiful plant and therefore deserving employment in artistically conceived designs and appropriate surround- ings. It is a great mistake to consider the employment of a coleus or geranium as requiring any different general principle of landscape-gardening arrangement from that of shrubs and trees. The coleus is taken up in the fall though there is nothing peculiar in that and new planta- tions of it made in the following spring, but lack of hardi- ness should affect not at all the necessity for applying the artistic principles of landscape gardening to all branches of the art. Color and form are given to the artist to use, whether it be in the shape of a coleus or an elm tree, and it is his business to see that the color and form are arranged in the composition in the most effective, har- monious, and pleasing way. The principles governing their arrangement are, moreover, the same in both cases. Now all this is doubtless evident as soon as we give the subject reasonable consideration. Why, then, the prejudice against the use of bedding plants, as evinced by persons of unquestionable taste. It must be mere thoughtlessness; for if they would only think for a moment, they must see that the arrangement of an oval bed of coleuses and 218 BEDDING PLANTS. centaureas into a glaring combination of stripes and formal bands of red, white, and yellow, like some gigantic pastry cook's tart, does not prevent a better method being employed by a better designer. When we have drawn a well-designed bed on paper, however, we have only commenced to solve the problem of good designing for bedding. The scheme must be made to fit a certain spot, and must be harmonized and adjusted to its surroundings. For instance, a certain decorative bed around the fountain at Union Square, New York, may look 1. ALTERNANTHERA. 2. ACALYPHA MACROPHYLLA. 3. ACALYPHA MUSAICA. 4. GERANIUM (DWARF). all right, while a similarly arranged bed on a Central Park meadow would shock the sense of harmony. Let us consider for a moment this arrangement of bed- ding plants around the Union Square fountain. It is one typical illustration. In good work of this sort, as I have mentioned, there must be a definite recognition of all the general principles of landscape-gardening art. Properly adjusted emphasis must be secured, and the treatment ap- proximated in miniature to that of the ordinary lawn. Consequently we find in the Union Square illustration the BEDDING PLANTS. 219 grass of the lawn represented by the dwarf, close-set alter- nantheras, the shrubs by the coleuses and geraniums, and the trees by the larger forms of the acalyphas. The relations of these parts are, it will be seen, unlike those of the different features of the lawn, but they are carefully studied, so as to bring them into artistic and effective relations with each other and with the gleaming water and the floating pond-lilies. The higher parts of the bed are not so high as to obscure the effect of the water- plants, and the lower parts have a sufficient expanse in places to afford the eye, although in miniature, a little of the pleasure of grass spaces. The eye is attracted from afar by the jewel-like effect of brilliant color, and yet when the fountain is reached all parts are so nicely adjusted to each other that the gaze, dwelling for a moment with de- light on the bedding, passes at once to the superior charms of the water-lilies and fountain spray. When we compare such a fairly adjusted and artistic arrangement of bedding as that around the Union Square fountain with the ordinary coleus bed found in many front-door yards, we begin to see why bedding is sometimes severely condemned. I think the main difficulty with most bedding is that the designer frequently fails to recognize the value of proper emphasis of parts in arranging his flower and foliage beds. He uses cannas alone or he uses coleuses and geraniums alone. Out in the grass he sets a strange and intricate design of rosette-like echeverias and calls it a carpet-bed or rug, and thinks he is artistic. The plants are attractive individually, and the arrangement perhaps curious and in- teresting, but it is out of place, out of key, and improperly 220 BEDDING PLANTS. related to its surroundings. They seem unhappy for lack of the congenial company they find in nature. As a rule, it may be said that ornamental planting of this character, namely, bedding, should be restricted to the immediate neighborhood of architectural structures and to small city squares or greens, where the rigid lines of the BED OF CANNAS, COLEUSES, AND ACALYPHAS. neighboring masses of houses are inevitably, to the eye, associated with the semi-artificial-looking bedding. A favorable arrangement for bedding plants will be found directly against the wall of a large building. A solid background always enhances the attraction of a mass of bedding. First come the cannas, solanums, or other large- leaf plants against the wall, then acalyphas, coleuses, geraniums, and last pyrethrums and alternantheras. ooo BEDDING PLANTS. There is one feature of the flower or foliage bed that is apt to look stiff and inartistic, and that is the extreme edge or border. This is usually too sharply cut in outline. The plants do not blend with the grass, and the sharp transition line is not agreeable. To overcome this stiffness of outline, single plants of the coleus or geranium size should be set out in the grass just beyond the actual border of the bed. Then at various points throughout the bed the pyrethruin or alternanthera edging the masses of coleus or geranium should be brought forward close to the low border, and here and there several of them should be allowed to get over the border and establish themselves in the neighbor- ing grass. This will create a properly related emphasis of outline, a pleasing variety, and irregularity enough to just escape formality. There must be necessarily a certain pre- cision of lines, but the treatment should all the time bear a distinct and well-defined kinship to that employed by nature in our fields and pastures. I have now considered two common types of bedding, one a narrow border around the stone coping of a fountain, and another the frequently recurring case of a plantation against the wall of a building. There is another and still more important one, in the small city parks for instance, where there is no building or fountain around which to mass the bedding. In that case the bedding should be arranged as foreground to the shrub groups, leaving the main lawn space undiminished. An illustration of this arrangement may be seen in the half-acre lawn of Jeannette Park, on the East River, near the foot of Broad Street, New York, where belts of glowing coleuses BEDDING PLANTS. 223 and pyrethrums wind in and out in front of the irregular masses of shrubs and border their confines. At irregular intervals in the belts of coleuses and gladioluses appear masses of cannas and acalyphas. The effect thus obtained is almost tropical-like in appearance, and yet in a certain sense subordinates itself to, and blends with, the masses of trees and shrubs. It is, moreover, bright and cheerful, and decorative, in a region full of dull brick and stone buildings, where such relief is particularly grateful. There is again the effect of bedding with a minimum of green- ward at Jackson Square, Thirteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, where the open available centre for grass space was so small after the walks and boundary plantations were made, that it was deemed better to fill nearly all the central space with a bouquet of foliage plants of many colors. The bed was an irregular star-shape, with cannas and acalyphas in the centre, and coleuses and geraniums and pyrethrums and alternantheras on the outside. Masses of bananas, cannas, acalyphas, geraniums, etc., are made to produce excellent effects by planting them in irregular masses up and down a steep bank, with single specimens of acalyphas and geraniums standing outside the main groups. I question much indeed whether coleuses and geraniums should be planted anywhere without such SWORD LILY. (GLADIOLUS.) 224 BEDDING PLANTS. large plants as cannas and acalyphas to emphasize and re- lieve anything like a flat monotonous effect. Even in the park at the foot of Canal Street, New York, one of the roughest and dirtiest of neighborhoods, where green grass is a priceless boon, a bit of massed cannas, acalyphas, coleuses, arid geraniums have been introduced effectively without injuring the open centre grass effect. Shade is of course all important to the small city park, and the shade of large trees is entirely de- structive to the growth of bedding plants, which need sun and air in abundance. FOUNTAIN. 1. CANNAS. 2. COLEU8 VEB8CHAFFELTII. 8. COLEUS KIRKPATRICK. 4. GERANIUM (BLACK HAWK). 5. GERANIUM (GENERAL GRANT). 6. ALTERNANTHERA (vELLOw). 7. ALTERNANTHERA (RED). 8. ACALYPHA TRICOLOR. 9. ACALYPHA MACROPHYLLA. 10. 6ALVIA 6PLENDEN8. 11. 80LANUM WARSCEWICZIOIOES. 12. CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 13. ERYTHRINA CRISTA-GALLI. 14. VINCA ROSEA. 15. LAMTANA DELICATISSIMA. 16. CENTAUREA CANOIDIS8IMA. 17. PYRETHRUM AUREUM. 18. DATURA. There are plenty of nooks, however, for bedding plants in small city parks that are not shaded, where they may be planted with excellent effect, adding much to the pleasure of many people. The system of bedding adopted around the Arsenal in Central Park shows the frequently recurring example al- ready mentioned of a wall bordered with grass and decorated with bedding plants. The large kinds, like cannas, castor- oil plants, solanums, etc., are naturally arranged against the BEDDING PLANTS. 225 Avail, and then the acalyphas and araarantus and geraniums and finally the pyrethrums and alternantheras. This is all regular and in due form, and so is the waving line of the border of bed both on the inside and out. The peculiar part of this arrangement of bedding lies in the way the large plants, such as cannas, etc., are brought forward nearly to the front of the mass. Then across the border to the very grass are carried narrow clusters of acalyphas, geraniums, etc. These promontories of color are thrown out where the border of grass is narrowest, and in the bays of the bedding single specimens of geraniums and acalyphas are set in the grass opposite the same plants growing in the mass ; the whole arrangement being in- tended to impress the eye as a continually changing effect of recesses and bays and promontories and valleys of the richest color. The illustration, on the following page, of varying ellip- ses or discs, superimposed one over the other, makes an excellent and artistic effect of broadly massed colors in bedding. The illustrations of bedding I have thus far discussed briefly have been carefully designed in the following man- ner : Measurements were taken of the exact spot the pro- posed bed was to occupy, and the figure was drawn out on a sheet of paper, showing at the same time any adjoining buildings, walks, or shrub groups. A list of plants to be used in the bed was then made and their heights and colors at maturity written out. It then became a question of combining colors and various heights of plants into a single artistic effect. The outlines and proportions of the various 226 BEDDING PLANTS. masses of plants were carefully sketched out in pencil and then the colors used were painted between the lines. When this original study had been carefully worked out, tracings on muslin, including color, were taken from it and given to the engineer. It was his duty to mark out the boundaries of the various parts of the bed with stakes. Then the BO FT. IN DIAMETER. 8T. AND FIFTH AVE. , N. Y. ACALYPHA. 5. COLEUS VER8CHAFFELTII. 4. COLEUS. gardeners took the map, with its colored pattern and key or list of plants, and proceeded to execute the work of planting out the geraniums, coleuses, etc., in accordance with the design. Nor did the work of intelligent management end here, for from time to time throughout the summer it was the BEDDING PLANTS. 227 business of the gardeners not only to water and cultivate tlie bedding plants, but also to prune them with intelligence and art. It is usually the practice to pinch back coleuses and other plants in order to make them look even and thick, simply a broad, flat mass, but in this way all due emphasis of parts is lost. In fact no pinching whatever should be practised ex- cept here and there where a single plant grows awkwardly, or where too even a surface appeal's. In some cases, even, as in Union Square, the acalyphas have been trained for a time on sticks to secure the strongest contrast possible be- tween the tree effect of the acalypha and the grass effect of the alternanthera. Pruning plants of all kinds, it should be remembered, means in its proper acceptation the development of natural and characteristic beauties. It means perfecting the special individuality of the plant. Judging from the style of pruning we often see, the object of the art might be readily supposed to mean obliterating as far as possible all individuality. Having thus denned and illustrated briefly the main principles that should apply to the construction of a color or foliage bed, it would seem proper to consider some of the leading plants suitable for work of this kind. Taking them in the order of their employment, from the lowest to the highest, we have among the grass type the altenuui- theras. They do not grow ordinarily over five or six inches high, and have close-set leaves not unlike those of grass. Their marked peculiarity is found in their coloring. Each leaf is variegated in irregular fashion with green and red or green and yellow, the foundation color being green. The 228 BEDDING PLANTS. best of the red kinds are versicolor, anwena, and paronychi- aides ; and of the yellow, anrea and aurea nana. Where these alternantheras do not appear as a grass effect throughout the mass of bedding, their proper place is on the extreme edge of the group. Such borders should never be of regular width, but should swell in and out of the general mass. The illustration of the bedding adjoining the Arsenal, Central Park, indicates this method of using alternantheras on the outskirts of the plantations. Belonging to the same grass type and blending the larger plants of the bedding with the greensward, are the centaureas, pyrethrums, and nasturtiums. The echeverias do not blend with a general mass of bedding. They are too dwarf and too stiff and formal in appearance, and should therefore be always used in designs by themselves. Indeed, to me their strange, rosette-like shapes are not alto- gether attractive, although they are certainly interesting and curious. Echeverias form the greater part of the famous carpet-beds and rugs constructed with so much art on 'many lawns. Two excellent echeverias are metallica and secuiula glauca. Pyrethrums, sometimes called fever few, or golden feather, are also well suited for border bedding-plants. They are somewhat larger in growth than the alternan- theras, but their contour is soft and agreeable, and blends well with the general mass. The kind best suited for bedding is aureum, on account of its bright yellow color and its dwarf habit. The same irregular treatment of a border arrangement applies as well to pyrethrums as to alternantheras. BEDDING PLANTS. 