LIBRARY OF CO
VWI
00009728879
ee sre
A ae aay)
: Teh he
aa
ii ee ot
LA iii Nn
"
r Of iT)
i.
Ty hey vt Nt ’
0) i Ne Aah? at, "
Pi
THE
ART OF BEAUTIFYING !
SUBURBAN HOME GROUNDS
OF SMALL EXTENT.
is. A P
ILLUSTRATED BY UPWARD ’/F TWO HUNDRED
PLATES AND ENGRAVINGS
OF PLANS FOR RESIDENCES AND THEIR GKOUNDS, OF TREES AND SHRUBS, AND
GARDEN EMBELLISHMENTS ;
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND HARDY
TR Be 1S \., ASN ID: S2neR sue ES
GROWN IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY
FRANK J) SGOre
1'
NE W. ¥ ORs: ~
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY.
1873,
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
FRANE J... SCOrs,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of
New York.
ote the memory of ott w3 Downing, his frend
and tnébiucter, his book dedicated, wih, upection=
ave sememlante, ly the abhor,
Yer irve
Tita ae
' ASETAL a
TATTARO
vy tee orient ay
Ajo \
71 esta a
“4 hase
ay
= 5 +f?
‘ ;
>
ns
mM
select:
ie
Pepi. OF CON TAN ES.
PA RY SE:
SUBURBAN HOME GROUNDS.
INTRODUCTION, - : : ° ° -
CHAPTER .—
ART AND NATURE, . : - ° .
CHAPTER II.
DECORATIVE PLANTING—WHAT CONSTITUTES IT,
CHAPTER, Tit:
WHat KIND oF HOME GROUNDS WILL BEST SUIT BUSINESS
MEN, AND THEIR COST, .
CHAPTER, IV.
SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS COMPARED WITH COUNTRY
PLACES,
CHAPTER V.
BUILDING SITES AND GROUND SURFACES, , 5 r
15
17
20
26
32
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VL
PAGE
DWELLINGS, OUTBUILDINGS, AND FENCES, \ 45
CHAPTER VII.
NEIGHBORING IMPROVEMENTS, ; ‘ - 3. aiGo
GHA P TER”: WIE:
MATERIALS USED IN DECORATIVE PLANTING, . ° 70
5} 5 We bed Ne DR DS
FAULTS TO AVOID—PLAN BEFORE PLANTING, ° = ETS
CHAPTER X,
WALKS AND Roaps, : : . ° ° 85
“CHAPTER (XL
ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING, ; ° e Plane: 13
CHAPTER 21:
RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF LAWN, TREES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS,
AND CONSTRUCTIVE DECORATIONS IN THE DEVELOP-
MENT OF HOME PICTURES, . 4 : 102
CHAPTER HI.
THE Lawn, 5 : . ° ° = Oy
CHAPTER “XIV.
ARTIFICIAL ADAPTATIONS OF SHRUBS AND TREES, s 112
TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER XV.
PAGE
PLANS oF RESIDENCES AND GROUNDS, ° ° a, ak
CHAPTER XVI.
THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES, : oe 238
CHAPTER XVII.
FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS AND THEIR SETTINGS, - 7 246
CHAPTER, XVIII.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEEP DRAINAGE AND CULTIVATION IN
THEIR RELATION TO THE GROWTH OF TREES, AND THE
SUCCESSFUL CULTURE OF THOSE WHICH ARE HALF-
HARDY ; TOGETHER WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR PROTECTING
YounGc TREES IN WINTER AND SUMMER, . : 264
PART Af.
TIRE ES. Sih ODS AND VINE S.
CHAPTERS
A COMPARISON OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES, 27
CHAPTER, Il.
DESCRIPTIONS AND ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT, . ° 299
CHAPTER » IT.
Decipuous TREES, . ‘ F P s “i go2
Vill TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV?
DeEcIDUOUS SHRUBS, é 3 : ‘
CHAPTER V.
EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS, . e
CHAPTER VI.
VINES AND CREEPERS, . : ° :
APPENDIX, ° ° . .
INDEX, e se e e e «
PAGE
455
514
poe
601
A KEY TO THE SYMBOLS USED IN THE FOLLOWING
~N IPRA ANTaQ - a Z
SSS DESIGNS 2 _
ae wae aes ere
Open fence on street lines
ee Close hioh (once. or wall
Light wire fence, or no fence at all
. Road and Walk lines
Beds of quite low annuals or perennials
Flowering plants , 738 caches Aigh and wpwards
} :
filled Ground
lor
Vesetables
Rose beds
x Pillar Roses
as
[sj Street trees @) Vase with base {3 Rustic Vase
Deciduous trees branching high enough to allow a clear view
under ther hranches
fe) Pine tree
5 Arbor Vitaes and Cedars
© Spruce Firs Hemlocks &c.
Small deciduous trees
Shrubbery
A Apple tree
( Cherry tree
Standard Pear tree L A Dwarf Pear tree
Peach tree
Quince tree
4
¥
) Plum tree
Q
{
(rape tree, or vine on stake
pe See Grape Trellis
er ae ee |
jee (Grape Arbor
Pon eb. L.;
SUBURBAN HoME GROUNDS.
LNT RODUCTION:.
“The landscape, forever consoling and kind,
Pours her wine and her oil on the smarts of the mind.’’
LoweLL,
HE aim of this work is to aid persons of moderate
income, who know little of the arts of decorative garden-
ing, to beautify their homes ; to suggest and illustrate
the simple means with which beautiful home-surround-
ings may be realized on small grounds, and with little cost ; and
thus to assist in giving an intelligent direction to the desires, and
a satisfactory result for the labors of those who are engaged in
embellishing homes, as well as those whose imaginations are warm
with the hopes of homes that are yet to be.
It is more than twenty years since the poetical life and pen of
12 INTRODUCTION.
A. J. Downing warmed the hearts of his countrymen to a new love
and zest for rural culture. In the department of suburban
architecture, the work so charmingly begun by him has been
carried forward by Vaux and a host of others, whose works are
constantly appearing. But in the specialty of decorative gardening,
adapted to the small grounds of most suburban homes, there is
much need of other works than have yet appeared. Downing had
begun in the books entitled “Cottage Residences and Cottage
Grounds” and “Country Houses,” to cover this subject in his
peculiarly graceful as well as sensible style ; but death robbed us
of his pleasant genius in the prime of its usefulness. Since his
time many useful works have appeared on one or another branch
of gardening art; but not one has been devoted entirely to the
arts of suburban-home embellishment. The subject is usually
approached, as it were, sideways—as a branch of other subjects,
architectural, agricultural, and horticultural—and not as an art
distinct from great landscape-gardening, and not embraced in flori-
culture, vegetable gardening, and pomology. ‘The busy pen of the
accomplished Donald G. Mitchell has treated of farm embellish-
ment with an admirable blending of farmer-experience and a poet’s
culture ; but he has given the farm, more than the citizen’s subur-
ban lot, the benefit of his suggestions. Copeland’s “Country
Life” is a hand-book grown almost into an encyclopedia of garden
and farm work, full of matter giving it great value to the farmer
and horticulturist. Other works, too numerous to mention, of
special horticultural studies, as well as valuable horticultural an-
nuals, have served to whet a taste for the arts of planning as well as
planting. Some of them cover interesting specialties of decorative
gardening. It is a hopeful sign of intelligence when any art or
science divides into many branches, and each becomes a subject
for special treatises. But books which treat, each, of some one
department of decorative gardening, should follow, rather than
precede, a knowledge of the arts of arrangement, by which, alone,
all are combined to produce harmonious home-pictures ; and for
precisely the same reason that it is always best to plan one’s house
before selecting the furniture—which, however good in itself, may
not otherwise suit the place where it must be used.
INTRODUCTION. 13
‘The term landscape-gardening is misapplied when used in
connection with the improvement of a few roods of suburban
ground ; and we disavow any claim, for this work, to treat of
landscape-gardening on that large scale, or in the thorough and
exhaustive manner in which it is handled by the masters of the art
in England, and by Downing for this country. Compared with the
English we are yet novices in the fine arts of gardening, and the
exquisite rural taste even among the poorer classes of England,
which inspired glowing eulogiums from the pen of Washington
Irving thirty years ago, is still as far in advance of our own as at
that time. British literature abounds in admirable works on all
branches of gardening arts. Loupon’s energy and exhaustive in-
dustry seem to have collected, digested, and illustrated, almost
everything worth knowing in the arts of gardening. But his works
are too voluminous, too thorough, too English, to meet the needs
of American suburban life. Kemp, in a complete little volume en-
titled “ How to lay out a Garden,” has condensed all that is most
essential on the subject for England. But the arrangements of
American suburban homes of the average character differ so widely
from those of the English, and our climate also varies so essen-
tially from theirs, that plans of houses and grounds suitable there
are not often adapted to our wants. There is an extent and
thoroughness in_their—out-buildings, and arrangements for man-
servants and maid-servants and domestic animals, which the great
cost of labor in this country forces us to condense or dispense
with. ‘Public and private examples of landscape-gardening on a
grand scale begin to familiarize Americans with the art. The best
cemeteries of our great cities are renowned even in Europe for
their tasteful keeping. But more than all other causes, that won-
derful creation, the New York Central Park, has illustrated the
power of public money in the hands of men of tasteful genius to re-
produce, as if by magic, the gardening glories of older lands. But
public parks, however desirable and charming, are not substitutes
for beautiful Homes; and with observation of such public works,
and of examples of tasteful but very costly private grounds in many
parts of the country, there comes an increasing need of practical
works to epitomize and Americanize the principles of decorative
14 INTRODUCTION.
gardening, fo zdlustrate their application to small grounds, and to
effect in miniature, and around ordinary homes, some of their love-
liest results. Some of the most prized pictures of great landscape
painters are scenes that lie close to the eye ; which derive little of
their beauty from breadth of view, or variety of objects ; and yet
they may be marvels of lovely or picturesque beauty. The half-
acre of a suburban cottage (if the house itself is what it should be)
may be as perfect a work of art, and as well worth transferring to
canvas as any part of the great Chatsworth of the Duke of
Devonshire.
Of the millions of America’s busy men and women, a large
proportion desire around their homes the greatest amount of beauty
which their means will enable them to maintain; and the minimum
of expense and care that will secure it. It is for these that
this work has been prepared. It is not designed for the very
wealthy, nor for the poor, but principally for that great class of
towns-people whose daily business away from their homes is a
necessity, and who appreciate more than the very rich, or the
poor, all the heart’s cheer, the refined pleasures, and the beauty
that should attach to a suburban home.