229 There is one plant for which I desire to ask special atten- tion, on account of its fitness for border planting. It is an excellent and charming bedding-plant in every way. I refer to the well-known old plant, the nasturtium vine. There are some kinds more dwarf and less vine-like in habit, and therefore preferable for bedding. The leaf of the nastur- tium, with its slightly formal outline, round rather than oval, and its delicate shadings, is decorative individually. When we come, however, to mass a lot of these leaves in the irregular picturesque fashion in which they naturally grow, their full charms appear. These charms are specially effective as a border to color beds, especially if the arrange- ment is on a slope or bank. The tendrils of the nastur- tium push out over the turf, and break up the more or less stiff outline of the bed in the most attractive manner possi- ble. A certain restraint of this creeping nature will be, of course, necessary, to prevent the nasturtiums from over- running the greensward on one side and the bedding-plants on the other. I have not spoken of the yellow and orange flowers of the nasturtium, although they are very attractive, because *in color- and foliage-bedding the leaf is of prime importance, not only on account of the leaf lasting longer than the flower, but on account of the broad effects of color on the mass, which must be derived from the leaves. The flowers will undoubtedly increase the attraction of the bed, but they cannot be counted as one of the essential elements of the color-bedding design. An important part of all bedding is the clearly defined solid and distinct colors that can be used in combination 230 BEDDING PLANTS. with each other. The collection of the variegated and mixed colors may be attractively arranged in an irregular manner, but such kinds will rarely make that flashing, jewel-like effect that is exhibited by the solid self-colors of silver, red, and gold. The most perfect type of the silvery or white effect is that of Centaurea candidissima. It is almost pure white, and forms in combination a clearly marked contrast with the red and yellow of the other plants. The two objections to it are : firstly, that it is not bushy enough, does not grow thickly on the ground ; and secondly, that it is hardly tall enough to use as a shrub form of bedding-plant and too large for the alternanthera or grass type. Where the com- bination will admit it ceutaureas should always be arranged as an irregular border outside of the geraniums or coleuses. They may be streaked through the coleuses, but if set in large patches within the mass the coleuses are apt to obscure them. The combination, side by side, of centaureas and gera- niums is difficult to manage well. The pyrethrums look better with geraniums, but geraniums, as a rule, look well grown in large masses together, with a few points of the mass accentuated with acalyphas and amarantus. These groups of geraniums can be greatly varied by using the many distinct varieties that are now grown. The main types of geraniums, however, that are specially useful in this kind of color- or foliage-bedding are the large yellowish green-leaved sorts with showy flowers, of which the General Grant variety is a well-known and popular instance. The second is the horseshoe geranium, with its BEDDING PLANTS. 231 DOUBLE GERANIUM. distinct and lovely leaf shadiiigs and less conspicuous flowers. Third and last comes the silver-leaved, well repre- sented by the variety Mountain of Snow. This variety 'stands the sun well. Geraniums are excellent for bedding throughout the summer until frost comes, and are comparatively free from disease. Their forms are picturesque and compact- growing, covering the ground well, while few r bedding plants will grow in diy sandy soil better and continue to -resist the effects of drought so long. The colors of the different kinds of geraniums mentioned above are so distinct that, on experiment, it will be found that the most effective com- binations can be made of their various tints. It is not a generally accepted statement, but I believe it to be never- theless true, that every geranium bed should have a border round it of pyrethrum, alternanthera, or similar plants of the grass type. This is, of course, simply following out the principles of bedding design I have already laid down. We come now to the most important plant for color effect that we use in bed- ding. The coleus is widely known and appreciated. It has been propagated and varied by cultivation until its wonderful capacity for sporting has given us an astonishing number of the most diverse- looking sorts. The leaves are spotted, shaded, and striped with every conceivable tint of red, yellow, brown, purple, SINGLE GERANIUM. 232 BEDDING PLANTS. and green. For the best designs of bedding, however, I am satisfied that the most valuable coleuses are those exhibiting nearly solid self-colors of red or yellow. The best exam- ples of these are probably Verschaffeltii and golden bedder, red and yellow kinds. The first is, I am tempted to say, the best single kind of coleus we have for color-bedding, if not the best among all plants. There is no plant, I be- lieve, that presents a more brilliant jewel-like effect in a bedding combination of colors than Coleus Verschaffeltii. There is no coleus that I know of which has solidly green leaves, but Kirlcpatrick does duty fairly well in a green effect, its foliage being only slightly mottled with yellow. Coleuses are not as generally successful as geraniums, espe- cially in dry weather, and in early autumn disease is often liable to attack them. An excellent plant for a small tree effect in bedding is the A.marantns scdicifolius. It is weeping and graceful in habit, and glowing with red tints. Its height at maturity is about three to four feet. A far better plant, however, of the same type is the Acalypha. This plant is apparently little used in this country, but its large, rich-looking, variegated red and green leaves and its weeping habit combine to give it a splendid effect in a foliage bed. I hardly know a bedding-plant except Coleus Verscliaffeltii that presents such a glowing red as the acalypha, and the acalypha has the advantage of being a much larger and more graceful plant than the coleus. The place for the acalypha in a bed is next to the cannas where cannas are used. It cannot be associated effectively adjoining either geraniums or coleuses, being BEDDING PLANTS. 233 taller, two to three feet high, and growing much larger leaves. Salvia splendens is also an effective bedding-plant, growing two or three feet high. Its foliage is attractive and thick-growing, and the flowers are specially attrac- tive, because they glow with a rich red late in autumn. Vinca rosea may be also used with excellent effect in this shrub type of bedding. Its rich green glossy leaves SALVIA SPLENDENS. are its chief attraction. The last and most important feat- ure of foliage-bedding is the employment of the tree type of plants. First and most important of these are the canna effects. The well known Canna Indica has many varieties, but their general appearance exhibits on the lawn great solid leaves extending from the ground six or eight feet high. Their tints of green run in some kinds into rich red and purple hues. One of the best of these is Canna Ehmanni of compara- tively recent introduction. The foliage is not as large as that of some other cannas, but it is solid and massive and banana-like, and the crimson-scarlet flow- ers hang in heavy clusters from the top of the plant, and continue in bloom, throughout the season. The value of CANNA INDICA. the canna in bedding lies chiefly in its leaves. Masses of these leaves seen even from some dis- tance have a specially tropical and pleasing effect, and BEDDING PLANTS. fl? add greatly to the beauty of any part of a bed that they emphasize. Cannas should be always used in considerable masses. The\' are tuberous-rooted and not hardy, and these tubers should be taken up and kept through the winter in a dry cellar or greenhouse where the frost can be kept out. It is a good idea to start cannas in early spring, in pots, so that when they come to be set out they will be a foot or too high. In this way their full effect will be ob- tained early in the season, canuas should be set out about a foot to fifteen inches ' r~' \" f apart, to secure their best effect in masses. A grand plant to associ- ate with cannas, because it serves to greatly develop and perfect their special foliage effect, is the banana plant ( Musa ensete). The leaves are enormously high and broad eight to ten feet high and two feet broad, dominating and yet resembling those of the caunas. Nothing can be more tropical-looking, and the reddish tint of the midrib and adjacent veinings and the prevailing tint of green of the leaf is charming. The plan of associating the Musa ensete with a mass of cannas is also valuable, because the Musa is thus enabled by the support of the canna leaves to resist high winds which '"' BANANA PLANT. (MUSA ENSETE.) BEDDING PLANTS. 235 SOLANUM WARSCEWICZIOIDES. are apt to beat it about and tear it. Mma ensete is the st iff est-gro wing of its race, but the support of the cannas is nevertheless valu- able. These banana plants can be win- tered like the cannas in a warm cellar or cool greenhouse, and then potted for May planting. Other great mas- sive plants suited for the tree effect in bedding are the sola- nums. The leaves are large, thick, and deeply and picturesquely cut, and hang in drooping masses. It is altogether a massive-look- ing plant. The castor-oil plant is another ex- cellent instance of the tree type for bedding. It is the tallest, perhaps, of all the plants used in bedding, and specially picturesque in growth and tinting. Its place, however, is among other plants, such as sola- nums, where its somewhat naked stem will be properly clothed and supported. The well-known ele- phant ear, Caladium esculentum may be also used effectively in similar associations. ELEPHANT EAR. < CALADIUM ESCULENTUM 236 BEDDING PLANTS. I wiah to say a word before closing about the use of tulips, pansies, and daisies for spring bedding. It is really color-bedding with flowers, rather than leaves, for the leaves at the early season when tulips bloom have hardly yet developed. The contrast of the pansies and daisies set out in the same pattern as that of the succeeding summer bed- ding is attractive and effective, but they are modest in the extreme in the presence of the tulips. By employing the red, yellow, and white tulips in the summer-bedding patterns the most splendid effect of clear, pure, glowing color can be obtained. The large round bed at the entrance to Central Park, at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, is thus planted in varying ovals that make broad masses of color, first white, then yellow, and then red next to the green grass. Red color forms a striking and pleasing contrast with the green of the NEW SINGLE TULIPS, grass, and is therefore generally arranged next to the greensward as shown in the diagram on page 226. The effect of tulip and pansy bedding is necessarily somewhat flat and monotonous in contour, but this naturally comes from using flowers, as it were, alone for producing a color-effect. In only this way, however, can we secure early spring color-beds, because foliage plants such as canuas, coleuses, etc., cannot generally be planted out with safety in the climate of New York before May 20th. At that time tulips are, as a rule, done flowering, and pansies past their prime. BEDDING PLANTS. 237 Pansies are planted out in March and early April, being almost in bloom when set out, and tulip-bulbs are planted late in the fall of the year previous to that of blooming. Two excellent red kinds of tulips are La Belle Alliance and Artus / among white kinds I would name white Pottebaker and among the yellow kinds I would select Yellow Prince and Canary Bird. Due Van Tholl is a splendid red variety, but it is too dwarf, and blooms at a somewhat different time from those mentioned above. I do not insist on these varieties, but take them because they have clean, pure self-colors, and because they are of the same height and bloom at the same time. These are essential qualities for tulips to possess that are intended to be associated together in the same color- bed. CHAPTER XII. THE ORNAMENTATION OF PONDS AND LAKES. 'ID the reader ever have a place in the country ? If he has and does not want to grow sick of it, or if he has none, but hopes to have one, and does not want to be forced to give it up in disgust, let me give him a piece of advice. Don't undertake too much. Have only five hundred square feet of grass and one tree or half a dozen shrubs, but have all of the best. Big deep, fertilize liberally, plant the best grass-seed and plenty of it, set out the largest trees and shrubs that will be likely to grow, and care for them tenderly, year after year. Dig about them and prune them and spare no pains to make them the best of their kind ; or, let me say at once, that the reader's delight in nature and his desire to imitate her effects will not prevent the failure of his lawn-planting. All this is said in advance, because it applies as well to water-plants as to ordinary lawn-plants. I propose now, in a few words, to tell the reader how I came to attempt to grow, and to succeed, after much tribula- 238 PONDS AND LAKES. 239 tion, in growing, a good collection of water-plants, and how reasonably satisfactory water- effects were contrived on my lawns. At a comparatively early period in life, having a comfortable fortune, the desire took possession of me to have a country-place. With my country-place came the usual failures and successes that are incident to the construction of lawns and gardens in the hands of amateurs. The failures, I am frank enough to confess, . much outnumbered the successes. I shall, however, content myself with giving a brief account of my lily-pond work. The soil on my place, of one hundred acres, was gravel and sand, and a stream or pond on one side of it had a clean pebbly bottom and water that flowed rapidly down a decline. The water was only a few inches deep in many places. I thought it would be a good plan to dig out the bottom a bit, and in this way lost much valuable fertilizing material. However, I did not mind that, as I expected to dig a hole for each water-plant and to fill it up with good soil from the neighboring field. At this early period of my lawn-planting I unfortunately gave little thought to the quality of the soil. A charming magazine article had fallen into my hands and completely fascinated me with its dainty, fanciful description of lilies grown in a pond-hole or ditch. It all seemed so easy : just a few water-plants set out in what appeared the easiest and simplest fashion, and lo ! you had a feast of lilies and lily- pads. The plants seemed to have just grown themselves, like Topsy in " Uncle Tom's Cabin." At this time I was greatly impressed with the idea of planting the lawn with trees and shrubs from the woods, sweet fern, sumach, 240 PONDS AND LAKES. sassafras, dogwood, red cedar, pepperidge, hickory, etc. Of course, such plants frequently died, and if they did live assumed a stunted form. As an old farmer of the neigh- borhood subsequently expressed it : " Well, I knowed them things you set out would die. I could have told you beforehand that crowded woods plants have poor roots. But then, you would n't have believed me if I had. Your plants just up and died because a full dose of sunshine did not suit their shady constitutions." Considering this mania, you will not be surprised to hear that I visited a pond in the woods near by and dug up and transplanted to my own pond a large number of roots of white water- lilies. Other water-plants were naturally secured subse- quently in the same way. I need hardly say, after the above remarks of the farmer, that ray water-lilies did not specially thrive. The lily-roots had not been grown for transplanting and were not, in most cases, young and thrifty, and the soil of the bottom of the stream or pond was not rich and suited to water-plants. However, among the numerous water-plants I set out, many lived. They were strung along a straight, monotonous shore that I had dug out to a line to secure a neat appearance. I learned in after days that this arrangement was about as bad as could be imagined from a good lawn-planter's standpoint. The lilies and other water-plants grew slowly and the flowers were small. I had finally to acknowledge that my lily-pond and stream was not a success. As a result my interest in the plantation soon flagged, and except to gather a few lilies I seldom visited it. Weeds sprung up to its surface and drifted material made it untidy and unhealthy-looking. PONDS AND LAKES. 241 Besides, about this time I sold this country-place and so cannot say what the lily-pond finally became, as I never revisited it. Much like any natural lily-pond in the woods, I fancy. Returning to the city, I continued to live there most of the time for several years. Yet I never at any time wholly lost my interest in lawn-planting. Now that I had no country-place to absorb my attention, I went about at home and abroad and saw how other people succeeded and failed in their landscape-gardening efforts. An impor- tant source of information existed, I found, in the different nurseries. I did not take so much to the woods now as aforetime. Concerning the construction of ponds and streams and the ornamentation of their surface with aqua- tic plants, I did not, however, secure as much information as I had hoped. At last, one day, I again met my fate and bought another country- place, only instead of a hundred acres as before it now contained less than ten. The soil was of excellent quality, and there were on either side of the house some grand old native oak, elm, and tulip trees, and I planted a few large shrubs on the outer boun- daries. Paths and roads there were none, except one short carriage-sweep leading directly from the house to the high- way. Off to the west of the house sloped a half-dozen acres of meadow land, the rich velvety turf of which had known no plough for half a century. Sheep and cows had pastured it, and sometimes it had been mown. I mowed it and manured it too, and prided myself on the finest lawn to be seen in the county. At the foot of the slope came the feature which had chiefly induced me to buy the place. It was a broad placid stream fifty to one hundred feet wide, 16 242 PONDS AND LAKES. moving quietly down to a small neglected mill-pond that partially abutted my property. Across this stream I owned a narrow strip of land only an acre or two in extent, but enough to enable me to control the treatment of both shores of the stream. A rustic bridge joined these acres. The water was shallow, not more than, for the most part^ two or three feet deep, and the grassy slope extended to the very edge. It was a brini- \ i ming sheet of water, sometimes overflowing its banks several feet up the steep lawn side. Here was my chance, I believed, to grow aquatic plants in per- fection. I proceeded at once to study the natural conditions of the spot, and tried to work on the same lines as nature had employed in this small territory ever since the dam had been built. Where the force of the stream had already managed to scoop out a small bay, I dug it still farther inland. In other words, I analyzed the forces in action GREEN-LEAVED BAMBOO. (ARUNDO DONAX. ) PONDS AND LAKES. 243 aud aided and abetted their inclinations. If grasses and twigs had caught on a small projection of the shore and a little vegetation had sprung up and soil thus collected, I lengthened and broadened the projection and planted it with clumps of grasses, such as flag, bamboo, pampas grass, and the hardy Eulalia Japonica. Back of these, on more solid ground, I planted a willow and an alder, with some irises, and tender cannas and caladiums or elephant ears. I was careful, moreover, to be conservative even in this natural treat- ment of my shores. There was no frequent repetition of the prom- ontory and bay idea. At only a few points was any change made in the original line of the shore. Such changes as I did make, however, were forcible and marked and carefully adjusted in the exact direction and angle that the stream would be likely to take when it worked its fantastic way before a rapid current or overflow. Grasses and shrubs suited to low grounds, of the kinds I have named, were scattered in small groups about the points running back, sometimes quite a distance, up the PAMPAS GRASS. (GYNERIUM ARGENTEUM.) 244 PONDS AND LAKES. bank. In the midst of these groups grew some higher shrubs or small trees like the birch, for the sake of empha- sizing the effect and giving variety of sky-line. I do not wish to be needlessly technical, but if you could see the two great Lombardy poplars, forty feet high, bordering and making a frame, as it were, for my place, you would understand what I mean by emphasis. Great towers of green, these poplars seem to be mounting guard over my small domain, and their long shadows at sundown reach far across the stream and the grass of the meadow beyond. I am not going to apologize for my pop- EULALIA \sx&. Th ev were and are grand, and I am proud of them. Tree-experts may warn me that they are liable to borers and bark-lice, and that they lose their leaves early in the season, and in many ways invite the use of the axe. It may be so. I have enjoyed them, however, for a number of years and they are entirely healthy yet, although surely a score of years in age. It will be a long time, therefore, before an axe under my direction will touch them. Even the tendency to lose their leaves early in the season would not induce me to use the axe, for their lofty spire-like forms dominate everything and estab- lish that variety of sky-line so much to be desired by the lawn-planter. Let the limbs be bare and the trunk scarred and seamed with borers, the noble outline is there, and shrubs and small trees can be made to screen the lower and generally uglier portions. It should be remembered also, that an occasional pruning, as the years go on, tends greatly to renew and perpetuate the poplar's health and vigor. PONDS AND LAKES. 245 But, the reader will say, where is the lily-pond ? You have told us about your lawn with its stream and old mill- pond, but where are your lilies ? Well, I answer, do not be in a hurry. I assure you if I had not selected and arranged my lawn and water properties as I did, the lilies I might have set out would have been of much less account than they are. Remember the lilies on my former place. In BORDER OF THE FOUNTAIN, UNION SQUARE, N!T.W YORK. LOTUSES AND WATER-LILIES. truth, without some of the characteristics of my present lawn the proper setting for the clustering water-lily gems would have been absent. And think what a setting they had now great poplars, drooping willows, alders, waving grasses, purple irises, purple marsh-mallows growing on prom- ontories of a brimming river backed by a sloping bank of rich greensward. In the coves, chiefly, of my stream and pond were set my lily-jewels. The bottom of the water 240 PONDS AND LAKES. was deepened and a foot of soil, not in spots but along the entire front, was replaced by the richest mixture I could make of mould and manure. Pond-lilies are great feeders, and I intended to give them the best chance I could to look their prettiest. For the Nelumbiums or lotuses con- siderable clay is needed. Fortunately, my soil had nat- urally plenty of clay. I used, moreover, other kinds of water-plants besides lilies, and some of them, as well as certain lilies, were tender, coming as they do originally from the tropics. The tender ones I bought anew every year, at a moder- ate expense, from one of the few growers in America. I may have expended during some years one hundred and even one hundred and fifty dollars, but it was a small sum compared with the amount necessary to keep up a green- house fitted with suitable tanks. Water-lilies and aquatic plants winter badly in cellars. They are easily excited to grow by a little excess of light and heat, and as easily checked and injured by an excess of cold. Except a few kinds, such as the wonderful blue and purple water-lilies of Zanzibar, which I bought yearly, I have therefore managed to content myself w r ith a number of perfectly hardy aqua- tics, including some of the best water-lilies and lotuses. Doubtless the biggest, grandest, and most effective of these was the lotus Nelmnbium speciosum. This plant is the greatest feeder of all, and will thrive prodigiously in the richest, rankest mud that can be concocted. It will, in fact, crowd out most other plants, and should be thinned every year so as to appear in clusters and not in monot- onous masses extending from shore to shore. This Nelum- PONDS AND LAKES. 247 biuni is widely known in India and Japan as the lotus, and is there considered sacred and is freely copied in their decorative designs. It is also probably the lotus of ancient Egypt- Picture for yourself a pumpkin-leaf erected three or four feet high on a stem, and great buds that look, for all the world, like gigantic tea-rose buds, and you will have a AN ARRANGEMENT OF LOTUSES AND LILY-PADS. fair idea of the general appearance of the lotus. Of course, the leaves of the lotus are more finely veined and smoother and more shining of texture, and the flowers grander and richer in tint than the tea-rose bud ; but, for all that, the pumpkin-leaf and tea-rose bud comparison is a suggestive one. The botanical name of the lotus, Nelumlinm, signify- ing a rose or spray of a watering-pot, is very descriptive of the curious seed-pod. There is a fine Nelumbium, native to 248 PONDS AND LAKES. America, a yellow lotus with excellent foliage, which is found in one or two places in New Jersey, but which chiefly abounds in Florida and other Southern and Western States. The leaves of this species are quite as noteworthy as those of the familiar NelumUum speciosum. These are often two feet in diameter. A GROUP OF JAPANESE LOTUSES. (NELUMBIUM SPECIOSUM.) The lotus leaves and flowers are decorative and striking in effect, but the true water-lilies, the NympJiceas, are, after all, I am inclined to say, the best ornamental water-plants. Following out my Lombard}' poplar idea of emphasis, I PONDS AND LAKE^. 249 used many lotuses in front of my brook and pond promon- tories. But in all my experiments with aquatic plants I never chanced on any pond-effects quite equal to that of my coves of Nymplueas in midsummer. Fancy a quiet, mirror-like surface of water, studded with clustering masses of lily-pads, enfolding half-open flowers, nestling yet buoy- ant. Every one is familiar with scenes in woodland nooks resembling this in kind. The remarkable difference on my place was that my trees and shrubs, grasses and flowers, came to the water's edge and were mirrored there, and that in front and about them floated and were reflected lily -pads of excellent size and coloring. The flowers also of these great tropical lilies were especially large and richly hued, some species being pure white, others red, and still others purple and deep blue. I have had these water-lilies and other water-plants growing on my place now for several years, but I confess that, even at the present time, familiar as they are to me, when I look at one of these blue lilies on an early summer morning I am impressed with the scene as an absolute revelation of beauty, a landscape feature posi- tively unique. I am not going, on this occasion, to give an account of all the aquatic plants I grow. I have the tender Pontederia crassipeSj a floating plant with curious orchid-like purple flowers, water-poppies, pitcher-plants, cat-tails, and a score of other species and varieties that I shall not enumerate. All these kinds of water-plants doubtless add greatly to the attractions of decorative waters, but, after all, it is the lotuses and lilies, or lilies and lotuses, not giving the prece- dence to either, that every one ought to want. Having 250 PONDS AND LAKES. once had them, any decorative piece of water without them will seem almost uninteresting, no matter what other water- plants are employed. Let me say here, before I forget, that spaces of clear surface among water-plants, with undisturbed reflections, are particularly necessary to secure the best effects. The whole surface of the pond should be no more covered up with water-lilies than fine rocks should be completely masked with climbing vines. To explain to the reader which are the tender and which are the hardy kinds would be a lengthy task, , and I must refer him to the nearest nurseryman who grows aquatics. Better not grow many tender plants, would 1* be my advice to the ordinary amateur lawn-planter. The success of this treat- ment of my stream certainly affords me great pleasure, and I need hardly say I am proud of it. It has, however, done more than that. One or two of my neighbors are, I see, already following my example, with promising results. In the village, also, near by, there is a fountain, and in the basin I have persuaded the authorities to arrange some boxes of lilies and lotuses renewed every year with purchased plants, and in place of a great iron Neptune, painted white and surrounded by white AN ARRANGEMENT OF WATER-LILIES AND PAPYRUS. PONDS AND LAKES. 251 iron cherubs spouting little jets of water, a graceful spray effect has been introduced. Water-lilies and lotuses lend themselves charmingly to the decoration of fountain basins, especially if they are used in moderation and do not cover up more than a fair half of the entire surface of the water. Before closing this account of my experience in growing water-plants, I must refer to the introduction of water-lilies and lotuses in the parks of New York. Some four years since, a year or two after I became Superintendent of Parks, my mind was turned, as well as that of my assist- ants, to the subject of growing lilies in the Central and city parks. AVe knew they had been grown to a limited extent in Fairmouut Park, Philadelphia, and conceived the idea of using them largely in New York. At first we bought a considerable number, say five hundred dollars' worth, from Mr. Sturtevant, of Borden- town, N. J., the father of water-lily culture in America. For the last two years, however, we have bought little and propagated much, so that at present we have an abundance. We have tanks constructed in the green-houses, where, by means of high bottom-heat, we can grow the most tender aquatic plants. Our most ambitious, if not our earliest attempt, was the construction of a lily-pond. In Central Park we have nothing like the stream and pond effect on my own place, and we found that it would be neces- sary to treat our lakes in a larger and more expensive way. As a first essay we dug out a pond close by, and forming as it were part of, what is termed Conservatory Lake, just north of the gate at 72d Street and Fifth Avenue. The general shape of this pond was oval, with 252 PONDS AND LAKES. winding, irregular shores, bounded by a high bank on the east side and a great willow drooping over the north end. Kocks were disposed in the immediate banks, so as to suggest a natural formation rather than an artificial pond. The bottom, scarcely three feet deep, was cemented tight as a cup, and the water flowed gently in at one end and out at the other, and so through a basin into the sewer. Eigh- teen inches of soil was made rich with ma- nure and de- posited over the bottom. This soil was renewed more or less every year. Masses of flowering shrubs a n d small trees, such as the hydrangea, Spircea opultfolia, and purple beech and birch formed a background of foliage on the steep hillside sloping up to Fifth Avenue. The lotuses (N. speciosum) in this pond were disposed in a solid mass at the north end along the steepest banks. There the observer can look down and see them mirrored on the surface THE CENTRE OF THE FOUNTAIN, UNION SQUARE. PONDS AND LAKES. 