In planning home-grounds, a familiarity with the materials from
which the planter must choose is requisite to success in producing
a desired effect. This work, therefore, embraces descriptions and
many illustrations of trees and shrubs ; and is intended to be full
in those matters which are of most interest to unscientific lovers of
nature and rural art, in their efforts to create home beauty ;—such
as the expression of trees and shrubs, as produced by their sizes,
forms, colors, leaves, flowers, and general structure, quite inde-
pendent of their characteristics as noted by the botanist. ‘The
botanical information incidentally conveyed in the names and
descriptions of trees, shrubs, and flowers, has been drawn, it is
hoped, from the best authorities ; but, for any errors that may be
found in them, the author asks the kind indulgence of the more
scientific reader.
Char ise kl.
ART AND NATURE.
‘* All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see.’
Pope.
HE prevalent idea that the best
decorative gardening is simply
an imitation of pleasing natural
scenery, is partially incorrect. If
an imitation of Nature were the only aim,
if she were simply to be let alone, or repeated, then a prairie,
a wild forest, an oak-opening, a jungle, or a rocky scene, would
only need to be inclosed to seem a perfect example of landscape
gardening. All these forms of Nature have their peculiar beauties,
and yet these very beauties, when brought into connection with our
dwellings, are as incongruous as the picturesqueness of savage
human life in streets or parlors, All civilization is marked by the
16 ART AND NATURE.
touch of the arts which have subjugated the ruder elements in
human and vegetable nature to mould and re-arrange them. We
are not made to be content on nature’s lower levels ; for that spark
of divinity within us—Imagination—suggests to us progress and
improvement, and these are no less natural than existence. The
arts which make life beautiful are those that graft upon the wildings
of nature the refinements and harmonies which the Deity through
the imagination is ever suggesting to us.
Decorative gardening had reached a high degree of perfection
among ancient nations before the art now known as Landscape
Gardening had its origin, or rather the beautiful development which
it has reached in England within the last three centuries. ‘The art
which reproduces the wildness of rude nature, and that which
softens the rudeness and creates polished beauty in its place, are
equally arts of gardening. So too are the further arts by which
plants and trees are moulded into unusual forms, and blended by
studied symmetries with the purely artificial works of architecture.
All are legitimate, and no one style may say to another, “ Thou art
false because thou hast no prototype in nature,” since our dwellings
and all the conveniences of civilized life would be equally false if
judged by that standard. However diverse the modes of decora-
tive gardening in different countries, all represent some ideal form
of beauty, and illustrate that diversity of human tastes which is not
less admirable than the diversity of productions in vegetable nature.
That may be considered good gardening around suburban
homes which renders the dwelling the central interest of a picture,
which suggests an intention to produce a certain type of embellish-
ment, and which harmoniously realizes the type intended, whether
it be a tree-flecked meadow, a forest glade, a copse belted lawn, a
formal old French garden, a brilliant parterre, or a general blend-
ing of artfully grown sylvan and floral vegetation with architectural
forms.
Not to reproduce the rudeness of Nature, therefore, but to
adapt her to our civilized necessities, to idealize and improve,
to condense and appropriate her beauties, to eliminate the dross
from her vegetable jewels, and give them worthy setting—these are
the aims of Decorative Gardening.
a = y
== WARLEY.2
CB ACP TEs lls
DECORATIVE PLANTING—WHAT CONSTITUTES IT?
ate: .
“He who sees my park, sees into my heart !””—PrincE PucKLER To BETTINA Von ARNIM.
HE objects sought in Decorative Planting are various.
The simple pleasure of working among and developing
beautiful natural productions is one ; the desire to make
one’s place elegant and attractive to other’s eyes, and
therefore a source of pride to the possessor, is also one of the
strongest objects with many. To have a notably large variety of
flowers, shrubs, or trees, is a very common form of planting enthu-
siasm ; and the passion for some special and complete display of
certain species of flowers (florists’ hobbies) is another. Finally,
and highest of all, zs the appreciation of, and desire to create with ver-
dant Nature, charming effects of sunlight and shadow, or lovely exam-
2
18 DECORATIVE PLANTING.
ples, in miniature, of what we call landscapes. Decorative Planting
should have for its highest aim the beautifying of Home. In com
bination with domestic architecture, it should make every man’s
home a beautiful picture. As skillful stonecutting, or bricklaying,
or working in wood, does not make of the artisan an architect, or
his work a fine art, so the love of trees, shrubs, and flowers, and
their skillful cultivation, is but handling the tools of the landscape
gardener—it is not gardening, in its most beautiful meaning. The
garden of the slothful, overgrown with weeds and brambles, could
not have been much more ugly to look upon than many flower-
gardens, in which the whole area is a wilderness of annuals and
perennials, of all sorts and sizes and conditions of life, full of beau-
tiful bloom if we examine them in detail, and yet, as a whole, re-
pulsive to refined eyes as a cob-webbed old furniture museum,
crammed with heterogeneous beauties and utilities. Such gardens
cannot be called decorative planting. They are merely bouquet
nurseries of the lowest class, or botanical museums. Neither the
loveliness of flowers, nor the beauties of trees and shrubs, alone,
will make a truly beautiful place, unless arranged so that the spe-
cial beauty of trees, plants, and flowers is subordinated to the gen-
eral effect. An attempt to make good pictures by hap-hazard
applications to the canvas of the finest paint colors, is not much
more sure to result in failure than the usual mode of filling yards
with choice trees, shrubs, and flowers. It is as easy to spoil a
place with too “many flowers as to mar good food with a superfluity
of condiments. The same may be said of a medley plantation of
the finest trees or shrubs. Numbers will not make great beauty
or variety; on the contrary, they will often destroy both. That is
the best art which produces the most pleasing pictures with the
fewest materials. Milton, in two short lines, thus paints a home:
“‘ Hard by a cottage chimney smokes,
From between two aged oaks.”
Here is a picture ; two trees, a cottage, and green sward—these
are all the materials. Unfortunately the “two aged oaks,” or their
equivalents, are not at hand for all our homes.
Has the reader ever noticed some remarkably pleasant old
DECOR A TIV BE PG AN DL TENG. 1g
home, where little care seemed taken to make it so; and yet with
an air of comfort, and even elegance, that others, with wealth lav-
ished upon them, and a professional gardener in constant employ,
with flowers, and shrubs, and trees in profusion, yet all failing to
convey the same impression of a pleasant home? - Be assured that
the former (though by accident it may be) is the bette# model of
the two. A well-cut lawn, a few fine trees, a shady back-ground
with comfortable-looking out-buildings, are the essentials; and
walks, shrubs, and flowers, only the embellishments and finishing
touches of the picture. Only the finishing touches—but what a
charm of added expression and beauty there may be in those per-
fecting strokes! How a verdant gate-way arch frames the common
walk into a picture view ; how a long opening of lawn gives play-
room for the sunlight to smile and hide among the shadows of bor-
dering shrubs and trees; how an opening here, in the shrubs,
reveals a pretty neighborhood vista; how a flower-bed there,
brightens the lawn like a smile on the face of beauty ; how a swing
suspended from the strong, outstretched arm of a noble tree attracts
the children, whose ever-changing groups engage the eye and inter-
est the heart; how a delicate foliaged tree, planted on yonder mar-
gin, glows with the light of the afternoon sun, or with airy undula-
tions trembles against the twilight sky, till it seems neither of the
earth or the sky, but a spirit of life wavering between earth and
heaven !
Let us, then, define Decorative Planting to be the art of pic-
ture making and picture framing, by means of the varied forms of
vegetable growth.
iy
ca
ii
Vell
ir AM dll ll : ine
|
=
@H AP TE sRosklakc
WHAT KIND OF HOME GROUNDS WILL BEST SUIT BUSINESS MEN,
AND THEIR COST.
“Nature is immovable and yet mobile; that is her eternal charm. Her unwearied activity,
her ever-shifting phantasmagoria, do not weary, do not disturb; this harmonious motion bears in
itself a profound repose.’”,—MaADAME MICHELET.
T is always a difficult matter to keep the happy medium be-
tween extravagance and parsimony. ‘This uncertainty will
be felt by every business man of moderate means who begins
FOR BUSINESS MEN. 21
the expenditures about a suburban home. All men, who are not
either devoid of fine tastes, or miserly, desire to have as much
beauty around them as they can pay for and maintain ; but few
persons are familiar with the means which will gratify this desire
with least strain on the purse. Two men of equal means, with
similar houses and grounds to begin with, will often show most
diverse results for their expenditures; one place soon becoming
home-like, quiet, and elegant in its expression, and the other fussy,
cluttered, and unsatisfactory. The latter has probably cost the
most money; it may have the most trees, and the rarest flowers ;
more rustic work, and vases, and statuary ; but the true effect of all
is wanting. The difference between the two places is like that
between the sketch of a trained artist, who has his work distinctly
in his mind before attempting to represent it, and then sketches it
in simple, clear outlines; and the untutored beginner, whose abun-
dance of ideas are of so little service to him that he draws, and
re-draws, and rubs out again, till it can hardly be told whether it is
a horse or a cloud that is attempted. If the reader has any doubt
of his own ability to arrange his home grounds with the least waste
expenditure, he should ask some friend, whose good taste has been
proved by trial, to commend him to some sensible and experienced
designer of home-grounds.
It may be set down as a fair approximation of the expense of
good ground improvements, that they will require about one-tenth
of the whole cost of the buildings. Premising that the erection of
the dwelling generally precedes the principal expenses of beauti-
fying the grounds, this amount will be required during the two
years following the completion of the house. If the land must be
cleared of rocks, or much graded, or should require an unusually
thorough system of tile-drainage, that proportion might be insuff-
cient ; but if the ground to be improved is in good shape, well
drained, rich, and furnished with trees, a very much smaller pro-
portion might be enough; and almost the only needful expense,
would be that which would procure the advice and direction of
some judicious landscape gardener. As a good lawyer often best
earns his retainer by advising against litigation, so a master of
22 HOME GROUNDS
gardenesque art may often save a proprietor enough, to pay for all
that will be needed, by advising him what wo¢ to attempt.
But it is on bare, new grounds, that there will be most room for
doubt of what to attempt. The man who must leave his home
after an early breakfast to attend to his office or store business,
and who only returns to dinner and tea, must not be beguiled into
paying for the floral and arboricultural rarities that professional
florists and tree-growers grow enthusiastic over, unless the home
members of his family are appreciative amateurs in such things.
Tired with town labor, his home must be to him a haven of repose.