253 of the water in the most effective way. Masses of the large hardy white lily ( 'JV. alba candidissima), and the beautiful little white one ( N. pygrmBa), the size of a half dollar, the Cape Cod pink lily, and several other kinds grow permanently in the mud of the bottom. Tender ones, like BETHESDA FOUNTAIN BASIN CENTRAL PARK. the blue and red varieties r - CN. Devoniensis, -N. Zauzi- < m$& . ' ' larensis azurea and roseaj, are planted in boxes filled with rich compost and removed to the park greenhouses every year. The season to enjoy this pond at its best is about ten o'clock in the morn- ing, later than this the heat of the sun gradually closes 254 PONDS AND LAKES. many of the blossoms, and earlier tban nine some of the kinds have not yet opened their flowers. A sight of this pond in August and early in September is worth a considerable jour- ney to see ; and hardly less effective are the lotuses and lily plantations in boxes to be seen in the great fountain-basin at the Terrace. Yet probably more effective, and certainly more attrac- tive, on account of location, is the Union Square fountain, with its beautiful spray of water and vigorous water-plants, and in addition its outside collar of red alternanthera sward, planted with islands of geraniums. By electric light in the evening, or in the early morning sunlight, the effect of these lily-pads and lotus-leaves bedewed with globules of water is magical. Half a dozen, in fact, about all the fountain- basins in down-town New York are treated in this manner, and at almost any time before midnight, scores of people are gathered about them enjoying the beauties of the lilies and lotuses nor, as the years go on, does the interest in them seem to flag. Indeed, among all decorations for architectural structures where a pool of water can be in- troduced, I believe there is nothing that can excel the lily and lotus. So confident am I of this, that I believe the time is not far distant when no fountain-basin will be considered completely equipped without them. In Central Park we have already begun to plant the shores extensively with them. At present this applies especially to the Pool at 100th Street and Eighth Avenue. There is a good deal of labor required in the preparation of rich soil on the shores, but we hope, nevertheless, in a few years to have our lakes as well stocked with lilies and lotuses as our fountain-basins. CHAPTER XIII. LAWN-PLANTING FOR SMALL PLACES. HE word home has a pleasant sound. Indeed, one of the best signs of the times is a growing regard for home adornment. Practical con- siderations of simple comfort and show have long receded too ex- clusive attention ; but as we settle down more and more into a mature nation, the pleasantness of home gains in importance. In other words, our homes are becoming more characteristic, because we are learning duly to esteem and study them. They picture more truly the mind of the occupant or owner, because the occupant or owner is becoming more truly their architect and creator. Doubtless fashion attracts many to this work, and makes vague enthusiasm the impelling motive, rather than love of art. But such motives or impulses are not alto- gether deplorable. Societies for the encouragement of decorative art flourish and grow strong. Hard times de- 255 256 LA WN-PLANT1NG velop latent talent that would have otherwise lain fallow ; and all things conspire to favor the advancement of home art. Then how home-like and refined and beautiful this work is making our houses ! We may be very superficial nowadays, very much inclined to run about the world ; but surely our fathers, with all their domestic virtues, never had such lovely homes. Pretty devices in furniture, hangings, and a hundred simple things are noticeable every- where as the work of the ladies and gentlemen of the house. Native taste, genius, association, and instinctive imitation, all combine to develop the true home artist. Yet models we must have, and principles we must recog- nize, and this in spite of the fact that most excellent work is done without conscious application of principles. Query : Does not this unconscious application of principles partake of the nature of genius ? Let it be what it may, however, ordinary mortals, in their artistic struggles, are greatly helped by a few practical rules. Confiding in this belief, we ask a similar interest in both principles and prac- tice of a definite, though not generally accepted, species of home art. We assert, in other words, that home art should not confine itself within doors, but should exert its influ- ence on the immediate neighborhood of the house. Some of the most delightful hours of home life are spent on the piazza or lawn. It is, moreover, a pleasant hospitality that offers attractions on the lawn to the passer-by. But the sovereign difficulty that stands in the way of good lawn- planting, and especially of good lawn-planting for small places, is a widespread ignorance of lawn-plants. Numer- ous streets and shops offer instructive lessons to the decor- FOR SMALL PLACES. 257 ator of the house and its contents. Hundreds of homes present tasteful examples of artistic work of many kinds. The study of lawn-planting, however, seems strangely neg- lected. Yet why is it ? Are there no profitable examples to be found in parks or private grounds ? And if there are, why do not people study them ? There are doubtless many who visit or communicate with such places, but how is it generally done ? If they visit, they do it hastily and learn little. If they communi- cate, it is to ask about some plant which has struck their fancy. Whether it suits any position on their grounds they do not consider, and perhaps do not care. In like manner parks are looked over. They are but seldom studied. Now, if we are to have good work, the workman, or at least the deviser of the work, must know his mate- rial. You see, we are assuming that the lawn-planter of small places is also the owner. Seldom, indeed, can the owner of any small place afford a gardener of taste and knowledge ; and the charm, moreover, of this peculiar spe- cies of work is its unprofessional character. It must have originality, variety, and no hackneyed forms, if it is to be of the best type. We hesitate, therefore, to fix anything like arbitrary rules, for fear they may be misunderstood and adhered to slavishly. Yet there are practical consider- ations and desirable artistic results growing out of the nature of plants that necessitate the use of rules. We cannot, of course, properly treat" of the habits of plants in a short chapter, nor of all the rules that govern their employ- ment on small places. Nevertheless, it will be our endeavor to set forth intelligibly a few important suggestions concern- 17 258 LA WN-PLANTING. ing work of this kind. We may illustrate them also by ap- plying them to ordinary grounds. Lawn-planting for small places, as we propose it for popular employment, is a simple harmonious arrangement for the exhibition of individual plants. No one need fear, either, that the application of this principle will mar the effect of properly constructed masses. Broad mass effect cannot be obtained satisfactorily, and therefore individual beauties must be emphasized in the selection and disposition of plants. One of the most important considerations in planting a lot in this case as well as in others, is the disposition of shrubbery and trees about the lawn in a way that will secure single, open spaces of turf. These groups of shrub- bery or trees should be arranged on the more prominent curves of walks about entrance gates, or the outer boundaries of the place. The object in view will be partly to secure the above-mentioned open spaces of turf, but chiefly to vary the effects and produce sudden, unexpected beautiful features. We should also seek to convey the idea that the path leads through the midst of a natural and picturesque group. These devices and the creation of miniature vistas will tend to give the place an appearance of greater size than is actually the case. It need scarcely be said that the curves of all the walks should be easy and flowing. Our sense of the graceful requires it, and practi- cal experience proves its correctness. A horse, when tak- ing the wagon directly to a given point without special guidance, always follows these long, easy curves. Indeed, the Inexperienced driver is often bothered by the short curves of a circular road. 260 LA WN-PLA NTING A comparatively general principle is always to employ rhododendrons, hardy azaleas, Japanese maples, and other choice dwarf evergreen and deciduous shrubs directly about the house or on the walks near by. About the outskirts of the lawn, the entrance gates, and junction of paths, may be massed the larger-growing shrubbery and trees, if your door-yard is large enough to have any. They will serve to frame in the landscape, or to shut out undesirable views. We refer, of course, to medium-sized places of an acre or less. Within the skirting plantations of such places, few, if any, trees of large size should be used. Indeed, two or three elms, oaks, or lindens will come in time to occupy large sections of what should be entirely open space. Trees in great number, moreover, tend to make the plot look small and monotonous and the turf moss-grown and sparse. A few second-class trees, here and there, if the place is large enough, relieve and enrich the lawn without interfering Avith the effect of larger shrubbery. Large trees may be allowed at intervals on the extreme corners and outer boundaries, should the place be say half an acre in extent, to frame in the picture and diversify the contours and sky-line of ex- terior shrub groups. Sanitary conditions likewise demand a similar arrangement. The position of the house also requires study. If space and full effect are desired, and no local peculiarities bar, it should be placed on one side so as to mass in a single lawn as much land as possible. This will broaden and enlarge generally the effect of the place. All fences should be screened more or less with shrubbery or hedges, although the last, as generally used, are formal and therefore objec- FOR SMALL PLACES. 261 tionable. Furthermore, few, if any, architectural adornment, such as statues, vases, etc., should be allowed. They are pretentious, artificial, and not in keeping with a natural style of the best landscape gardening. In the highly artificial gardenesque or geometric style they have, of course, their place, but of this we do not speak, as it is ill fitted for small rural homes. Summer-houses, gates and arbors, rockwork and waterfalls (the last two in secluded nooks, if at all), must be employed in the places under consideration to give whatever variety is desired other than trees and grass. Another special point to be studied is the preservation of pleasing views, or vistas, in neighboring grounds. They may be framed in with attractive groups, which may at the same time plant out disagreeable, ungraceful objects. Pro- vide, at least, one open range or view throughout the greatest depth of the lot, but not exactly through the centre line. A line, for instance, from the middle of the end adjoining the public road to the extreme corner in the rear is more desirable than several short vistas. This device tends greatly to increase the sense of novelty and distance, and lessens any apparent stiffness. If the division fence must bo kept up between adjoining lots, and no common lawn used, this fence should be also adorned with deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. These may be planted, if desired, at intervals to retain attractive glimpses and vistas as above suggested. In all groups which define boundaries of the place, special care should be taken to avoid uniform horizon lines. Vary them with a few spire-like trees and shrubs LA WN-PLANTING now and then birches and cypresses, Tamarix Indica and Hibiscus Syriacus, which should also mark informally the corners of the lot, and complete, as it were, the frame of the picture. What we mean by informally is an avoid- ance of regular intervals or geometric arrangement. As a rule, also, never plant a large, dark evergreen in front of, and mixed with, a lot of brilliant, light-colored, de- ciduous trees, for thus planted it will dwarf and weaken the effect of the latter. On some lawns of good size, however, a few massive dark evergreens may be used with effect in the extreme and, if possible, northwest corner of the lot. They will protect and give character to the place, and heighten the effect of the deciduous trees. A striking contrast may be obtained by interspersing a few white birches among, and in front of, these evergreens. They will serve, in this case, to brighten the picture both winter and summer, though usually I prefer not to mix ever- green and deciduous trees. This harmonious and contrast- ing disposition of color requires careful study, and even perhaps a natural gift. For instance, it is better to intro- duce gay, bright colors in well-judged proportions. A few bright flowers of deep red, blue, or yellow, will have a better effect dispersed here and there about the lawns than in one great mass. Introduce them, so that by means of their different natures there will be always during the season a few gay points in the picture. The turf borders of walks must present a true curve, and both sides be on n level. Their height should not be more than two inches or less than one. Great depth of border utterly destroys the effect of a walk. FOR SMALL PLACES. 263 Lawns generally for we will say this much of grading should never be reduced to a perfect level. They should be raised in the centre, or the sur- face be given the appearance of a hol- low. The side lawn should generally as- sume a more or less slight incline tow- ard the division fence. The rear lawn, if there is any of considerable relative size, should be graded, if pos- sible, in like manner with the front. Of course, special con- ditions will vary any such rules. Their simple ob- ject is to increase the variety, and 4g thereby produce a more pleasing and natural effect. All this, moreover, gives the place a larger and more picturesque appear- ance. In offering these few principles of an art capable of Jlaad SUGGESTIONS FOR LAWN-PLANTINQ. LARGE LAWN TREES; 2, TREES OF MODERATE GROWTHS) 3, DECIDUOUS SHRUBS OF MODERATE GROWTHS J 4, RARE AND DWARF DECIDUOUS AND EVERGREEN SHRUBS J 7, EVERGREEN TREES. LARGE SHRUBS EIGHT FEET APART, SMALL SHRUBS FOUR FEET APART, HEDGE PLANTS TWO FEET APART. RULES TO BE VARIED SOMEWHAT, ACCORDING TO THE NATURE OF THE PLANT USED. 264 LA WN-PLANTING producing so many diversified effects, I have endeavored to be sufficiently intelligible to secure their easy application. My language, however, may necessarily lack sometimes in clearness and picturesque force. I therefore present a design which fairly illustrates the simpler forms of lawn-planting as it should be exercised on small lots. The first point that has been, and must always be, care- fully studied is the location of the house in such manner as to keep as much of the lawn together as possible. Here the house is placed as it should be, near one side. If feasible, it should also be on the north or west of the lot, thereby securing the better protection for shrubs and flowers. Immediately about the house may be gathered singly, or in groups, rare and choice deciduous and evergreen shrub- bery, such as hydrangeas, hardy azaleas, Japanese maples, and the many beautiful dwarf conifers. These should be so arranged as to produce the most varied and favorable effect of color and form of which the plants are capable. It is usually necessary to thus retain only low-growing plants close to the house, for in this way only can the full archi- tectural effect of the structure be secured. The exquisite and delicate attractions of choice plants demand also a posi- tion near the house where they can be easily seen. Any curve of the paths nearly adjoining a building may be thus ornamented, for the small size of the plants will leave all views and vistas as seen from the house unobstructed, quite as important a point to be looked after as the proper exhibition of the architectural effect of the house. It will be therefore noticed that even the less immediate neighbor- hood of the house is left unplanted with large-sized shrubs or even second-class trees. The main feature of the place FOR SMALL PLACES. must evidently be the house, and therefore in devising prominent vistas and near or distant views we must take our stand at or not far from this point. Minor standpoints may of course be taken when s'ome special effect is desired. Failure to contrive the landscape grouping from these established standpoints often weakens if it does not spoil lawn-planting, which is otherwise good and effective. The curves of the walks or foot-paths are long and easy, reaching their destination in a natural and pleasing manner. All the junctions of paths and the main curves are planted with shrubbery in an irregular and informal manner. Furthermore, they are usually arranged with a view to suggesting the idea that the path is winding through single masses of flowers. It is not proposed in this plan to reserve any space for a vegetable garden, not only for want of room, but because it is notorious that vegetables thus grown are very expensive and troublesome. If exercise in gardening pursuits is desired, the same amount and a similar kind of work may be had in the culture of trees and shrubs as in that of vegetables with more generally satisfactory results. All necessary objects, not interesting in a picturesque way, such as drying-ground, entrance to the rear of buildings, tool-sheds, etc., should be shut out with deciduous shrubs. The front of these hedges or belts of shrubbery may be diversified by planting here and there occasional choice specimens. The extreme end of the grounds may be also entered, if desired, by a path which should wind among shrubbery in somewhat obscure fashion, and come out suddenly on the lawn. The approach or entrance to the house is, in this case, somewhat formal and straight, for the sake of 266 LA WN-PLANTING convenience, which must at times overrule considerations of beauty. It is well planted with shrubbery, however, to relieve all stiffness and vaiy the straight line. This system also introduces the pleasant element of surprise, as the full effect of the lawn is only presented after the place has been fairly entered. Flowing, graceful lines, with one exception, are retained everywhere, especially in the vistas that extend off to the full depth of the lot. On the most extended side, the vista takes a slanting direction across a croquet-ground, reached by a winding path and fronted by a summer-house in the extreme corner. This simple, inexpensive rustic structure shown in the lawn-planting study looks out toward the house over the croquet-ground, down the most attractive vista of the place. About it should climb vines, honeysuckles, etc., and some flowering shrubs. The entire feature is finely crowned and perfected by associat- ing with it a slender, drooping, cut-leaved birch, with tender gray or light-green foliage and gleaming white bark. It will thus form one of the corner posts, or prominent points that define the outline of the picture, and, at the same time, constitute a most interesting and picturesque termination for a walk. One such feature is almost enough for a small place. Architecture should be confined, as a rule, to the house structure, and the lawn devoted to plants. Even rock work, except in peculiar spots, lias hardly a place on any small lawn, for reasons that should be obvious. What- ever portion of the summer-house appears from among the vines and surrounding foliage is intended to show a rustic, graceful, and solid structure. Simple rustic seats may, of course, be erected in suitable positions, but should not be made architecturally prominent. As a rule, however, chairs FOR SMALL PLACES. 267 may be carried from the porch or veranda to any spot on so small a place. The planting on the walks directly fronting the summer-house should be made specially attractive by the employment of choice and dwarf trees and shrubs. The simple design of using a summer-house at all, has been to increase, Avithin safe limits, the pictur- esque effect of the place, and to lend j that portion of the scene a cosey, home- like aspect. Indeed, we have sought to give the entire place a similar natural appearance. Good lawn- planting should make it look, not as if it had been constructed in the ordinary sense of the term, but as if it had grown there, out of the special needs of the plants and of those expect- ing to enjoy them. Please note that we make most prominent the necessities of the plant. They must receive first atten- tion, when the best effects will follow in due course. Landscape archi- tects are, perhaps, liable to fall into the habit of regard- ing plants as they would bricks or stones. An edifice of landscape architecture cannot be erected exactly as one A STUDY FOR LAWN-PLANTING. o 68 LA WN-PL ANTING chooses. Plants have their freaks and peculiarities in different positions, which even practical experience can scarcely foresee. Beware of using on small places large-growing trees, and even on the outer boundary employ them sparsely. All such trees, like the Norway spruce or white pine, become in a few years, independent of their crowding mass, more or less unsightly for limited inclosures and necessarily close inspection. There should be an exact proportion between the size of a place and the eventual size say in ten years of all plants used for ornamenting it. For this reason, the rapid-growing, deciduous shrubs, with their wonderful variety of foliage and flowers and their moderate growth, are well adapted for small places. They not only attain moderate size, but can be duly restrained for many years by pruning. There are, also, many beautiful dwarf ever- green trees and shrubs well suited for lawn-planting on a small scale. Indeed, such plants may be kept, by pruning both root and branches intelligently, within a height of five feet for near a score of years. It seems almost absurd to say that ornamental plants in their entire variety and special aptitudes for lawn-planting should be carefully studied by the lawn-planter. Never- theless, many so-called experts seem to lose sight of the fact. With knowledge, however, and a cultivated taste, most delightful results can be obtained on a small lot by an outlay ranging from one hundred dollars to three hundred dollars, depending on the amount of choice plants used. Grading and fences are considerations governed by special conditions, and cannot, therefore, be taken into FOR SMALL PLACES. 269 a general and typical estimate. This hardly seems an extravagant sum to devote to the exterior adornment of a home that has probably cost at least $4,000 for the building, and $2,000 more for a simple and tasteful fur- nishing. The general impression is widely spread abroad that the accomplishment of artistic effects in lawn-planting on small places, if possible at all, must be expensive and elaborate. Perhaps the idea comes from the fact that our parks and grand show places afford almost the only in- stances of artistic lawn-planting, and they, of course, are expensive. The lawn-planting efforts, moreover, of the jobbing gardener or owner of the place, are generally crude and based on no settled principles of art. It is this, per- haps, that gains credence for the belief that landscape gardening, as a picturesque art, is not only expensive, but does not suit small places. People may not state such ideas definitely to themselves ; but they clearly demon- strate, by practice, a conscious or unconscious belief in their truth. It has been, therefore, our desire to enunciate a few simple and important considerations of an art too much neglected, and to exemplify them practically from a plan intended for execution in a simple and inexpensive manner. There are necessarily many features and details, not here treated, that may be introduced on small places with much effect and without transgressing any fundamental rules of lawn-planting. We desire, however, to utter, before con- cluding, yet another warning against attempting too much when once we assume the artistic standpoint. Care for the proper exhibition and health of the plants themselves must 270 LA WN-PLANTING. be, after all, the prime consideration, in pursuance of which we cannot go far astray. As I have already intimated, the rural adornment of the exterior of homes may rightfully demand and is receiv- ing increased attention. It is improvement of taste in the same line, as that encouraged for the decoration of interiors, in that they both form important elements of home life. Unfortunately, many people have a way of regarding such work as requiring greater skill than is actually the case. It is really less difficult and expensive in proportion to the results obtained than most other forms of home art. CHAPTER XIV. CITY PARKS. O write of parks is to enter a field which is almost unlimited in ex- tent. It has come now to the pass that eveiy town and city of importance in Europe and America must have its park. It is the fashion. Whether the fashion is always well wrought out, is another thing. Unenlightened town authorities cannot always be depended on to employ competent talent, and to adopt a wise and comprehensive scheme of operations. Yet, after all, parks are but larger door-yards or lawns, or rather, in many cases, a series of them. The landscape- gardening lore applied to them is essentially the same as that employed in constructing the most modest home grounds. There is nothing really different in the general theory of the landscape gardening of parks from that of ordinary grounds. The apparent difference simply lies in the special application to some particular individual undertaking. 271 272 CITY PARKS. In actual practice, one park must, of course, be treated differently from other parks ; but the lessons acquired by considering one piece of work of this kind, must always be helpful in carrying on other park- work. In order, therefore, not to weary the reader with the enunciation of abstract principles, and detailing instructions that do not always really instruct, I am going to ask atten- tion for a few moments to what I consider the best well advanced example of this kind of landscape gardening in America, namely, Central Park, New York City. In considering Central Park, I beg leave to first intro- duce a few lines from the pen of Mr. Calvert Vaux, one of the originators of the essential artistic effect of the park. " The principal defect of the ground originally appro- priated to Central Park was that it offered very few com- paratively level tracts of sufficient area to make a definite meadow-like impression on the eye. The ground is, for the most part, broken, undulating, picturesque, and rocky ; and this is, confessedly, a desirable quality for a park site to possess, because it is a comparatively rare one. Most of the large parks such as Hyde Park in London, the Bois de Boulogne in Paiis, and the Phoenix Park in Dublin are manifestly lacking in variety of natural surface ; and every effort that art can make has to be resorted to for the pur- pose of relieving at intervals the general monotony of ground-line, which, in these parks, is the normal condition of things. Under such circumstances, it is evident that much can be done by planting trees of high and low growth, in such relation to each other that the sky-line will be agreeably diversified, while the level of the soil is but CITY PARKS. 