Gardeners’ bills are no pleasanter to pay than butchers’ and tai-
lors’ bills, and the satisfaction of paying either depends on the
amount of pleasure received, or hoped to be received, from the
things paid for. A velvety lawn, flecked with sunlight and the
shadows of common trees, is a very inexpensive, and may be a
very elegant refreshment for the business-wearied eye; and the
manner in which it is kept will affect the mind in the same way as
the ill or well-ordered house-keeping of the wife. But the beauties
and varied peculiarities of a fine collection of trees, shrubs, and
flowers require a higher culture of the taste, and more leisure for
observation, than most business men have. AIIl women are lovers
of flowers, but few American ladies are yet educated in that higher
garden culture—¢he art of making pictures with trees, lawn, and
flowers. Without this culture, or a strong desire for it, it is best
that the more elegant forms of gardening art should be dispensed
with, and only simple effects attempted. Now a freshly mown
meadow is always beautiful, and a well-kept lawn alone produces
that kind of beauty. But the meadow or lawn, without a tree, is
tame and monotonous. Large trees are necessary to enliven their
beauty. A well-built house, with broad porch or veranda, may ena-
ble one to get along very comfortably without the shade of trees to
protect its inmates from the excessive heat of the sun ; but the play
of light and shade in the foliage of trees, and upon the lawn, is as
needful food for the eye as the sunny gayety of children is to the
heart. These two things, then, are the most essential to the busi-
ness man’s home—a fine lawn and large trees. The former may be
produced in a year; the latter must be bought ready grown on the
FOR BUSINESS MEN. 20 -
ground. No amount of money spent at nurseries will give, in
twenty years, the dignified beauty of effect that a few fine old trees
will. realize as soon as your house and lawn are completed.
But, unfortunately, the mass of men are obliged by business
necessities, or other circumstances which are imperative, to build
on sites not blessed with large trees. ‘To enable them to make the
most of such places, it is hoped that the succeeding chapters will
point the way.
There is one hobby connected with removing from a city house
to one “with some ground around it,” which has been happily cari-
catured by some modern authors. We refer to the enthusiastic
longing for fresh vegetables “of our own raising.” A wealthy citi-
zen, who had been severely seized with some of these horticultural
fevers, invited friends to dine with him at his country-seat. The
friends complimented his delicious green corn. “It ¢ capital,
I’m glad you appreciate it,” said he ; “it is from my own grounds,
and by a calculation made a few days since I find that the season’s
crop will cost me only ten dollars an ear.” Certainly this is an
extreme case; but among the expensive luxuries for a business
man’s home a large kitchen garden is one of the most costly.
Grass, and trees, and flowers, give daily returns in food for our eyes,
seven months of the year, and cost less; yet many good housewives
and masters spend more in growing radishes, lettuce, peas, beans,
and even such cheap things as cabbages and potatoes, than it
would cost to buy just as good articles, and maintain, besides, a
lawn full of beauties. Vegetable gardening is a good and profita-
ble business on a large scale, but on a small scale is not often
made so, except by the good Dutch women, who can plant, hoe,
and market their own productions, and live on the remainders.
The kitchen garden does more to support the family of the gar-
dener than the family of the proprietor, and it is respectfully sug-
gested that the satisfaction of having one’s table provided with
“our Patrick’s”’ peas and beans is not a high order of family
pride. The professional gardener, who does the same business on
a much larger scale, and vends his vegetables at our doors, is
likely to grow them cheaper and just as good as we can grow them.
But in the matter of fruit, it is different. There are some fruits
24 HOME GROUNDS
that can only be had in perfection ripened on the spot where they
are to be eaten. All market fruit-growers are obliged to pick fruit
before it is ripe, in order to have it bear transportation and keep
well. We cannot, therefore, get luscious ripe fruit except by grow-
ing it; and we advise business men of small means and small
grounds to patronize the market for vegetables, but to grow their
own strawberries, raspberries, peaches, and pears; at least so far
as they may without making the beauty of their grounds subordi-
nate to the pleasures of the palate. The eye is a constant feeder,
that never sates with beauty, and is ever refining the mind by the
influence of its hunger; but even luscious fruits give but a momen-
tary pleasure, and that not seldom unalloyed by excess and cloying
satiety. Nature is more lavish of her luxuries for the eye than of
those for the stomach, and, in an economic point of view, it will be
wise to take advantage of her generosity. To this end, it may be
profitably borne in mind that pleasing distant or near views of
country or city, of trees or houses, of sea or stream, which cost
nothing to preserve or keep in order, are the best picture invest-
ments that can be made; and to make charming verdant frames
for these pictures as well as little “cabinet pieces” of your own
for your neighbors to look in upon, will call into play the best skill
in gardenesque designing.
To make the most of common and inexpensive materials re-
quires the same culture of the eye and the mind, as the manipulation
of the rarest. To produce an effective picture with a single color
requires the same talent that would produce only more brilliant
effects with all the colors of the palette. The most needed advice
to novices in suburban home-making is this: if you can afford to
spend but little on your grounds, study with the greater care what
beauty outside of them can be made a part of the outlook from
them ; do not introduce anything which will convey the impression
that you desire to have anything look more expensive than it
really is; dispense with walks and drives except where they are ©
required for the daily comfort of your family ; eschew rustic orna-
ments, unless of the most substantial and un-showy character, avd
in shadowy locations ; avoid spotting your lawn with garish carpen-
try, or plaster or marble images of any kind, or those lilliputian
FOR BUSINESS MEN. 25
caricatures on Nature and Art called rock-work ; and, finally, by
the exquisite keeping of what you have, endeavor to create an
atmosphere of refinement about your place, such as a thorough lady
housekeeper will always throw around her house, however small or
plain it may be.
As the wife and family are the home-bodies of a residence, the
business man of a city who chooses a home out of it should feel
that he is not depriving them of the pleasures incident to good
neighborly society. During his daily absence, while his mind is
kept in constant activity by hourly contact with his acquaintances,
the family at home also need some of the enlivening influences of
easy intercourse with their equals, and should not be expected to
find entire contentment in their household duties, with no other
society day after day than that of their own little circle, and the
voiceless beauty of grass, flowers, and trees. A throng of argu-
ments for and against what is vaguely called country life suggest
themselves in this connection, some of which are treated of in the
following chapter, in which suburban and country homes are con-
trasted. The former, as we would have them, involve no banish-
ment from all that is good in city life, but are rather the elegant
culmination of refined tastes, which cannot be gratified in the city ;
the proper field for the growth of that higher culture which finds in
art, nature, and congenial society combined, a greater variety of
pleasures than can be found in the most luxurious homes between
the high walls of city houses ; a step in advance of the Indian-like
craving for beads, jewelry, and feathers, which distinguishes the
city civilization of the present day. Choosing a home out of the
city simply because it can be secured more cheaply than in it, is
not the kind of plea for a suburban life which we would present,
yet we urge that at a given cost of home and living it yields a far
greater variety of healthful pleasures, and a fuller, freer, happier
life for man, woman, and child, than a home in the city.
al
GHAPST ERM:
SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS COMPARED WITH COUNTRY PLACES.
“*Twas town, yet country too; you felt the warmth
Of clustering’ houses in the wintry time.”—GEo. ELrort.
ANDSCAPE GARDENING, on a grand scale, in this
country, is only to be accomplished in public parks and
cemeteries. Parks of considerable extent, as private
property, are impracticable, by reason of the transient
nature of family wealth, in a republic where both the laws and the
industrial customs favor rapid divisions and new distributions.
SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS. 27
Attempts to make and keep great private parks are generally con-
spicuous failures. Some of the old family parks on the Hudson
River, and a few in other parts of the country, may be thought of
as exceptions, but they are exceptions which rather prove the rule ;
for most of them are on portions of manorial grants, held under
almost feudal titles, which have remained in the same families
through several generations, simply because they are held under
laws which present a jarring contrast with the general laws of prop-
erty which now govern in most of the States. Great fortunes can-
not be lavished perennially for half a century to keep them up,
where fortunes are so seldom made or kept in families of high cul-
tivation—the only ones which are likely to be led by their tastes,
or qualified by their education, to direct such improvements suc-
cessfully. It is from this lack of cultivation, and from sheer ignor-
ance of the fine arts, the great expenditures and the generations of
patient waiting for results, which are all necessary to produce such
works, that so many wealthy men stumble and break their fortunes
in ridiculous attempts. to improvise parks. It would be well for
our progress in Landscape Gardening that this word park, as
applied to private grounds, should be struck out of use, and that
those parts of our grounds which are devoted to what feeds the eye
and the heart, rather than the stomach, should be called simply
HomME-GRouNDs; and that the ambition of private wealth in our
republic should be to make gems of home beauty on a small scale,
rather than fine examples of failures on a large scale. A township
of land, with streets, and roads, and streams, dotted with a thou-
sand suburban homes peeping from their groves ; with school-house
towers and gleaming spires among them; with farm fields, pastures,
woodlands, and bounding hills or boundless prairies stretched
around ;—these, altogether, form our suburban parks, which all of
us may ride in, and walk in, and enjoy; and the most lavish expen-
ditures of private wealth on private grounds can never equal their
extent, beauty, or variety. |
A serious inconvenience of extensive private grounds, or parks,
is the isolation and loneliness of the habitual inmates of the house—
the ladies. Few, even of those who have a native love for rural
life, can long live contented without pleasant near neighbors. A
28 SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS.
large family may feel this less than a small one. Those who have
the means, the health, and the disposition to entertain much com-
pany at home, will escape the feeling of loneliness. But much
company brings much care. It is paying a high price for company
when one must keep a free hotel to secure it. To do without it,
however, soon suggests to the ladies that fewer acres, and more
friends near by, would be a desirable change ; and not knowing the
facility with which the happy medium may be reached, they are apt
to jump at the conclusion that, of the two privations—life in the
country without neighborly society, or life in the city without the
charms of Nature—the latter is the least. Thousands of beautiful
homes are every year offered for sale, on which the owners have
often crippled their fortunes by covering too much ground with
their expenditures. Instead of retiring to the country for rest and
strengthening recreation, they have added a full assortment of
losing and vexatious employments in the country to their already
wearisome but profitable business in the city. It is the ambition
to have “parks” (young Chatsworths !)—to be model farmers and
famous gardeners; to be pomologists, with all the fruits of the
nursery catalogues on their lists: in short, to add to the burden of
their town business the cares of half a dozen other laborious pro-
fessions, that finally sickens so many of their country places after a
few years’ experience with them. ‘There is another large class of
prosperous city men who have spent their early years on farms,
and who cherish a deep love of the country through all their de-
cennial rounds of city life; who have no fanciful ambitions for
parks ; whose dreams are of hospitable halls, broad pastures, and
sweet meadows, fine cattle and horses. It is a less vexatious mesh
of ambitions than the preceding, but one that requires a very
thoughtful examination of the resources of the purse and the calls
that will be made upon it, before purchasing the model farm that
is to be. And we beg leave to intrude a little into the privacy of
the family circle, to inquire how long will the wife and daughters
be contented with isolation on ever so beautiful a farm’ how long
before the boys will leave home for business or homes of their
own; and how long, if these are dissatisfied, or absent, will the
“fine mansion”’ and broad fields, in a lonely locality, bring peace
SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS. 29
and comfort to the owner? ‘That there are men and families that
truly fill, enjoy, and honor such life, it is good to know; but they
are cluster-jewels of great rarity.