273 slightly varied. Nature works on so large a scale that it is rarely practicable to construct artificial eminences of suffi- cient magnitude to be really impressive. It has been done at the Pare du Chaumont, in Paris, quite effectively ; but this is a rare example. " It may be remarked, in this connection, that the sense of quiet repose ministered to by a large lawn surface is not satisfied by picturesque ground, however vigorously it may be planted ; and, as the need for quiet repose in this work- a-day world is more constant than the need for vigorous stimulus, a lack of pastoral, meadow-like stretches of lawn in any large public park will always be felt by the habitual visitor to be a serious disadvantage." Originally, a place for a large park was chosen along the East River, on the site of what was known as Jones Wood. This was not thought to be central enough, and, in consequence, Central Park was located within its present boundaries, with the exception that, for many years, its extent to the north only reached the neighborhood of 106th Street. In 1857, the work of constructing Central Park was fairly undertaken, with Mr. Andrew H. Green the virtual head of the commission of eleven members appointed by the State, and not as a part of the Tweed charter of the city. A topographical survey of the entire territory was first made, and then competitive plans, about thirty in number, were secured. The successful competitors were Messrs. Olmsted & Vaux. From that time until the present, the work of construction went steadily on, with some few ex- 274 CITY PARKS. ceptions, along the lines laid down in the original plans, nearly all being executed during the first twelve years. Messrs. Olmsted 77 the Ramble, where the woods are flushed with crimson and gold, is something to be treasured in the memory above all other scenes of the park. To the east of the Mall, across the East Drive, is the Children's and Nurses' Lawn, extending from T2d Street, along Fifth Avenue to the gate at 67th Street. This place reminds one of an English lawn. It is a bit of five or six acres of fine turf, unbroken except by a few scattered shade trees of large size. Each tree is a fine specimen. There are horse-chestnuts and some excellent American beeches, oaks, tulip-trees, maples, elms, purple beeches, liquidambars, etc. Under these trees and over the greensward play through- out the months of May and June, and occasionally later, hundreds of children both rich and poor. On a Saturday afternoon in May you will see scores of May-parties and hundreds of children covering every part of this lawn. The bright ribbons, the white dresses, and the greensward and trees, and above all, the happy faces, make a picture to gladden the heart of man. The attraction of the picture is increased when we consider that many of these children come from the great tenement-houses of the east side of town, and from some of the most crowded regions of the civilized world. To the west of the Mall is another great lawn or meadow called the Green. Here base-ball is played on clear days, when the grass is dry, and under the shade of the bordering trees gather picnics. This meadow has no tree or shrub on its surface except on its extreme borders. It extends over to the West Drive, and is contrived, in connection with 278 CITY PARKS. sli rubbery and trees, as a western background, so as to give the idea of a larger area than really exists. There are only four open grass spaces or meadows of any size in Central Park ; and as the main repose and highest enjoyment of the park reside chiefly in these spots, let the public beware of the intrusion of all glittering, discordant shows, military bodies, world's fairs, menageries, or race-courses. It is the poor who enjoy these places above all people it is the children of the poor, and the mothers. We must not, there- fore, spoil their heritage. The people should always treasure these open grass spaces of their parks. They are invaluable. The Lower Meadow, near Seventh Avenue and 59th Street, is specially attractive. It has a great rock jutting out in it, and to the north at a higher level extends the seemingly large expanse of green. Round about run footpaths, bridle-paths, and drives, and at one corner of it is the children's play-ground, consisting of a great rnerry-go- round and the Kinderberg summer-house, one hundred feet in diameter. On fine days in May and June this charming meadow is literally covered with playing children, thus fulfilling the most important functions of a park in a densely crowded city. Beyond these two meadows is the West Drive, sixty feet in width. In the neighborhood of 72d Street it passes on one side the Mineral Springs, ba,cked by picturesque vine-covered rocks, and on the other by a lawn planted with fine shade trees beeches, maples, elms, and, above all, several large specimens of Chinese magnolias (Magnolia conxpwua) . 280 CITY PARKS. Then the road strikes the Lake, looking on one side into a pool of rock-bordered water, with a spanning stone bridge at 77th Street ; on the other side, over a broad view of lovely lake surface. This view is bordered with the sweeping branches of the wooded shores of the Ramble, and emphasized in the distance by a sandy beach and a point of foliage crowned by two great Lonibardy poplars. There is a stone seat on the bridge close to 77th Street, where one can look over the shining surface of the Lake to the distant Lombardy poplars and possibly conclude that this is the most charming bit of landscape in the park. At this point, however, the visitor is tempted away from the Drive into the Ramble, which must be considered as an episode needing special description. This quaint bit of wild-wood is chiefly made ground, and yet not in the least artificial-looking, for it is contrived quite simply out of the original simple and natural conditions, intricate as its paths and undulations may appear. It is identical in scale with what might readily be an ordinaiy country -place with the Belvidere as the mansion. In front of the mansion is a fine central grass plat, and beyond wind paths up and down and across a stream, along the lake shore, or over great masses of rock down into a veritable gloomy cave. There are fine weeping beeches, azaleas, rhododendrons and plenty of perennial plants and shrubs blooming throughout the season. It is, in a word, a picturesque wild-wood nook, where one is hid- den from and entirely forgets the city. An experiment like this might be hazardous, if the boundaries of the Ramble were not clearly defined by nature, because it does not 282 CITY PARA'S. produce the ample, open-air lawn effect with reasonable shade, that should be the initial requirement in any city park. Passing up the West Drive between two small hollow lawns ornamented with some fine specimens of evergreen, Pinus exceha (Bhotan pine), and stone pines and hemlocks near 82d Street and Eighth Avenue, a loop drive leads up to a small plateau called The Concourse, where the eye wanders over miles of city houses, out to the Hudson in the distance. Here are many specimen evergreens of con- siderable excellence, creeping junipers, retinosporas, stone pines (Pinus cembraj, white pines in groves, silver firs of several excellent species and varieties, Oriental spruces, Atlas cedars, mugho pines, and some fine specimens of the evergreen thorn ( Cotoneaster e kept in order. He said that a close survey of the ground and existing plants was made last fall. During the winter, maps and planting lists were worked up; and in the spring, a lawn-planting foreman came on the ground, with half a dozen men, and with the help of the map, and one or two visits of the landscape architect, they accomplished the result. As to keeping it in order, the work is easily done, he said, by men who are sent from the company's office, at stated times, to mow grass, and to weed and prune. All the station-master is asked to do is to watch that everything is kept in apple-pie shape, and if weeds and grass show signs of getting ahead, to telegraph for help. THE CHURCHYARD. Churchyards and cemeteries were once essentially identical. All this, however, is rapidly changing. For sanitary and other good reasons, the cemetery is now sepa- rated from the church ; but, unfortunately, with the growth of modern cemeteries is associated curtailment of church- yards. This is greatly to be deplored. Would it not be wiser to even moderate, if necessary the ornamentation of the interior, and secure trees and grass and flowers ? A few may be impressed with holy awe by sculptured nave THE CHURCHYARD. 299 and glowing window, but the whole world that passes by is benefited by trees and flowers. My object, therefore, is to see if I cannot help to increase the love and knowledge of lawn-planting, as applied to the grounds of buildings for worship. In the belief that it is a reasonable and beautiful object, I will endeavor to point out how certain trees not only harmonize with such surroundings, but also how they possess special and practical value in the positions they occupy. The accompanying illustration shows what can be effected in a country churchyard. A CHURCH LAWN. Such trees as stand near the church are rightly dignified and statuesque. For the same reason, they generally stand singly or in small groups of three. The larger ones, like the American elm in the centre, or the ginkgo fSaUsburia adiantifolia) to the right, have a more or less erect charac- 300 THE CHURCHYARD. ter. On the other hand, the yellow-wood ( Virgilia lutea), to the left of the last, has a broad head and curving outline of trunk and branches, suggestive of the high finish of the turner's art. Harmony and variety are specially sought in the design of this plot. Remarkable specimens of weeping sophora stand in one or two spots, and seem essentially adapted to the surroundings of a church. Noteworthy and valuable weeping trees are the elms on either side of the gate. They have been planted later than many other trees visible in the picture, and are of the cam- pestris species, Camperdown variety. Evidently British from their name, they bear little resemblance to our Ameri- can elms. Slow of growth and compact of form, at no time are they lofty and spreading. They belong evidently to the rounded type of foliage contour. The rich, dark green leaves droop and fold over each other in a regular manner, in many cases quite systematic. You will notice in the pic- ture, however, that these particular specimens have taken a fancy to lean toward each other in a manner that even trees will sometimes assume. Pruning secures for this tree a per- fect form, until it attains considerable age. In short, it may be ranked well up on our short roll of merit of really good weeping trees. The weeping sophora, of which there are two, is possibly more elegant in appearance, with drooping garlands of neat, acacia-like foliage. It is not, however, as hardy, either in summer or winter, as the Carnperdown elm. I need hardly rehearse the excellence of the weeping sophora, having already treated of it elsewhere. Further- more, I want to call your attention again to the broad, round-headed yellow-wood ( Virgilia lutea, or, according to THE CHURCHYARD. 301 best authorities, Cladmstis tinctoria). It is the most cheer- ful tree on the grounds, and, moreover, though rare, an American plant from the banks of the Tennessee. The foliage is not dense, and does not clothe the interior branch- ing of the tree, which, in a way, lays open to view a pecul- iar development of trunk and limbs. About their rounded contour is stretched tightly wrinkled swathings of smooth, light-colored bark. Small and graceful, the leaves are light green, more or less like those of an acacia or sophora, and the flowers white and in form drooping, like those of the v/istaria. The pyramidal oak, too, forms one of the best trees for a church lawn. Its upright lines are bold and picturesque, as relieved against the more horizontal ones of the church. The tree is, moreover, massive and, for an oak, very rapid in growing. In seeking to gather about the church trees that accord with the place, the lawn-planter, by employing the Virgilia lutea, has been most successful. The color shades off effectively, through the varying hues of ginkgo, weeping elm, pyramidal oak, and stately American elm, to the deep- est, noblest tone of all produced by the grand Nordmaun's fir, near the right-hand corner of the church. Here a dark, noble mass, with rich, silvery tints, rears itself into a sym- metrical, perfect feature, which impresses the eye much as the ear is affected by some deep, solemn strain from the old organ within the church. This fir, indeed, serves, with its companion evergreens, to give the place its special char- acter. By good luck, hills and trees to the north and west have so protected this spot that evergreens of somewhat tender nature stand the winter well. Thus, we have the 302 THE CHURCHYARD. Irish yew, rich and dark and erect as a sentinel, as well as its parent TOXUH baccata, also dark, if not altogether statu- esque. Other evergreens bear, of course, their due relation to thin harmony of color and form. Graceful, grotesque, weeping spruces, golden and fern-like Japanese cypresses or retinosporas, columnar weeping silver firs, and fountain- like weeping hemlocks, alike contribute each its separate mark on the broad effect of the whole. It is a symphony of trees as impressive in many ways as the swelling chords of the church organ. Nor does the velvet turf, extending in broad, unbroken spaces, fail to perfect the general ap- pearance of the scene. Statuesque dwarf evergreens, as well as more lofty trees, occupy the space immediately about the church walk, or fence, leaving wide openings be- tween. The fence, carrying out the same idea, is low, with but two rails, and as inconspicuous as possible. Care is taken also not to overload the lawn with choice, low-grow- ing, sombre evergreens, as represented by most of the yews, spruces, and firs. Just as the effect of the graver elms, oaks, and maples is lightened by the tints of the yellow- wood and ginkgo, so the evergreens pass here and there into bright golden forms, and again into low deciduous trees, which are not, in any sense, shrubs. Thus the glow- ing leaves of certain Japanese maples are used as single specimens, and especially the low-grafted form of the Kil- marnock weeping willow. This tree is very symmetrical and even graceful, if properly pruned; but, as usually known in its high-grafted form, its stem early decays. In the sketch accompanying the church illustration is shown the low-grafted form, which is comparatively free from THE CEMETERY. 303 bark-cracking on account of the protection the branches afford the stem. The effect of the employment of this weeping plant in the churchyard is specially happy, for it hardly represents a real shrub, which is, in this case, scarcely admitted, and yet it breaks, with its irregular, graceful lines, any possible monotony among the statuesque dwarf evergreens. Of course, the ivy on the wall and the crimson autumnal tints of the Japan creeper ( Ampelopsis tricuspidata) are here in all their glory. Altogether, there is an organic completeness in the selection of the various plants that proves the lawn-planter to have had a genuine sympathy for his work, as well as abundant practical knowledge. THE CEMETERY. The excessive and tasteless use of stonework in our cemeteries has been unnaturally fostered by love of display and by the fact that cut stone is more permanent and needs less care than shrubs and flowers, which are not only diffi- cult to select to-day, but liable to perish to-morrow. Hence grew up the vulgar fashion of using stone inordinately, nominally in honor of the dead, but often merely for the sake of fashionable display. Plants, however, have long been employed, entirely in- dependent of what the fashion might be, and in their use, therefore, lies the really heart-felt offering to the memory of the departed. More than twenty years ago, one or two cemeteries, notably Spring Grove, Cincinnati ; and Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, attempted a reform which aimed at doing away with fenced and hedged burial plots. Hartford 304 THE CEMETERY. laid out a cemetery on a similar plan, and a portion of Woodlawn Cemetery, New York, has a park-like character, unblemished l>y fences or even tombstones. Cincinnati has certainly been the pioneer in this movement, and to Mr. Strauch, superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, of that city, belongs the credit of most persistently and sys- tematically following out what may really be called a new principle. In Woodlawn Cemetery, New York, may be seen a, fail- example of what is generally considered a good park-like cemetery. Shrubs and trees are planted about in irregular fashion upon a lawn. The lots are clustered here and there in groups, and their boundaries are designated by small st<>nrs or stakes hidden in the grass, the graves themselves being made in an inconspicuous manner. "With the exception of creeping vines, not a tree, shrub, or flower is planted unless by permission of the authorities. Flowers are allowed on the graves, but no plants bearing flowers may be set out except under these restrictions. Everything is under the control of a central authority, which is supposed to know exactly how to produce the finest landscape effect possible under the circumstances. That such effects are actually accomplished maybe fairly questioned by competent judges ; but that is not the fault of the system. Many people, however, possess cemetery lots where stones exist, and they must make the best of things as they are. They may not wish to destroy existing evergreen hedges entirely, in which case they can leave a plant in each corner and on either side of the gate, otherwise they will find it advisable to follow the plan here presented as regards THE CEMETERY. 