Our panacea for the town-sick business man who longs for a
rural home, whether from ennui of the monotonousness of business
life, or from the higher nature-loving soul that is in him, is to take
country life as a famishing man should take food—in very small
quantities. rom a half acre to four or five acres will afford ground
enough to give all the finer pleasures of rural life. The suburbs of
most cities, of from five to fifty thousand people, will have sites at
reasonable prices, within easy walking distance of business, where
- men of congenial tastes and friendly families may make purchases,
and cluster their improvements so as to obtain all the benefits of
rural pleasures, and many of the beauties of park scenery, without
relinquishing the luxuries of town life.
In the neighborhood of large cities, horse and steam railways,
and steamers, transport in a few minutes their thousands of tired
workers to cheerful villages, or neighborly suburban homes, envi-
roned with green fields and loveable trees. To be thus transported
from barren city streets to the verdant country is a privilege for
which we cannot be too grateful. But, if we are to choose a sub-
urban residence for the whole year (not migrating to a city home
or hotel with the first chills of November), it is a serious matter to
, know whether there is a good hard road and sidewalk to the home.
City life, with its flagging, and gas lights, and pavements, comes
back to the imagination couleur de rose when your horses or your
boots are toiling through deep mud on country roads. This is bad
enough by daylight ; at night you might feel like stopping to be-
stow a benediction on a post that would sparkle gas-light across
your path. Now the moral which we would suggest by thus pre-
senting the most disagreeable feature of suburban life, is this: to go
no farther into the country than where good roads have already
been made, and where good sidewalks have either been made, or,
from the character or growth of the neighborhood, are pretty sure
to be made within a short time. Some persons must, of course, be
pioneers. Those who locate in a new suburban neighborhood
expect to buy their lots enough cheaper than the later comers to
30 SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS.
compensate for the inconveniences of a sparse neighborhood.
But, in playing pioneer, one must be pretty sure that followers are
on the track, for “hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” One of
the greatest drawbacks to the improvement of suburban neighbor-
hoods is the fact that many persons own long fronts on the roads
who are not able to make the thorough improvement of roads and
sidewalks in front of their grounds which the new-comers, located
beyond them, require. This should have been foreseen by the
new-comers. Having chosen their homes with the facts before
them, they must not complain if some poor farmer or “ land-poor ”
proprietor is unable to improve for their benefit, and unwilling to
sell at their desire. In choosing a suburban home, the character
of the ownerships between a proposed location and the main street
or railroad station should be known, and influence to some extent
one’s choice.
The advantages cannot be too strongly urged, of forming com-
panies of congenial gentlemen to buy land enough forall. Select a
promising locality, divide the property into deep narrow strips, if
the form of the ground will admit of it, having frontages of one,
two, or three hundred feet each, according to the means respec-
tively of the partitioners, and as much depth as possible. A
depth four times as great as the frontage is the best form of subur-,
ban lots for improvement in connection with adjoining neighbors.
Lots of these proportions insure near neighbors, and good walks
and roads in their fronts, at least. Acting together, the little com-
munity can create a local pressure for good improvements that will
have its effect on the entire street and neighborhood. In subse-
quent chapters we propose to show how such neighbors may im-
prove their grounds in connection with each other, so as to realize
some pleasing effects of artistic scenery at a comparatively small
expense to each owner. Even» the luxury of .gas in our suburban
houses and roads is quite practicable in the mode of dividing and
improving property which we have recommended ; and with good
roads, sidewalks, and gas, added to the delightfulness of rural
homes, no healthy-hearted family would wish to have their perma-
nent home in a dark and narrow city house. Our cities would
gradually become great working-hives, but not homes, for a major-
SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS. dl
ity of their people. It may be said that such homes as we speak
of, in the suburbs of great cities, would be simply village resi-
dences. It is true; but they would be villages of a broader, more
generous, and cosmopolitan character than old-fashioned villages.
Post-offices, shops and groceries, butchers, bakers, blacksmiths,
shoemakers, and laborers of all kinds must be near by, and a
part of our community, or there would be no living at all; but
where a large, and probably the most wealthy, part of the inhabit-
ants go daily to the city centre to transact business, the amount of
traffic carried on in the village or suburban centre will not be large
enough to seriously injure the general rural character of the vicin-
ity. The stir of thrifty industry is in itself refreshing, and the
attractions of lecture, concert, and dancing halls, and ice-cream re-
sorts, cannot be dispensed with.
We believe this kind of half-country, half-town life, is the happy
medium, and the realizable ideal for the great majority of well-to-
do Americans. The few families who have a unanimity of warm
and long-continued love for more isolated and more picturesquely
rural, or more practically rural homes, are exceptions. The mass
of men and women are more gregarious. Very poetical or reflec-
tive minds, or persons absorbed in mutual domestic loves, find
some of their deepest pleasure in seclusion with Nature. But the
zest even of their calm pleasures in the country is greatly height-
ened by frequent contrasts with city excitements, and by the com-
pany of sympathetic minds, who enjoy what they enjoy. A philo-
sophic Frenchman, who lived much alone, was once asked by a
lady if he did not find solitude very sweet. He replied, “ Indeed,
madam, when you have some pleasant friend to whom you can say,
‘Oh, how sweet is solitude.’” ‘AO LD;
on the professional services of educated gardeners. It would be
as absurd for the mass of men, engrossed in active business, to
devote a large amount of time to the study of the mere rudiments
of gardenesque art, simply to enable them to lay out a half acre or
acre of land, as it would be for the same business man to pore
over an architect’s library and pictures to enable him to design his
own house—frovided skillful planters were as easily found as com-
petent architects. ‘Twenty years ago there was the same dearth of
architects of culture as there now is of educated gardeners. ‘The
general study of domestic architecture, which Downing’s works then
aided to make a fashion, produced, at first, an astonishing fermen-
tation and rising of architectural crudities ; but it also produced,
afterwards, a crop of architects. If we can induce every family
who have a home to adorn, to study the art of planning and ar-
ranging their own grounds, the seed will be planted that will ger-
minate, in another generation, in a crop of art-gardeners of such
high culture, and of such necessity to the educated community, that
it will be one of the honored professions of our best collegiates.
Now, however, the number of such men, devoted to this profes-
sion, is so small, that we have not heard even of more than half a
dozen skilled, professional gardeners among our thirty millions of
native Americans ; and not greatly more than double that number
of educated foreigners, who have established a deserved fame
among us as men of culture in their art. Even these men, with
few exceptions, are little known outside the wealthy circles of the
great cities, nor half appreciated where they are known. Until
employers are themselves persons of culture, artists, even when
employed, are regarded as a kind of dilettanti, whom it is neces-
sary to employ rather to conform to “the fashion,” than for such
service as the employer is competent to appreciate, and really
enjoy the results of. We know of nothing that will at the same
time cultivate a taste for the fascinating art of gardenesque design-
ing, and produce a quick return of pleasure for the time spent, as
the study of paper plans for one’s own grounds.
Ignorant gardeners, and self-sufficient business men who know
nothing about gardening, are apt to indulge in ridicule of this
paper gardening, but it is the ridicule only which is ridiculous.
eisai ddl,
rac mW
, ; i Bs 7 ; mi ' i
prs: Hee shyla aN
il nh Kil te iY bal sit Mit Ge Oe
9 4 ae
L
eny yee ees eee
| in aan
| i
t |
— J dtible |
Scale é inch-I foot.
as bs
Sedans
PLAN BEFORE PLANTING. 81
Architecture, in execution, becomes a matter of stone, brick, mor-
tar, wood, and iron ; but who, except an ignoramus, would expect
the skillful architect to devote himself to the handling of these
materials, instead of to his books, his pictures, and his drawing-
board? Good garden designs necessitate the same kind of thought,
and taste, and careful comparison of different plans, and consid-
eration of expense, before commencing to handle the materials,
that are to be used to carry out the design. The plan must be
complete before commencing work on the foundations, whether for
architecture or for decorative gardening. ‘The time to do this can
best be given during the days and long winter evenings preceding
the season for work ; and cannot be in those few lovely days of
swelling buds, into which so many kinds of spring work are neces-
sarily crowded. If, however, there is any skillful garden designer
within reach, we advise, unhesitatingly, his employment. He will
do the planning in one-tenth the time that an amateur can, and
probably a great deal better ; and his services should be paid for
as for those of other professional men of education and culture.
If the reader will be governed by our advice, we shall insist
on his having a correct map made of the lot upon which he has
built, or proposes to build, and plant ; showing accurately the lo-
cation and plan of the house, and all the outbuildings, and the
position of every tree or large shrub already growing. Such trees
or shrubs should have the breadth of their tops lightly sketched
in. Rock boulders, or ledges, which are not to be removed, should
also be distinctly platted. The map should be drawn on a scale
that will permit of its being pasted on a drawing-board not larger
than two feet by three. The best of drawing-paper should be
used. It should be moistened, and put on by some draughtsman
familiar with the mode of doing it. If a lot 100 x 300 is to be
platted on a scale of one-eighth of an inch to a foot, it will cover
124 x 374 inches of paper. Scaled one-twelfth of an inch to a
foot, the same lot would cover 8} x 25 inches of paper, which
would be the best scale for a lot of that length. For a larger lot
it would be advisable to reduce the scale to one-sixteenth of an
inch to the foot (or sixteen feet to one inch); and for a lot not
more than a hundred feet long, or where not more than one hun-
6
82 FAULTS ~TP.0 40 FD
dred feet need be planned for planting, a scale of four feet to the
inch (j of an inch to the foot) may be used. It is best to have
the scale fourths, eighths, twelfths, or sixteenths of an inch, as
these divisions of a foot come on all ordinary measuring-rules.
There should be a clear margin of at least two inches of paper
outside the lot lines; the outer inch to paste the paper to the
board, and the inner inch for a margin, when it becomes neces-
sary to cut the paper from the board. A duplicate should be
made of this skeleton map, as first made, to keep ‘safely in the
house ; and as the plans for planting are matured and carried out
from the board, or “field map,” the house map should have such
work platted upon it, in duplicate. The map which is pasted to
the board may be materially protected from damage by rain, wet
grass, or dirt, to which it may be exposed during the planting
season, by covering it with ordinary transparent tracing linen.
To facilitate the planning or arrangement of the various things
to be planted on different parts of the lot, as well as to make the
plan more easy to work from in planting, the map should be di-
vided into one-inch squares by ordinary blue lines, and these sub-
divided into eighth-inch squares by very faint blue lines. Each side
of these inch squares will then represent four, eight, twelve, or
sixteen feet, according to the scale chosen.. One accustomed to
the use of a decimal scale, may have the squares made one and
one-fourth inches on each side, and then subdivided into tenths,
each one of which will then be an eighth-inch. Paper thus ruled
for the use of civil-engineers and architects, may be procured at
most large stationers. ‘These squares, when the distances they
represent are borne in mind, serve as a substitute for measure-
ments on the map. Plate I, which is on a scale of 32 feet to one
inch, (our page being too small to admit any larger scale), illus-
trates the mode in which a map should be made. It will be seen
that the intersections of the square lines with the exterior boun-
daries of the lot are numbered on one side and lettered on
another, from the same point, marked 0. This is to facilitate
measurements and references to the intersections. Before pro-
ceeding to lay out walks, or to plant from the plan, it will be
necessary to have the fence measured and marked in the same
PLAN BEFORE PLANTING. 83
way, I, 2, 3, 4, etc., on two opposite sides of the lot, and A, B,
C on the other sides. These marks may be made distinct on the
inside of the fence, in some inconspicuous place where they will
not mar it.
Now let us suppose that the house and out-buildings have
been correctly platted on the map of the lot, as shown on Plate I,
and that the walks, trees, shrubs, and flower-beds have been
planned and drawn as shown thereon. ‘The first out-door work
to be done is to lay out the walks on the ground in conform-
ity to the plan. The front walk is six feet wide. ‘This will be
laid out simply by making its center on the center line of the
main hall, extended to the front fence, or by taking for the center,
at the street, a point two feet to the right of J, (looking towards
the house.) This walk is here supposed to be made with a stone
coping at the sides, (after the manner shown in the vignette of
Chapter IV,) terminating eight feet from the front steps, with low
pedestals and vases, and a circular stone or gravel area, as shown
on the plate. The plan supposes the lot to have a street on the
side as well as in front, and that its surface is elevated from two
to four feet above the front street.
The rear walk and carriage-road are combined in a iaiieaclenear
eight feet wide, four feet on each side of station 17, which is 136
feet (17 x 8=136) from the front corner. By counting the squares
(each four feet), the size and form of the graveled space in front
of the carriage-house will be readily ascertained. The curves may
be made by little stakes or shingle splinters stuck until they are
satisfactory. The grape walk, which is eight feet between the out-
side of the trellised posts, is on a right line with the rear part of the
house, so that no mistake can be made in its location. The walk
at the left is four feet from the trellis, and four feet wide, with a
rose or other vine trellis, or a low flower vase, facing its extremity.
The walks for the vegetable garden are too simple in their charac-
ter to need more than mention. They open at three points into
the grape walk, by openings or arches under the top slat of the
trellis. It will be observed that the carriage-house, stable, and
kitchen department of the house are under a continuous roof; a
plan that we commend for those gentlemen who keep all things
84 FAULTS TO 4V OTD:
tidy on all parts of their home-grounds, as economical, exceed-
ingly convenient, cleanly, and, in the hands of a good architect,
effective in adding to the apparent extent and home-look of the
place. But for persons unaccustomed to maintain the same clean-
liness around the outbuildings as in the “front yard,” it may not
do so well.
The walks being disposed of, let us attend to the planting ; and’
begin with the front. Further on we may describe in detail what
trees and shrubs may be especially adapted, to the different places
here marked ; our object now being only to allude to the manner
in which the plan, that has been completed on paper, may be
worked out on the ground. At a; d, and ¢ are three pairs of trees,
intended to form a short umbrageous approach-avenue to the
house. They are all seven feet from the walk; @ @ are two
squares, or eight feet from the front; 2 4, five squares, or twenty
feet ; ¢¢ are eight squares, or thirty-two feet. Flanking these, on
the left, is a mass of evergreens, several of which are on the line
H, and others on the intersections of squares to the left, as shown
by the plan. At the intersection of the lines 2 and A, or sixteen
feet from the front, and eight feet from the side fence, is the
small tree 7; at the intersection of 2 and D is a small tree or
shrub ¢; and four feet farther right, and four feet nearer the front
street, is its companion shrub e. The small tree or large shrub d;
is shown by the squares to be eight feet from the front, and twenty
feet from the side street, on the line 1. The intelligent reader
will see how easily the plan for the arrangement of trees and
shrubs may be worked out in this manner throughout ; and, after
a few years’ growth and good care of his plantings, ought to realize
plainly the superior beauty of a well-considered plan.
GHA IEE RsX,
WALKS AND ROADS.
F, as we have insisted, a correct map has been made of the
grounds, with all the buildings, and the trees already growing,
marked thereon, the next work is to lay out roads or walks
upon this map. © First, question your wants as to where the
street entrances or gates had better be made. This is to be de-
cided principally by the direction of daily travel over them. They
should always be in the directions that the family go oftenest, and
should be laid out so as to connect most conveniently the street or
streets with the entrance doors of the dwelling and outbuildings.
LVo more walks should be made than are wanted for daily use, either
for business or pleasure. In small grounds, walks made merely for
the purpose of having “pretty walks” meandering among suppo-
sitional flower-beds, convey the impression of a desire for show dis-
proportionate to the means of gratifying it. Where there is an
acre, or more, of ground devoted to decorative gardening, and it is
intended to keep a gardener in constant employ in the care of it,
then walks conducting to retired seats, or summer-houses, or made
for the purpose of revealing pleasing vistas, or intricacies in the
shrubbery, or charming surprises in flowers that may be arranged
upon their borders, may add greatly to the beauty of the place.
We would not advise having any carriage-way to the front entrance
of a house, unless the distance is from eighty to one hundred feet
86 WALKS AND ROADS.
between the steps and the street, and on a lot at least one hundred
and fifty feet in width. For most residences the front street is near
enough for a carriage to approach with visitors and callers, who
generally choose fair weather; and the family can go to and from
their own vehicles by some of the rear entrances of the house, past
which the road from the street to the carriage-house should lead.
Where houses are designed so that their main entrance is on the
side, then a carriage-road may pass it properly, though the lot
should be narrower than the size just mentioned. For lots having
such narrow street fronts in proportion to their depth, this is the
best arrangement for the house, as it leaves the finest rooms adjoin-
ing each other in the front. See Plates XIII, XXV, and XXVII.
In laying out a carriage-drive avoid sharp turns, and, as far as
possible, the segments of circles reversed against each other, as in
a geometric letter S. Such parts of circles, though graceful on
paper, give the effect of crooked lines, as seen in perspective. A
line that will enable the driver to approach the main steps most
conveniently is the true line, unless trees or shrubs already growing
prevent, in which case the same rule must be followed as nearly as
practicable. By the most convenient approach is meant that which
a skillful driver would make if he were driving over an unbroken
lawn from the entrance-gate to the porch.
Nearly all amateur landscape-gardeners will blunder in their
first attempts to lay out roads or walks, by making the curves too
decided. The lines most graceful on paper will not appear so in
perspective, as we walk along them ; and it will not do, therefore,
in laying them out on a paper plat, to suppose they will appear the
same on the ground. If grounds were to be seen from a balloon
the effect would be the same as upon your plan; but as we are all
destined to look along the ground, instead of vertically down upon
it, it will be seen why curves that look graceful on paper are likely
to be too abrupt and crooked in perspective. If the reader will
place the paper plan nearly on a level with his eye, and glance
along the line of the proposed road or walk, he will be able to
judge how his curves will seem as seen when walking towards or
upon them; supposing, of course, that the ground to be platted
has a tolerably level surface. There are several of the plans
WALKS AND ROADS. 87
which follow whereon the walks will have the appearance, at first
sight, of being awkwardly direct, having neither the simplicity of a
straight line, nor the grace of Hogarth’s line of beauty; but if
the hint just given about glancing along the line of the walk
with the eye nearly on a level with the paper is followed, they
will be found more pleasing.
There are many places where the house is large compared with
the size of the lot, on which straight walks are not only admissible,
but where to attempt curved walks would be ridiculous. Some of
the succeeding plans will illustrate such. The vignette of Chapter
IV illustrates an elegant approach of this kind, over which trees
have formed a noble arch. Steps and copings of cut stone, with
pedestals and vases, may be designed to make such entrances as
beautiful architecturally as the means of the proprietor will justify.
The mere platting of walks on such places is too simple a matter
to require any suggestions here. All foot-walks should approach
the entrance steps either at right angles or parallel with them ;
and in all cases should start at right angles with the line of the
entrance gate.
Thé width of roads and walks must vary according to the
extent of the grounds and the character of the house. For a
cottage with small grounds, make the walks narrow rather than
wide. The apparent size of the ground will be diminished by too
ambitious walks. But there are limits of convenience. A broad
walk always gives one a sense of freedom and ease, which is want-
ing when we must keep our eyes down to avoid straying from the
narrow way. For small places, therefore, we must compromise
between the prettier external effect of narrow walks and the greater
convenience of wide ones. Four feet is the least width appro-
priate for a cottage main walk, and two feet for the rear walks.
But for most town or suburban places, from four to six feet for the
main walk and three feet for the rear walks, are appropriate
widths. It is essential, however, that no shrubbery or flower-beds
‘approach nearer than two feet from them. A walk three feet wide,
with two feet of closely-shaven lawn on each side of it, is really
just as commodious as a walk six feet wide closely bordered or
overhung by rank annuals or gross shrubs. At the foot of the
88 WALKS AND ROADS.
steps it is desirable to have greater width than in other parts of
the walk.
The width of carriage-drives should be governed by the same
considerations as the walks. Eight feet is the least width, and
fourteen feet the greatest, that will be appropriate to the class of
places for which this book is designed ; and whatever the width
elsewhere, it should not be less than twelve feet opposite the main
entrance steps, unless it traverses a porte-cochere. The turnway in
front of the main entrance should be on a radius of not less than
ten feet to the inner line of the road, and more if space permits ;
but not to exceed a radius of twenty feet, unless the location of
trees or the shape of the ground make it specially desirable to turn
a larger circuit.