305 its general system. This system consists chiefly in open stretches of perfect greensward throughout the entire lot, except on the extreme edges and at the Lead and foot of the graves. No formal hedge is necessary, but a border of foliage, to break and modify the stiffness of the necessarily stiff-looking fence. This work can only be accomplished properly by dwarf evergreens, the forms of which are A BURIAL PLOT. statuesque and dignified, as comports with tlie spirit of the place. I refer to such plants as the Swiss stone pine, the conical and Gregory spruces, and the many agreeable dwarf varieties of retinosporas. These plants have the supreme advantage of the most lovely variety and contrast of color, when properly arranged, and have at the same time the ability to retain their dwarf forms for a score of years with 306 THE CEMETERY. a minimum of pruning. Variety of color is too little con- sidered in most landscape gardening of a permanent char- acter, and the unfitting mature size of many plants in confined positions is equally disregarded. This lot, it will be seen, has a weeping beech on the border of the lot, and three or four slow-growing plants roses and variegated-leaved Japanese maples by the grave itself. This is designed to secure a peculiar grace for this special spot, which may be enhanced by allowing a vine or two, ivy or Japan creeper, to twine about the base of grave- stone or monument. All plants used in the centre of the lot should be pruned and managed with the greatest care, or they will become, in spite of their dwarf ness, too luxuriant in growth for the place they occupy. Above all things, the vines should not be allowed to cover all the surface of the stones and monuments. Any seeming neglect and disorder must detract greatly from the proper dignity of the spot. CHAPTER XVI. NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS. OW shall we treat our garden or lawn nookeries ? to coin a phrase which means, I take it, an aggrega- tion or congeries of nooks and cor- ners combined into a single isolated picture. On general principles nooks of the garden attain a value not only because in them, as Lord Bacon quaintly puts it, " when the wind blows sharp you may walk as in a gallery," but because these nooks afford the attraction of a surprise, that may be in the truest sense, when properly taken advantage of, a pleasurable surprise. In a word, there must be a succession of nooks, surprises in numbers, all within the limits of one small spot, to make your true nookery, for a bare corner is in no sense a nook- ery. Memory must surely recall to all of us such spots down in the orchard or behind the barn, and in the edge of the woods at the back of the house. The old apple tree with the grape-vine trailing over it, down by the drinking- 307 308 NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS. hole for cattle in the corner of the orchard, was a delight- ful nookery in its way, with its rich turf and charming wild flowers, or weeds as some would call them. Abound- ing, too, in nookeries of the pleasantest sort was the old flower garden, with its box-lined borders and larkspurs, and hollyhocks, where, for instance, in a far corner, we come sud- denly on an old arbor festooned with grape-vine, honey- suckle, and trumpet creeper. I think, though, according to my remembrance, the best nookery was to be found down on the edge of the grove, with its pool of water on one side and its bays of shrubby growth and aisles of tree trunks on the other. The rushes and lilies of those remote, still waters, and the wild flowers and climbing vines, Virginia creepers and bitter-sweets in the recesses of the woods, even now linger with me as types of what genuine nookeries should be. After recalling the constituent parts of such scenes, it ought not to be hard to adorn, and, if necessary, create these pleasant nookeries in our gardens. It is not a ques- tion of extensive or even exquisite culture, but only a few well-directed efforts from year to year and the place takes care of itself. Every one surely can find a secluded nook in the garden or lawn, and there are many things we can do of the easiest nature that will tend greatly to perfect these delightful surprises. Wild flowers can be fostered and even planted in such a way as to preclude all idea whatever of the presence of the hand of man. Hardy shrubs, too, may be used in the most effective manner for this purpose, by planting them singly or in colonies in a thoroughly wild-wood manner. But, I believe, nothing NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS. 309 better than the intelligent employment of climbers and creepers will create such pleasant, artistic surprises in these nooks, and illustrate the proper way to treat them. AVith them alone we can do wonders. Take that old stump be- fore you and wreathe it with festoons of the long, crimson flowers of the trumpet creeper Tecoma radiccms. Nothing in its way can be finer except the employment of Tecoma grandiflora, with its great orange-colored flowers. So vigorous and stout are these climbers that they soon grow into a tossing, wild mass of leaves and trumpet-shaped flowers, to the entire obliteration from view of the old trunk over which they grow. Do not confuse, however, these trum- pet flowers with those of the scarlet trumpet-vine or honey- suckle Lonicera sempervirens with the bright, glossy, green leaves that often last nearly all winter. Every one thinks of honeysuckle flowers as sweet-scented and yellow, white or red ; but how many stop to examine the rich, glos- sy shades of honeysuckle leaves, so admirably adapted for carpeting bare spots or draping heaps of stone and stumps and tree trunks ? There are many varieties of honeysuckles which are, every one of them, worthy of employment. In some of these sheltered nooks we might even use the unequalled English ivy, particularly if we use it as a carpet ; but we certainly can have the so-called Japan ivy, Ampelopsis Veitcfiii, or tricuspidata, in this country the most perfect of hardy creepers for clinging by rootlets to stone or wooden surfaces. Few plant effects can surpass in summer the glossy color and artistic forms of the leaves and tendrils of the Japan ivy, or the crimson and gold of its autumn tints. But we must not forget the other varieties of Ampe- 310 NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS. lopsis in contemplating the charms of the Japan ivy, for few things are more effective in our tangled wild- wood corners than great masses of the common Virginia creepers A. quinquefolia. How its piled-up leaves festoon the tree trunks with overlying masses of shining green in summer ami of scarlet and blood-red in autumn every one familiar with fall effects must remember. Of an entirely different, but none the less very effective, nature is the Virginia silk Pcriploca Grcsca, with long, pointed, shining leaves, small flowers, and brownish-red stems, reaching out with almost unrivalled speed of growth away up the stem of the tree. For the adornment of the upper part of the trees and rock masses we must not forget the rich clusters of foli- age and charming garlands of flowers of the purple and white wistarias. Wistarias, allowed to reach out, flower and leaf most abundantly in their upper parts, and are, therefore, specially adapted for garlanding a tree or roof far up in the air without reference to covering its lower part. Then there is the neat-leaved akebia ; the bold and picturesque, large, light-colored leaved Dutchman's pipe; the autumn-crimsoned purple-berried bitter-sweet, all lovely climbers for our purpose. But of all charming climbers, I verily believe the clematis must bear the palm. The vari- ety of color and form of its flowers seems endless, extending as it does, from the noble, dark-purple Clematis Jackmani to the delicate, small, white and yellow flowers of fl. pi., 72 Cone-flower, large, 195 Fortune!, 72 Coreopsis, 213 gracilis, 48, 72 lanceolata, 191 scabra, 72 Cornus florida, 40, 126 fl. pi., 72 sanguinea, 150 Dianthus barbatus, 172 alba, 29 deltoides, 171 Corydalis nobilis, 163 plumarius, 172 Cotoneaster, buxi folia, 30 Dicentra eximia, 172 pyracantha, 30, 108 spectabilis, 164, 172 Cranberry-tree, 29 Dictamnus fraxinella, 180 Cratregus, 30 Dielytra spectabilis, 164 coccinea, 28 Diervilla, or vveigelia, 74 crus-galli, 28, 293 Digitalis purpurea, 181 oxyacantha, 47, 48 Dogwood, too, 290 pyracantha, 30, 108 red-stemmed, 29, 130, 150, 289 Creeper, Virginia, 131, 290 white flowering, 40, 126 Crocus, 167, 204 Dracocephalum Ruyschianum , 181 autumn, 199 Dragon's head, hyssop-leaved 181 Susianus, 168 Drainage, 4 versicolor, 168 Dropwort, 190 Crucianella stylosa, 170 Dutchman's Pipe, 28, 104 Cucumber-tree, 64 yellow, 64 E Currant, Indian, 13 Cydonia Japonica, 39 Echeveria metallica, 228 Cyperus papyrus, 289 secunda glauca, 228 Cypress, Chinese, 102 Echeverias, 209, 219, 228 Cypress, obtuse-leaved, Japanese, 151 Eloeagnus horten-is, 29, 113, 128 Southern, 102 longipes, 29, 113 vine, 205 Elephant ear, 235, 243 Elm, American, 152, 293 1) cork-barked, 152 weeping, 152 Daffodils, 165, 166, 167 Emphasis, parts for, 218 Dahlias, single and double, 199 sky line, construction of, 244 Daisies, Michaelmas, 191 Epimedium, 162 Daisy, Giant, 195 macranthum, 163 turfing, 212 E ran this hyemalis, 169 Daphne Cneorum, 113 Erianthus Ravennre, 210 Genkwa, 29, 41 Erica herbacea carnea, 157 Daphne Japanese, 41 Eryngium alpinum, 181 Mezereum, 41 Eulalia Japonica, 243 INDEX. 321 Eulalia Japonica, variegata, 210 zebrina, 210 Euonymus alatus, 29 European, 131 lalifolius, 130 Euphorbia corollata, 181 Exochorda grandiflora, 73 Fagus ferruginea, 112 sylvatica pendula, 1 10 Fences on small places, treatment of, 260 Festuca glauca, 210 Fever few, or golden feather, 228 Fir, Cephalonian, 84 compact silver, 84 dwarf silver, 140 Grecian silver, 83 Hudson Bay, 84 lovely silver, 140 noble silver, 83, 140 Nordmann's silver, 83, 140 Parson's silver, 140 Siberian silver, 83 silver, 140 silver, weeping, 30 Flax, perennial, 173 Forget-me-not, creeping, 212 Forsythia Fortunii, 39 suspensa, 29, 39 viridissima, 29, 38 Fothergilla, alnifolia, 29 Fountain-basins, water-lilies suited to, 250 Foxglove, common, 181 purple, 213 Fraxinus concavsefolia, 94 Fringe, white, 94 Funkia ovata, 182 subcordata, 182 Gaillardia grandiflora, 182 Galanthus Elwesii, 169 nivalis, 169 Garden, arrangement of 202 Gas-plant, 180 Gay-feather, Kansas, 1 86 Genista scoparia, 29 tinctoria, 29 Gentiana acaulis, 162, 213 Andrewsii, 192 Gentian, 213 closed, 192 stemless, 162, 213 Geranium, 217, 219, 223, 225, 232 blood-red, 182 General Grant, 230 horseshoe, 230 sanguineum, 182 silver-leaved, 230 Mountain of Snow, 231 Gillenia trifoliata, 182 Ginkgo, Japan, 120, 152 tree, 29 Globe, European, 175 Glory of the snow, 169 of the spruces, 80 Glyptostrobus sinensis. 102 Gnaphalium, 209 Golden bell, 38 weeping, 39 Golden-rod, 196, 214 Golden tuft, 160 Grading, semi-artificial, 20 the lawn, 6, 7 wholly artificial, 18 Grandmother's garden, 201 Grape-vine, 205 Grass seed, difficulty in securing pure,3, 10 for lawns, varieties of , n, 12 planting for lawns, 3, IT Groundsel, 195 Grounds, sloping, 1 8, 20 Gynerium argenteum, 210 Gypsophila paniculata, 183 H Harebell, 171, 178, 213 Carpathian, 178 Hawthorn, Paul's red double-flowering 48 European, or English, 47 322 INDEX. Hazel, purple, 60 Heart, bleeding, 164 Heath, winter, 157 Hdeiiium Hoopesii, 183 Helianthus Maximiliana, 192 orgyalis, 192 Helleborus niger, 197 altifolius, 198 Hemerocallis Thunbergii, 192 Hemlock, 80, 282 weeping, 29 Hepatica triloba, 165, 212 Herbaceous plants, arrangement of, 200 Hercules' club, 28 Hibiscus Californicus, 193 Moscheutos, 192 Syriacus, 99, 262 Hollyhock, 183, 204 Honey-locust, 28, 293 Honeysuckle, 28 Belgian striped monthly, 76 bush, 72 Canadian, 76 evergreen, 113 Hall's evergreen, 76 Tartarian bush, 72 Hornbeam, American, 28 Horse-chestnut, 61, 101 dwarf flowering, 101 red-flowering, 61 Hoopesii, 183 House on small place, position of, 260 264 Houstonia ccerulea, 158 Hyacinths, 168 Hyacinthus orientalis, 168 Hydrangea, 264 Japan climbing, 77 paniculata grandiflora, 99 Hypericum, 99 I Iberis, 213 corrsefolia, 172 Ilex verticillata, 131 Indigo, blue false, 178 Iris, Chalcedonian, 169 crested dwarf, 164 Iris, cristata, 164 Florentine, 173 German, 184 Germanica, 184 golden-netted, 169 Iberica, 169 Japan, 214 Kaempferi, 184 pumila, 164 reticulata, 169 Siberian, 173 Siberica, var. haematophylla, 173 verna, 164 Itea Virginica, 29 Ivy, Japanese, 28 Jasmine, yellow, 34, 38 Jasminum nudiflorum, 29, 34, 38 Jonquil, fragrant or campernelle, 166 Judas-tree, Japan, 108 Juniper, bluish-tinted, 146 common Canadian, 82 creeping, 30, 282 Irish, 82 savin, 30 Swedish, 82 weeping, 82 Juniperus Canadensis, 82 oblonga pendula, 82 prostrata, 29 Sabina, 30 squamata, 29 tamariscifolia, 30 venusta, 82 Virginiana glauca, 29, 82 K Kalmia latifolia, 30, 70 Kerria Japonica, 29, 74 Kniphofia alceoides, 210 Kcelreuteria, 59 Laburnum, common, 63 Scotch, 63 INDEX. 323 Landscape gardening, geometric style of, 261 Larch, 29 Japan, 38 weeping, 29, 38, 152 Larix Europsea glauca, 38 leptolepsis, 38 Larkspur, 179, 204 beautiful, 180 large-flowered, 180 tall, 180 Lathyrus latifolius, 193 Laurel, broad-leaved, 36 Lavender, sea, 174 Lawn after sowing grass-seed, mainte- nance of, 13, 14 arrangement of Washington Irving's,2O5 exhibition of individual plants on, 250 plantations, arrangement of, 6 planting at small places, 258 railway, creeping juniper for, 297 moneywort for, 297 mugho pine for, 297 periwinkle for, 297 plans for, 297 plants suited for, 297 retinospora for, 297 rhododendron for, 297 stone pine for, 297 treatment of, 296 Virginia creeper for, 297 thorough preparation of, 238 Lawns, cultivation of, 5 grading of surface of, 263 small, approach to house on, 265 cost of plants for, 269 location of trees on, 264 treatment of, 265 vegetable garden on, 265 vistas on, 261 Ledebourii, 72 Leek, cobweb house, 197 common house, 197 Liatris, 186, 213 pycnostachya, 186 spicata, 186 Lilac, 50 Chinese, 51 Lilac, co-nmon, 51 Persian, 51 Lilies, water, nymphzeas, 248 Lilium auratum, 185 Batemannise, 185 Canadense, 185 pardalinum, 185 pomponium, 169 Pyrenaicum, 186 speciosum, 185 superbum, 185 tigrinum, 185 splendens, 185 Lily, blue plantain, 183 day, 183, 192, 213 hardy white, 253 leopard, 185 Lily-pond, cost of plants for, 246 importance of open spaces of, 246 in Central Park, construction of, 251 instructions for making, 242 natural effect of, 249 right way to make a, 241 wrong way to make a, 239 Lily, Saint Bernard's, 176 small white, 253 tiger, 185 Turk's cap, 185 Cape Cod water, 253 water, in the pool, Central Park, 253 in Union Square, appearance of, 252 white plantain, 183 yellow turban, 186 Zanzibar water, 253 Linden, American, 293 golden-barked, no, 150 red-twigged, 150 Linum perenne, 173 Liquid ambar styraciflua, 95, 124 Liriodendron tulipifera, 63 Live forever, 195, 212 Liver leaf, 165, 212 Lobelia cardinalis, 193 Lonicera Canadensis, 76 flexuosa, 72 fragrantissima, 29, 72, 290 Halleana, 76 sempervirens, 104 INDEX. Lonicera, sinensis, 104 Tartarica, 72 xylosteum, 72 Loosestrife, purple, 186 Lotus, 246, 252 best soil for, 246 leaves, appearance of, 247 yellow, 248 Lychnis Chalcedonica, 186 scarlet, 1 86 Lycium barbarum, 29, 75, 99 Lythrum Salicaria, 186 viscaria splendens, 187 M Magnolia acuminata, 64 Asiatic, hardiness of, 46 broad-leaved, 65, 96 Chinese, 44, 46 conspicua, 44 cordata, 64 dark purple Japanese, 46 glauca, 65, 67 longifolia, 65 gracilis, 46 Halleana, 46 hypoleuca, 66, 67 Kobus, 66 Lennei, 44, 46 macrophylla, 46, 65, 95 Norbetiana, 44 parviflora, 66, 67 purpurea, 46 slender, 46 Soulangeana, 44 stellata, 44, 46 swamp, 65 sweet-scented, 65 Thompsoniana, 65 tripetala, 66 umbrella, 66 Watsonii, 66 white swamp, 65 Mahonia, 30, 113, 131, 146 aquifolium, 30 Mallow, crimson, 178 garden, 194 Mallow, marsh rose, 192 Maltese cross, 186 Malus aucubasfolia, 43 coronaria odorata, 43 Halleana, 43 spectabilis, 43 MalvaAlcea, 194 moschata alba, 194 Manures for the lawn, 8 Maple, ash-leaved, 55 broad-leaved, 55 English field, 55 Japanese, 28, 55, 57, 122, 130, 264 Norway, 55, 61, 119, 293 Schwerdler's purple-leaved, 56 scarlet, 55 silver, 55 striped, 55, 150 su gar, 55, 122, 293 swamp, 122 sycamore, 55 Leopold's, 56 silver-leaved, 56 Meadow-rue, 174 Meadow-saffron, 199 Meadow-sweet, 190 Menispermum Canadense, 104 Milfoils, 175 Milkweed (Asclepias), 214 Mock orange, 71 Monarda didyma, 187 Moneywort, 212 Monk's-hood, 179 autumn, 191, 214 Morning-glory, 205 Mountain everlasting, 212 Mouse ear, 161 Munstead giant, 171 Musa ensete, 234, 235 Myrica cerifera, 29 N Narcissus, 165 bicolor, 1 66 incomparabilis, 166 maximus, 166 odorus. 