Opportunities to make or lose pleasing effects are always pre-
sented where there are trees or shrubs already grown. To conduct
walks or roads so as to make them seem to have grown there; to
arrange a gateway under branches of trees or between old shrubs,
or leading around or between them ; to have walks divide so that a
tree shall mark their intersection ; to weave a turnway smoothly
among old tree trunks—all such arts as these are precisely the
small things which prove the taste, or lack of it, in the designer.
In making the carriage-road and the walks, there is an immense
difference in expense between excessive thoroughness and the
“good enough” style. Digging out from a foot and a half to two
feet of the soil the whole width of the road or walk, tile-draining
on each side, then filling up with broken stone or scoriz, and
finally covering the surface with several inches of pure gravel,
and paving the gutters with pebbles, is the thorough style. But
on sandy and gravelly soils we have seen excellent walks and
roads (for light carriages) made by simply covering the ground
with from two to three inches of good gravel or slate. The prepa-
ration necessary for this kind of road-making being to excavate
below the level of the
Fic. 19.
border, so as to leave a
rounded surface with tile 7% // jj 7
_of three to four inches “ i.
diameter, placed in the
WALKS AND ROADS. 89
bottom of trenches on
each side, as shown by
the accompanying sketch.
Four inches thickness of
gravel on a road thus pre-
pared will, with proper care, make an excellent road. On clay,
roads can be made with no more additional preparation than to
provide for a few more inches of gravel. Fig. 20 shows a suitable
form for such a roadway. Of course the grades of the roads
lengthwise must be such as to carry the water in the gutters and
drains to proper outlets. We suggest this method of road-making
for those sections of the country where stone is costly, and for
those improvers who cannot afford to use a large amount of money
in road foundations.
The main thing to secure good walks or roads is constant care.
Weeds and grass must be kept from encroaching by the use of the
hoe and edging-spade ; the gravel must be kept in place by the use
of the rake and roller. No thoroughness of construction will make
such care needless, and by it the least expensive walks and roads
may be kept in excellent condition at small cost.
Solid stone flagging, if neatly dressed, is of course preferable
for walks to gravel, and will be used where it can be afforded.
Where the asphaltum or coal-tar composition, now used with great
success for walks in the Central Park, can be put down by some
one thoroughly conversant with the mode of doing it well, it will
be found a very fine material ; but while green it involves much
risk to carpets. Where the soil is clay, and good gravel or com-
position not easily obtained, (as in many parts of the western
states,) and flagging is too expensive, seasoned white pine board
or plank walks may be substituted. These, if carefully laid, (across
the line of the walk,) and the edges sawed to the requisite curves
or straight lines, make very comfortable walks. The main dif-
ficulty is to find mechanics who will have skill and patience to put
them down in the graceful curved lines that are desired. Inch
lumber, daubed on the wader side with hot coal-tar to postpone
_ rotting, will answer very well for walks from two to three feet
wide. For wider ones two-inch plank is recommended.
90 WALKS AND ROADS.
Pine walks, if made of good stuff, and tarred as suggested, will
last from eight to ten years ; and if sufficient care is used in their
construction, will be found very satisfactory substitutes for stone or
gravel, even for curved lines. For straight walks they are always
satisfactory as long as sound. In districts where stone and gravel
are scarce and dear, they must long continue in use ; and there is _
no reason why they should not be shaped into graceful forms,
since wood is so much more facile to work than stone. Several
methods of preserving wood from decay are now attracting great
attention, and it is believed that some of them will be effectual
to so increase the durability of wood that its use for walks will be
far more desirable than heretofore. It is essential in all walks that
the sod shall be about an inch above the outer surface of the walk,
so that a scythe or rolling mower may do its work unobstructed in
passing near or over them.
To lay out the carriage-drive and the walks in conformity to
the paper plat that has been made, is a work requiring some
patience and skill. There are persons whose love for beautiful
effects in landscape-gardening is evident, who are so wanting in
what is called a mechanical eye, as to be incompetent to lay out
their own grounds, even with a plat before them. If you, kind
reader, are one of those, send for the nearest good gardener to do
the work for you; or invite some friend or neighbor, who has
given evidence of this talent by the making of his own place, to
come and help you. He will not be likely to turn away from your
appreciation of his taste and skill. If, however, your ground is
large enough to admit of much length of walks, the labor of laying
them out would more properly devolve upon a professional gar-
dener—if such there be in your neighborhood. It will not, how-
ever, be advisable to listen to all the suggestions of improvements
that any “professional gardener” may volunteer for your guidance.
Genuine landscape-gardeners are rare everywhere, and bear about
‘the same proportion to good common gardeners that accomplished
landscape-painters do to house-painters. The probabilities are
that your neighborhood has some gardener competent to plat
walks, lay turf, cut your shrubbery-beds, and do your planting ;
but, ten chances to one, he will lay more stress on the form of some
WALKS AND ROADS. 91
curlecue of a flower-bed than on those beautiful effects of rich
foliage and open glades—of shadow and sunlight—that are often
produced with the simplest means by Dame Nature or the true
landscape-artist. If, therefore, you have a well-matured plan, and
the gardener is competent to study it intelligently, let him make
suggestions of changes before the work on the ground commences ;
but thereafter oblige him either to work faithfully to your plan, or
else furnish you with a better one; and do not let him bluff you
into an entire surrender by his professional sneers at paper plans.
Of course these remarks are intended to apply to the common run
of illiterate gardeners, who have happened to make a trade of this
species of labor, and not to another class who may have chosen
the profession from a love for it, and who have intelligence or
imagination enough to understand something of the art of arrang-
ing their sylvan and floral materials so as to make pictures with
them.
Almost every neighborhood has a few gentlemen of superior
taste in such matters, whose dictums will, perforce, help to educate
the common run of self-sufficient gardeners ; and it is hoped that
so promising a field of labor will soon attract the attention of
Americans of the highest culture, to whom we can turn for profes-
sional work in ground designs ; who, as Pope describes one—
‘Consults the genius of the place in all
That tells the waters or to rise or fall;
Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale:
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades ;
Now breaks or now directs the intending lines,
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs |!”
CHAPTER: Och
ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING.
HOUGH set rules, in matters of art, are sometimes
“more honored in the breach than in the observance,”
it is also true that every art has certain general prin-
ciples, the observance of which will rarely lead to great
faults, while their violations may. We therefore hope that the
following suggestions or rules, drawn to meet the requirements of
small suburban grounds, will be of some use, and serve as a
starting-point for that higher culture which educates the intuitive
perceptions of the artist to dispense with rules, or rather, perhaps,
to work intuitively by rule, as an esthetic instinct.
I. Preserve in one or more places (according to the size and form
of the lot) the greatest length of unbroken lawn that the space will
admit of.
Il. Plant between radiating lines from the house to the outside of
the lot, so as to leave open lines of view from the principal windows
and entrance porches ; also find where, without injuring the views to
and from the house, the best vistas may be left from the street into the
lot, and from one point to another across the grounds, or to points of
interest beyond,
ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING. 93
III. Plant the larger trees and shrubs farthest from the centre
of the lawn, so that the smaller may be seen to advantage in front
of them.
IV. On small lots plant no trees which quickly attain great size, if
it is intended to have a variety of shrubs or flowers.
V. In adding to belts or groups of trees or shrubs, plant near the
salient points, rather than in bays or openings.
VI. Shrubs which rest upon the lawn should not be planted nearer
than from six to ten feet from the front fence, except where intended
to form a continuous screen of foliage.
Rute I.
Preserve in one or more places (according to the size and form
of the lot) the greatest length of unbroken lawn that the space will
admit of.
To illustrate this rule we ask the reader’s attention to
some of the plates. Plate No. IV represents in the simplest
manner one mode of observing it. It is a lot of fifty feet front,
and considerable depth, isolated from the adjoining properties on
both sides by a close fence or hedge. On it is a small compact
house, thrown back so as to leave about eighty feet depth between
it and the street. Each bay-window of the principal rooms has a
look-out upon all the beauty that may be created on this small
space. To economize ground for the greatest extent of lawn pos-
sible on this lot, the main walk to the house is entirely on one side
of it and of the line of view out of the bay-windows over the
lawn ; and leads directly to the main veranda entrance. From the
bay-windows to the street, in a right line between them, not a tree,
shrub, or flower is to be planted. If the grounds were of greater
extent, it would be desirable to have the views out of each of these
windows different from the other, so that in going from one room
to the other, and looking out upon the lawn, it would exhibit a
fresh picture. But to attempt to divide this lawn into two bya
middle line.of shrubbery would belittle both, and crowd the shrub-
bery so that nothing could be seen to advantage. The lot is quite
too small to attempt a variety of views, and the lawn is made to
94 ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING.
look as large as possible by placing all trees and shrubbery on the
margin ; in short, the greatest length and breadth of lawn that the
lot will admit of is preserved. Plate VII shows a village lot of the
same frontage as the preceding, but on which the house is only
twenty-five feet from the street. ‘There can be no good breadth of
lawn on this lot, since the house occupies the ground that forms the
lawn on Plate No. IV. But a peculiar little vista over narrow
strips of lawn skirting the walk is obtained on entering the front
gate. This is upwards of one hundred feet in length, and widens
out around the flower-bed S, so that in perspective, and contrasted
with the length and, narrowness of the strips of lawn near the@
house, it will give the effect of greater distance and width than it
has. Such a plan as this requires the most skillful planting and
high keeping. Indeed, there is more need of skill to make this
narrow strip a pretty work of art than on the larger lots that are
planned for this work. Plates XIV and XV show corner lots
also of fifty feet front, with houses entirely on one side of the lot,
and lawns as long as the depth will admit of, margined by assorted
small shrubs and clipped trees. On the former the house is placed
against the side street, leaving the lawn on the inside, and a pleas-
ing vista over it to an archway that opens into a long grape arbor.
This will make a lengthened perspective of lawn and garden as
great as the size of the lot will allow. On Plate XV the house is
placed so as to leave the lawn space between it and the side street,
and the main garden walk is arranged so that from the back
veranda and the library windows it will form a little perspective.
The latter plan, it will be seen, is for a city basement-house, while
the former has a kitchen on the main floor. Plates Nos. V and
VI are of lots 60 x 150 feet, where the lawns occupy as great a
length as can be spared for decorative purposes. These side lawns
are no wider than those of Plates XIV and XV, as the additional
ten feet width of lot, on the right, is shut out of view, and devoted
to small fruits. This strip in the hands of a garden artist might be
made very charming in itself, but where one man would make it so,
a thousand would fail. We therefore advise in general not to
plant anything against the walls of the house in such narrow strips
as these, unless they have the most sunny exposure. In towns,
ae
ARRANGEMENT FN PLANTING. 95
where lots of this size are built on, other houses are usually so near
such improvements, as to darken the ground with their shade.
The degree of exposure to the sun and air in these places must
govern their use, but in general it is better to have either grass or
pavement in them, or a paved walk and bedding plants, that may
be renewed from a green-house. Plate XIII shows a lot of one
hundred and sixty feet front by three hundred feet deep, on which a
vista of unbroken lawn, the entire depth of the lot, is obtained from
the main entrance. This place is supposed to adjoin lots whose
fronts are improved in common, so that each of the principal win-
dows of the house is provided with a distinct foreground for a
picture, the middle distance of which will have such character as
the neighboring improvements make. Were the ground improved
to conform to this plan the effect would be much finer than the
rather formal character of the trees in the design would indicate.
Plates X and XI are of lots two hundred feet front by three hun-
dred feet deep. On the former, the rule we are endeavoring to illus-
trate is sacrificed in a measure to the requirements of an orchard
and kitchen-garden ; on the latter, the orchard is given up to secure
the beauty of a more extended lawn and more elaborate plantation.
On Plate XX VII are some good illustrations of this rule applied
to the laying out of what are usually considered awkward forms of
lots toimprove. It will be seen that the views from the street-corner,
at the point A, on the right-hand plan looking towards the house,
and in other directions, are long, open, and well varied, in the group-
ing of trees, shrubs, and flowers. As one walks along to B and C,
at each opening between groups of shrubs the views are over the
longest stretch of lawn that the size of the lot will admit of ; while
the views from the main windows of the house, and from the front
and rear verandas, are as extended as possible.
Plate XXII, which is designed to illustrate the advantage of
joining neighboring improvements, however cheap or simple their
character, is an excellent illustration of the beauty and garden-
esque effect that may be secured by leaving an unbroken vista of
lawn and low flowers from one side of a block to the other, as
shown on the line B C, though the block is covered by five inex-
pensive residences. The vignette of Chapter IV is a view taken
96 ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING
from the point A, and gives but two-thirds of the length of view
that is seen from either of the side streets. Of course the flowers
to be planted in the beds on the lawn in the above line of view,
should be only those which grow within a few inches of the ground;
otherwise the effect intended would be marred.
Plate XXIX is a good example, on a larger scale, of long and
open views.
Plate XXI is an illustration of the rule to which we ask the
reader’s attention, as an example of triple vistas on a lot only one
hundred feet wide; first, that formed by the small shrubs and
flowers bordering the main walk, with the terrace steps and the
house bounding the view at one end, and a hemlock archway at the
other. From the bay-windows of the house the two other divisions
of the lawn are designed to show to the best advantage, and over
the low clipped parts of the front hedge, at a a, made low for this
purpose, their beauty can also be seen by passers on the street.
leone Jb
flant between radiating lines from the house to the outside of
the lot, so as to leave open lines of view from the principal windows
and entrance porches ; also find where, without injuring the views to
and from the house, the best vistas may be left from the street into the
lot, and from one point to another across the grounds, or to points of
interest beyond. .
ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING. 97
The accompanying plan, adapted from Loudon, gives a good
illustration of the observance of the second rule. The plan repre-
sents the part of a lot in the rear of the dwelling, all of which is
devoted to lawn and decorative planting ; the entrance-front being
close to the street. The plantation is supposed to be entirely
secluded from the street and from contiguous properties by walls.
The space covered is about 150 x 300 feet. The dotted lines
radiating from the bow-window show the apparently loose, but
really well studied distribution of groups of trees and shrubs in
radiating lines. On the right, one of these groups forms a screen
of shrubbery to divide the lawn from the elaborate flower-garden
which forms the distinctive feature of the view from the dining-
room window. On smaller lots the first part of the second rule
cannot be illustrated with so much effect, but a general conformity
to it may be observed in many of our larger plans.
Plate II represents a lot one hundred and fifty feet front by
two hundred and fifty deep, where the house is placed much nearer
the front of the lot, and nearly in the centre. So placed, the long-
est views over its lawn cannot be obtained from the house in any
direction, but from many points in the front street, and within the
grounds, the lines of view are as long and unbroken as the size of
the lot will admit of ; while a partial privacy is given to the space
between the bay-windows and the side street, by a close plantation
of hedge and shrubbery. Openness, rather than privacy, is the
characteristic of this plan, however, and its best views are obtained
on entering or passing it. Yet the lawn, as seen from the bay-
windows, will be broken by shrubs and trees into a much greater
variety of views than a careless examination of the plan would lead
one to suppose. From o, at the intersection of the two streets,
the eye ranges between two near groups of shrubbery, which frame
the view over the lawn to the bay-windows ; and on the right, in
front of the back veranda, between slender conical trees, a flower-
bed and a pyramid of roses, under the shade of fruit trees in the
back yard, to the carriage-house front:—a distance equal to the
entire length of the lot. From the point marked 2, the view
changes ; the croquet-ground, and the intervening compact shrubs
and flower-beds, and an evergreen group at g, come into view.
7
\
98 ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING.
Or the eye rests on the near group of shrubs opposite Fig. 3 ;
or to the left, ranges to the various groups on that side of the
grounds. At Fig. 5 the view on the right, of the trees, hedge, and
shrubbery, from g to w, together with pleasing views in other direc-
tions, make this point the one from which the whole place is seen
to the best advantage. The views through the archway of trees
over the front gateway are pleasing in every direction ; and in the
line towards wz, extend nearly the entire length of the lot. This
form of lot, when the house is so near the centre, is less adapted to
illustrate the rule under consideration than most others, and we
have pointed out its peculiarities in this connection to show the
effort to conform to the rule under adverse circumstances. The
reader will please to observe on this plan a dotted line from d to
the left, parallel with the front street. This is forty feet from the
front. Within a distance from ten to fifty feet from such fronts is
usually the part which should be left unplanted, in order that all
the places in the block may, on that line, form a continuous
lawn of such park-like character as no one lot could furnish. Most
of our plans are designed in this manner to secure the advantages
of associate improvements, and “views from one point to another
across the grounds, or to some point of interest beyond the
grounds.”
Rute III.
Plant the larger trees and shrubs farthest from the centre of the
lawn, so that the smaller may be seen to advantage in front of them.
The necessity of observing the third rule, in small places, is so
obvious, and it is so easy to follow, if one but knows the character
of the trees and shrubs he is using, that few remarks upon it
are necessary. The vignette at the head of this chapter is intended
as an illustration of the great number and variety of shrubs and
small trees which may be exhibited in a single group, in such a
manner that each may show its peculiar beauty without concealing
any of the others, and at the same time form a harmonious col-
lection. Not less than twenty species of trees and shrubs may be
seen at once in such a group, each growing to a perfect develop-
AN ER ALN GSE MOE IN 2 TN EE AP TONG . 99
ment of its best form ; while by a different arrangement in planting,
the beauties of all the smaller shrubs might be lost to the eye, and
their growth marred by the domineering habits of the larger ones.
It will be noticed that in this vignette the weeping elm forms the
centre of the group. Close to it may be planted some of the large
shrubs which flourish in partial shade and under the drip of trees.
Outside of these a few of the smallest class of trees, of peculiar
and diverse forms, and then the smaller and finer shrubbery
arranged to carry out the spirit of the rule. No engraving,
however, can do justice to the variety of character in foliage,
flowers, forms, and colors, that such a group may be made to
exhibit.
Revie OY.
On small lots plant no trees which quickly attain great size, of it is
tntended to have a variety of shrubs or flowers.
The fourth rule is somewhat difficult to illustrate, because of
the frequency with which good taste may insist on exceptions to it.
Few suburban places are so small that one or two large trees, not
far from the house, will not add greatly to their home-look and
summer comfort. Trees which overhang the house’and form a
background, or vernal frame-work for it, are the crowning beauty
of a home picture. But, in planting small lots, the need of a few
fruit trees, such as cherries and pears, which one cannot well do
without, and which, for the safety of the fruit, must be near or
behind the house, is a necessity that obliges us to dispense with
the grandeur of great trees where their beauty is most effective,
and to endeavor to develop another type of beauty for small
places, viz.: that of artistic elegance in the treatment of small
things, And it is some satisfaction to know that, with the latter,
what we attempt may be achieved in a few years, while, if we set
about planting to secure the nobler effect of large trees, a life-time
will be required to see its consummation. Where any large tree is
already growing, the style of planting must conform to its position,
size, and character ; but where the plantation is on a bare site, the
tule is a proper one to follow. In the former case the fine tree is
LOO ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING.
to be considered “ master of the situation,” and all things are to be
arranged with due regard to it ; but in the latter there is an open
field for the taste and judgment.
RuLE VY.
In adding to belts or groups of trees or shrubs, plant near the
salient points, rather than in bays or openings.
The fifth rule is one which novices in planting are always vio-
lating. It is such a temptation to plant a tree or shrub “where
there is most room for it,” and “where it will show handsomely,”
that the ignorant planter at once selects some clear place on his
lawn, or some open bay, for the new comer ; quite forgetful that a
few such plantings will break the prettiest of lawns into insignifi-
cant fragments, and change the sunny projections and shadowy
bays of a shrubbery border into a lumpish wall of verdure.
The placement of large and showy bedding plants or annuals
and perennials must be made on the same principle. They are
to be regarded as shrubs, and the places for them must be deter-
mined by their usual size at midsummer.
Low-growing flowers, or brilliant-leaved and bushy plants, may
occasionally be relieved to advantage in the shady bays of a shrub-
bery border, especially if a walk leads near them ; but in general,
flower-beds (except such as are formed into artistic groups as a
special feature of a window-view), should be either near walks
or the points of shrubbery projections. Like gay flags on a
parade ground, they show to best advantage in the van of the
advanced columns.
Rute VI. .
Shrubs which rest upon the lawn should not be planted nearer
than from six to ten feet from the front fence, except where intended
to form a continuous screen of foliage.
The sixth rule is one which may not be practicable to follow on
very small lots, or where the space is narrow between the house
and the street ; but there would be a marked improvement in the
ARRANGEMENT IN PLANTING. 101
appearance of most places by its observance. In the first place,
the shrubs themselves, which, it must be supposed, are only
planted because they are beautiful, will show to much better ad-
vantage with this introductory lawn or foreground to spread upon.