1 66 INDEX. 325 Narcissus, poeticus, 166 pseudo-narcissus, 166 Nasturtium, 228, 229 Nelumbium or lotus, 246 speciosum, 246, 252 Noble fumitory, 163 Nookeries on the home grounds, 307 akebia for, 310 ampelopsis quinquefolia for, 310 ampelopsis tricuspidata, or Veitchii, for, 309 arrangement of, 308 clematis apiifolia for, 310 flam null a for, 310 Dutchman's pipe for, 310 Japan ivy for, 309 lonicera sempervirens for, 309 Periploca Grseca for, 310 Tecoma grandiflora for, 309 r ad i cans, 309 trumpet-creeper for, 309 trumpet-vine or honeysuckle for, 309 Virginia creeper for, 310 Virginia silk, 310 wistaria, 310 Nymphaea alba candidissima, 253 Devoniensis, 253 pygmaea, 253 Zanzibarensis azurea, 253 rosea, 253 O Oak, chestnut, 96 English, 97, 123 golden, 97, 123 over cup, 152 pin, 96, 112 pyramidal, 29, 97, 112, 120, 123, 152, 301 red, 96 scarlet, 96 Turkey, 123 weeping, 97 white, 96 willow, 96 willow-leaved. 112 CEnothera Missouriensis, 187 Oleaster, garden, 128 Opuntia Rafinesquii, 187 Orris-root, 173 Oxydendrum arboreum, 126, 313 1' Pseonia officinalis, 173 tenuifolia, fl. pi., 173 Pampas grass, 210, 243 Pansies, 236 Pansy, bird's foot, 158 Papaver bracteatum, 188 nudicaule, var. croceum, 188 orientale, 188 Pare du Chaumont, 273 Park, Central, acres in, number of, 291 beginning of, date of, 273 bridle path of, arrangement of, 290 competitive plans for, 273 forest glade of, 284 gorge with rhododendrons, 288 green, 72d St. and 5th Ave., arrange- ment of, 277 Harlem Meer, neighborhood of, 288 highlands of, 28 lawn, children's and nurses', arrange- ment of, 277 lower meadow, arrangement of, 277 mall, arrangement of, 276 miles of paths and roads in, 291 north meadow of, 284, 290 pin-oaks of, 284, 290 play-grounds of, 291 pond near 72d St., 289 ramble, arrangement of, 280 roads, transverse, of, 284 rock, overhanging, in, 286 selection of site of, 272, 273 terrace, 276 the lake, arrangement of, 280 Hyde, lack of variety in, 272 Phoenix (Dublin), 272 small, architectural adornments on, 293 Canal St., New York, care and size of, 294 city squares resembling, 292 fences for, 292 fountain basins for, 293 plants for, 293 326 Pasque flower, European, 160 Pea, everlasting, 193 Peach, double flowering, 43 Pear, Western nrickly, 187 Pennsylvania catchfly, 163 Pentstemon, 213 barbatus, var. Torreyi, 189 cobaea, 189 Peonies, herbaceous, 173, 204 Pepper-bush, sweet, too Pergola, wistarias on, 289 Periwinkle, 212 Persimmon, American, 108 Japanese, 108 Petalostemon decumbens, 189 Pheasant's eye, 166 Philadelphus, 71, 289, 293 coronarius, 72 dwarf golden, 72 grandiflorus, 72 laxus, 72 speciosus, 72 Phlox amoena, 159 annual, 174 Carolina, 174 dwarf, 159, 1 60 garden, 194, 204, 213 maculata, 194 nivalis, 159 paniculata, 194 starry, 174 stellaria, 174 subulata, 159 white, 159 Piceaalba, 80 excelsa elata, 29 Gregoriana, 80 inverta, 29 Orientalis, 141 polita, 81, 142 pungens, 85, 142 Pine, Austrian, 144 Bhotan, 82, 144, 145, 282 dwarf Scotch, 82, 144 dwarf white, 1 44 golden Japanese, 145 Japan parasol, 30, 145 mugho, 30, 83, 144 INDEX. Pine, stone, 282 sun-ray, 145 Swiss stone, 144 Pink, cushion, 172 fire, 174 garden, 172, 203, 213 maiden's, 171, 172 moss, 159 wild, 163 Pinus cembra, 30, 144, 282 excelsa, 82, 144, 145, 282 Massoniana variegata, 145 mughus, 144 compacta, 144 uncinata, 144 strobus compacta, 143 Pitcher-plant, 249 Plane-tree, Oriental, 92, 293 Platycodon grancliflorum, 189 Plumbago Larpentse, 195 Plum, double flowering, 43 Poet's narcissus, 166 Point of view on small places, importance of, 263 Poker, red-hot, 193 Pond-lilies, habit of, 246 Pontederia crassipes, 249 Poplar, 98, aspen, 38 balsam, 98 Lombardy, 29, 244, 248 health of, 244 tulip, 122 Poppies, hardy herbaceous, 188 Poppy, great scarlet, 188 Iceland, 188 water, 249 Populus tremuloides, 38 Portulaca vine, 204 Primrose, English, 163 evening, 187, 194 Primula vulgaris, 163 Prinos verticillata, 29 Privet, 113, 290, 293 Californian, 210, 214 Pruning vines on rocks, 26 Primus cerasus, fl. p]., 42 Pseudotsuga Douglasii, 84 INDEX. 327 Pyrethrum, 209, 223, 225, 228 aureum, 228 uliginosum, 195 Pyrus Japonica, 39 Quercus concordia, 123 Daimio, 112 palustris, 96, phellos, 96, 112 robur pedunculata Concordia, 97 var. pedunculata, 97 Quince, Japan, 39 large-flowered, 40 R Ranunculus speciosus, fl. pi., 174 Raspberry, purple-flowering, 188 Red-hot poker, 210 Retinospora obtusa, 30 Retinosporas, 146, 282 golden, 146 Rhododendron, 30, 68, 69, 113, 146, 206 Catawbiense, 35 Dauricum, 35 Rhodora Canadensis, 40 Rhodotypus kerrioides, 29 Rhus cotinus, 68 glabra laciniata, 29, 129 Osbecki, 124, 129, 130 Ribbon-grass, variegated, 210 Rock-cress, 212 Alpine, 161 Rocks on sloping ground, arrangement of, 26 Rock tunica, 175 Rockwork, planting vines in, 28 right way to make, 15, 29 semi-artificial, example of, 22 tree- and shrub-planting in, 28 wholly artificial, illustrations of, 18 wrong way to make, 30 Rosa rugosa, 80, 289 Rose, Baltimore Belle, Baronne Prevost, 78 Christmas, 197, 214 climbing, 78 Rose, damask, 203 General Jacqueminot, 78 hardy, 78 Japan Ramanas, 8r Mme. Plantier, 78 Queen of the Prairies, 78, 190 Rubus odoratus, 188 Rudbeckia maxima, 195 Sage, meadow, 189 Salisburia adianti folia, 29, 299 Salix caprea, 37 laurifolia, 98, 109 pentandra, 98, 109 regalis, 37 rosemarinifolia, 29 Sal via pratensis, 189 splendens, 233 Sambucus nigra aurea, 29 Sand wort, 212 spring, 1 60 Sanguinaria Canadensis, 212 Saxifraga cordifolia, 158 heart-leaved, 158 Scabiosa Caucasica, 189 Sciadopitys verticillata, 30, 145 Sea pink, 171 Sedum, 195, 212 acre, 195 Fabaria, 195 Sieboldii, 195 spectabile, 195 Sempervivum, 197 arachnoideum, 197 calcareum, 197 Senecio Japonica, 195, 196 Senna, American, 179 bladder, 100 Shrubs, small dwarf, 264 Silene Pennsylvania, 163 Virginica, 174 Silphium laciniatum, 196 Sky-line for trees and shrubs, 260, 262 variety of, 260 Small places, arrangement of walks and roads on, 259, 266 328 INDEX. Small places, borders on walks of, treat- ment of, 262 boundary lines on, treatment of, 261 foliage on, evergreen and deciduous, 262 grouping of trees and shrubs on, 260 house on, position of, 260, 264 Sneezewort, 176 Snowball, 75, 131, 293 Japanese, 75, 289 Snowberry, 131 Snowdrop, 169, 204 Solanum, 224, 235 Solidago, 196, 214 Canadensis, 197 rigida, 197 Shortii, 197 Sophora, weeping, 152 Sorrel tree, 99, 126 autumn appearance of, 314 bark of, 314 bush form of, 315 flowers of, 314 rhododendrons in connection with, 315- Speedwell, 190 gentian-leaved, 190 Spircea, 290 Billardii, 102 bullata, 109 callosa, 29 callosa alba, 29, 102 crispifolia, 109 Douglasii, 102 Fortune!, 71 Japonica, 163 lobata, 190 opulifolia, 252, 289, 293 aurea, 71 pentandra, 109 prunifolia, 71, 109, 129 Reevesiana, 29, 71 salic folia, 102 Thunbergii, 129, 289 tomentosa, 102 trilobata, 71 ulmaria, 190 enusta, 190 Spruce, Alcock's, 142 Colorado, 142 Gregory's, 142 Gregory's dwarf, 80, 142 Norway, 142, 144 Norway weeping, 29 Oriental, 142 tiger-tail, 81 weeping, 142 white, 80 Spurge, flowering, 181 Staggerbush, 101 Starvvorts, 191 Russian, 178 Statice latifolia, 174 Statues on small place, use of, 261 Stipa pennata, 210 Stokesia cyanea, 197 Stone-crop, common, 195 Stuartia pentagynia, 99 Sumac, 129 Chinese, 124, 130 cut-leaved, 129 Summer-house, location of, 266 Sunflower, 192, 214 graceful, 192 Surprise, element of, 266 Symphoricarpus racemosus, 29, 131 vulgaris, 29, 131 Syringa, 50 Chinese, 51 Persian, 51 vulgaris, 51 Swallow-wort, 176 Sweet gum, 95 pea, 204 -scented shrub, 72 -william, 204 Tamarix Africana, 29, 74 Gallica, 74 . Indica, 29, 74, 99, 262 Taxodium, 102 Taxus baccata, 85 baccata elegantissima, 85 Tecoma grandiflora, 105 radicans, 28, 105 INDEX. 320 Thalictrum speciosum, 174 Thorn, American, 293 box, 99 cock-spur, 28 evergreen, 108, 126, 148, 282 Thrift, 171 Tilia dasystyla, no sulphurea, no Tradescantia Virginica, 175 Tritoma or Kniphofia, 193 Uvaria grandiflora, 210 Trollius Europaeus, 175 Trumpet creeper, 28, 105 Tulip, 236 Artus, 237 Due Van Tholl, 237 La Belle Alliance, 237 tree, 63, 95 Tunica saxifraga, 175 Turf, importance of open spaces of, 273 Turtle head, 214 Ulmus parvifolia, 109 VegetaDiC garden on small lawns, 265 Vernonia Noveboracensis, 197 Veronica amethystina, 190 gentian oides, 190 longifolia, 190 subsessilis, 190 Viburnum, 74, lantana, 131 opulus, 29, 75 plicatum, 75 Vinca rosea, 233 Viola cornuta, 175 pedata, var. bi color. 158 Violet, 158 bird's foot, 158 horned, 175 Virginia creeper, 26, 28 silk, 28, 113 Virgin's bower, upright, 179 W Wahlenbergia grandiflora, 189 Walnut, black, 92 Weed, New York iron, 197 Weigelia Lavallei, 103 rosea, 74 Weigelia, 74, 102, 290, 293, 315 dwarf variegated, 103 White fringe, 62, 107 Willow, 98 drooping, 245 goat, 37 golden, 130, 150 laurel-leaved, 98, 109, 126 rosemary-leaved, 29 royal, 37 weeping, 128 Wind-flower, Japan, 213 snowdrop, 160 Wistaria, 28, 77, 205 Sinensis, 77 Woodruff, 171 Yarrow, downy, 170 Egyptian, 175 Yellow-wood, 120 Yew, golden, 85 Irish, 85, 150 silver-tinted, 8 D Yucca filimentosa, 29, 190 recurva, 29 Grees of mortbeastern Hmerica. By CHAS. s. NEWHALL. With an Introductory Note by NATH. L. BRITTON, E.M., Ph.D., of Columbia College. With illustrations made from tracings of the leaves of the various trees. 8vo, cloth. Illustrated . . $2 50 The trees described include all the native trees of Canada and the Northern United States east of the Mississippi River. Men- tion has also been made of the more important of the introduced and naturalized species. The descriptions are such that any given species may be readily located and named by the help of the guide given in the volume. " There has long been great need of just such a work, and it has at last been met in this handsome volume in a most satisfactory manner." Christian at Work. Xeaf Collector's BOOK. By CHARLES S. NEWHALL. 8vo, cloth. Illustrated . . . $2 00 This book Mr. Newhall has prepared as a handbook for the convenience of those interested in collecting and preserving the characteristic leaves of the forest trees. This volume will be found invaluable to all interested in country life. Hmon$ tbe flfeptbs anfc Butterflies. A revised and enlarged edition of " Insect Lives." By JULIA P. BALLARD, author of " Building Stories," " Seven Years from To-Night," etc. Small 8vo. Illustrated . $1 50 " ' Insect Lives ' is an exquisite work on butterflies and moths just the thing for amateur scientists. It gives illustrations of the larva, chrysalis, and imago states of our most common species, and adds a fascinating description of each, with practical hints about how to raise them." MARY B. DENNIS, M.S., Director Chautauqua Walking Science Club. "The book, which is handsomely illustrated, is designed for young readers, relating some of the most curious facts of natural history in a singularly pleasant and instructive manner." N. Y. Tribune. e (Barben, as Consifcerefc in literature b\> Certain polite Writers, With a critical essay by WALTER HOWE. With a steel portrait of WILLIAM KENT, " The Father of Modern Gardening." (No. XXVI. in the Knickerbocker Nugget Series.) 16mo . . 1 00 " A book that will especially delight all who are fond of gardens and gardening, and who take a certain pleasure in enjoying nature when treated by man as a work of art." Boston Home Journal. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York and London. (OVER) (5arbCnin0, Notes and Suggestions on Lawns and Lawn Planting, Laying Out and Arrangement of Country-Places, Large and Small Parks, Cemetery Plots, and Railway-Station Lawns; Deciduous and Evergreen Trees and Shrubs, The Hardy Border, Bedding Plants, Rockwork, etc., etc. By SAMUEL PARSONS, Jr., Superintendent of Parks, New York City. Large 8vo, with nearly 200 illus- trations, pp. xxii -{- 3 2 9 $350 CONTENTS : The Lawn The Treatment of Sloping Grounds- Spring Effects on the Lawn Trees and Shrubs for June Effects on the Lawn The Flowers and Foliage of Summer Green Autumnal Foliage Autumnal Colors on the Lawn Lawn-Plant- ing for Winter Effect Garden Flowers Grandmother's Garden Bedding Plants The Ornamentation of Ponds and Lakes Lawn-Planting for Small Places City Parks Railway, Church- yard, and Cemetery Lawn-Planting Nookeries on the Home Grounds My Friend, the Andromeda. Mr. Parsons' long and successful experience as a Landscape Gardener makes him peculiarly qualified to give practical instruction on all matters pertaining to the laying out and planting of country places. The author says in his preface : " The principal feeling that has inspired the present undertaking has been a desire to arouse by simple desultory talks increased enthusiasm for lawn-making among men of moderate means. . . . Wealth and taste are being rapidly diffused among all classes. The book, therefore, that is needed for this purpose is, it seems to me, one that will stimulate interest in an inexpensive style of landscape gardening by enunciating a few practical fundamental principles, and giving an account of some examples of well laid out grounds. With this should naturally be included a description of some of the best lawn plants." " Every topic is well handled", and the author's love of nature and regard for all growing things pervades the book to such an extent that one feels the sympathy and enthusiasm it was his desire to create. To those who have the opportunity to follow in bis lead the book will be a welcome aid, and to those whose lot still lies within city walls a source of regret that they may not attempt some one simple and delightful scheme. The publishers have made up the book with excellent taste ; the paper is fine, which brings out the two hundred or more illustrations admirably, and the covers in keeping with the refinement of what they enclose." A rchitecture and Building. " Mr. Parsons proves himself a master of his art as a landscape gardener, and this superb book should be studied by all who are concerned in the making of parks in other cities. "Philadelphia Bulletin. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York and London. (OVER) THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara s flBBJS8SS "sSSSSSS? 5 ^ A 000 559 449 4