To crowd against a fence groups of shrubs which will bend grace-
fully to the lawn on every side if room is given them, is much like
the misplacement of elegant robes in a crowd, where they may be
injured, but can never be seen to advantage. Such a strip of
introductory lawn is to the ground what a broad threshold stone is
to the house entrance, giving the place a generous air, and seeming
to say that the proprietor is not so stinted for room that he must
needs crowd his sylvan company into the street. Yet it must fre-
quently happen that the exigencies of small or peculiarly shaped
lots, require a violation of this rule, in order to secure suff-
cient breadth of lawn within, to present a good appearance
from the house. The plans on Plates XXII, XXIII, XXIV, and
XXVII, are examples of this necessity. Plates II, XII, XIII, and
XVIII, on the other hand, show a general attention to the rule ;
while in the other plans it is kept in view more or less, as the cir-
cumstances of each case seem to require.
There is another matter which can hardly be made the subject
of any rules, but yet demands the attention of every planter.
Nearly all trees and shrubs are more beautiful on their southerly
than on their northerly sides, and some trees which glow with
beauty towards the sun are meagre and unsightly towards the
north. This fact must therefore be borne in mind in deciding
where to plant favorite trees or shrubs, so that their fairest sides
may be towards those points from which they will be most seen ;
and as there are a few varieties and species of trees which are
beautiful on all sides—the box and hemlock, for instance—they
may be placed in locations where the others will not show to
advantage.
GHA P-TiEsRes X det.
RELATIVE BEAUTY OF LAWN, TREES, SURUBS, AND
FLOWERS.
HE true lover of nature is so omnivorous in his tastes,
that for him to classify her family into different grades of
usefulness or beauty, is about as difficult a task as to
name which of her vegetable productions is the best
food. But though a variety is better than any one, there is, in
both cases, strong ground for a decided choice ; and we repeat
what has already been suggested, that, of all the external decora-
tions of a home, a well kept Lawn is the most essential. Imagine
the finest trees environing a dwelling, but everywhere beneath
them only bare ground: then picture the same dwelling with a
velvet greensward spreading away from it on all sides, without a
tree or shrub upon it, and choose which is the most pleasing to the
eye. The question of value is not to be considered, but simply
which, in connection with the dwelling, will make the most satis-
factory impression on the mind. The fine trees are vastly the
VALUEH OF TREES. 103
more valuable, because it requires half a life-time to obtain them,
while the lawn may be perfected in two or three years.
The comparative value of trees and shrubs depends much on
the extent of the ground and the taste of the occupants. If the lot
is small, and the family has a decided appreciation of the varied
characteristics of different shrubs, they will have much more pleas-
ure from a fine collection of’them than from the few trees which
their lot could accommodate. But if the occupants are not par-
ticularly appreciative of the varied beauties of smaller vegetation,
then a few trees and a good lawn only, will be more appropriate for
their home. Larger lots can have both, but the foregoing con-
sideration may govern the preponderance of one or the other.
When once the planting fever is awakened, too many of both are
likely to be planted, and grounds will be stuffed rather than
beautified.
One full grown oak, elm, maple, chestnut, beech, or sycamore
will cover with its branches nearly a quarter of an acre. Allow-
ing seventy feet square for the spread of each tree (all the above
varieties being occasionally much larger), nine such trees would
completely cover an acre. But as we plant for ourselves, instead
of for our children, it will be sufficient in most suburban planting
to allow for half-grown, rather than full-grown trees. Grounds,
however, which are blessed with grand old trees should have them
cherished lovingly—they are treasures that money cannot buy—
and should be guarded with jealous care against the admission of
little evergreens and nursery trees, which new planters are apt to
huddle under and around them, to the entire destruction of the
broad stretches of lawn which large trees require in order to reveal
the changing beauty of their shadows. Where such trees exist, if
you would make the most of the ground, lavish your care in
enriching the soil over their vast roots, and perfecting the lawn
around them ; and then arrange for shrubs and flowers away from
their mid-day shadows. Even fine old fruit trees, if standing well
apart on a lawn, will often give a dignity and a comfortable home-
look to a place that is wanting in places which are surrounded only
with new plantings.
But it is an unfortunate fact that nine-tenths of all the town and
104 BEAUTY. OF. SHR UBBERELES.
suburban lots built on are bare of trees, and therefore, after the
attainment of a fine lawn, the lowly beauties of shrubs and flowers,
with all their varied luxuriance of foliage and fragrant bloom, must
be the main features of the place, while the trees are also growing
in their midst which may eventually over-top and supersede them.
If one could imagine Americans to live their married lives, each
pair in one home, what a pleasing variety might the changing years
bring them. An unbroken lawn around the dwelling should typify
the unwritten page in the opening book of earnest life. Young
trees planted here and there upon it would suggest looking forward
to the time when, under their grand shadows, the declining years of
the twain may be spent in dignity and repose. Flowers and shrubs
meanwhile repay with grateful beauty all their care, until, over-
shadowed by the nobler growth, they are removed as cumberers of
the ground, and give way to the simplicity that becomes “a fine
old home.”
Most small places can be much more charmingly planted with
shrubs. alone, than with trees and shrubs mingled. Indeed, it is
one of the greatest blunders of inexperienced planters to put in
trees where there is only room enough for shrubs. A small yard
may be made quite attractive by the artistic management of shrubs
and flowers whose size is adapted to the contracted ground; but
the same place would be so filled up by the planting of a cherry
tree or a horse-chestnut, that no such effect could be produced.
Where the decorative portion of the grounds do not exceed a
half acre, there can be little question of the superior beauty of
shrubberies to the very small collection of trees that such narrow
limits can accommodate. The greatly increased beauty of shrubs
when seen upon a lawn without any shadowing of trees, nor
crowded one side or another “ to fill-up,” can only be appreciated
by those who have seen the elegance of a tastefully arranged place
planted with shrubs alone.
The part which annuals and low growing flowers should have
in home surroundings may be compared with the lace, linen, and
ribbon decorations of a lady’s dress—being essential ornaments,
and yet to be introduced sparingly. Walks may be bordered, and
groups pointed, and bays in the shrubbery brightened by them ;
GARDEN DECORATIONS. 105
or geometrically arranged groups of flower-beds may be introduced
in the foreground of important window views ; but beware of fre-
quently breaking open stretches of lawn for them. Imagine bits of
lace or bows of ribbon stuck promiscuously over the body and skirt
of a lady’s dress. “ How vulgar!” you exclaim. Put them in their
appropriate places and what charming points they make! Let
your lawn be your home’s velvet robe, and your flowers its not too
promiscuous decorations.
Of constructive garden decorations (in which are included pillars
and trellises for vines, screens, arbors, summer-houses, seats, rock-
work, terraces, vases, fountains, and statuary), and their compara-
tive value, we will merely say that really tasteful and durable
ornamentation of that kind is rather expensive, and therefore to
be weighed well in the balance with expenditures of the same
money for other modes of embellishment before ordering such
work.
The following remarks from Kemp’s admirable little work on
Landscape Gardening* express our views so fully that we will
give them entire:
“A garden may also be overloaded with a variety of things
which, though ornamental in themselves, and not at all out of keep-
ing with the house, or the principal elements of the landscape,
may yet impart to it an affected or ostentatious character. An
undue introduction of sculptured or other figures, vases, seats, and
arbors, baskets for plants, and such like objects, will come within
the limits of this description. And there is nothing of which peo-
ple in general are so intolerant in others, as the attempt, when
glaringly and injudiciously made, to crowd within a confined space
the appropriate adornments of the most ample garden. It is in-
variably taken as evidence of a desire to appear to be and to
possess that which the reality of the case will not warrant, and is
visited with the reprobation and contempt commonly awarded to
”? a work so complete and
* This is an English work entitled ‘“‘ How to lay out a Garden,
well condensed, that were it not for the difference in the climate, and in the style of living (and
consequently of the plans of dwellings, and their outbuildings and garden connections), which
English thoroughness and cheaper labor make practicable, there had been no need of this
book.
106 GARDEN DECORATIONS:
ill-grounded assumption. An unpresuming garden, like a modest
individual, may have great defects without challenging criticism ;
and will even be liked and praised because of its very unobtrusive-
ness. But where a great deal is attempted, and there is much of
pretension, whether in persons or things, scrutiny seems invited,
incongruities are magnified, and actual merits are passed by un-
noticed, or distorted into something quite ridiculous.”
The improver must decide, before he begins to plan for plant-
ing, what the size and features of his lot, and his own circum-
stances, will enable him to accomplish most perfectly.
If there are trees or shrubs already of good size growing on
the lot, the first study should be to develop and exhibit all their
traits to the best advantage; and to this end a rich soil and a
perfected lawn are the most essential.
If the lot is bare of trees, a smooth surface and fine lawn are
still ground-works precedent to planting, whether the lot be large
or small. If large enough, choose among large trees the principal
features of its embellishment ; if less than an acre, plant sparingly
trees of the first class; if a rood, or but little more, then lawn,
shrubs and flowers should be its only verdant furniture.
We class among shrubs many dwarf evergreens, which, be-
cause they belong to species which usually attain large size, are
included in nursery catalogues under the head of trees. They
will be found classified in our Appendix. We also regard as
shrubs, in effect, those vigorous growing annuals or perennials
like the ricinus, cannas, dahlias, and hollyhocks, which grow ‘oo
high to be seen over, and which cast shadows on the lawn near
them.
CHAPTER. ALU.
THE LAWN.
“Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.”
LowELL.
**On each side shrinks the bowery shade,
Before me spreads an emerald glade;
The sunshine steeps its grass and moss,
That couch my footsteps as I cross,”
ALFRED B, STREET.
SMOOTH, closely shaven surface of grass is by far the
most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a
suburban home. Dwellings, all the rooms of which
may be filled with elegant furniture, but with rough uncarpeted
floors, are no more incongruous, or in ruder taste, than the shrub
and tree and flower-sprinkled yards of most home-grounds, where
shrubs and flowers mingle in confusion with tall grass, or ill-defined
108 THE LAWN.
borders of cultivated ground. Neatness and order are as essential
to the pleasing effect of ground furniture as of house furniture.
No matter how elegant or appropriate the latter may be, it will
never look well in the home of a slattern. And however choice
the variety of shrubs and flowers, if they occupy the ground so that
there is no pleasant expanse of close-cut grass to relieve them, they
cannot make a pretty place. The long grass allowed to grow in
town and suburban grounds, after the spring gardening fever is
over, neutralizes to a certain degree all attempts of the lady or
gentleman of the house to beautify them, though they spend ever
so much in obtaining the best shrubs, trees, or flowers the neigh-
bors or the nurseries can furnish. It is not necessary to have an
acre of pleasure ground to secure a charming lawn. Its extent
may always be proportioned to the size of the place; and if the
selection of flowers and shrubs and their arrangement is properly
made, it is surprising how small a lawn will realize some of the
most pleasing effects of larger ones. A strip twenty feet wide and
a hundred feet long may be rendered, proportionally, as artistic as
the landscape vistas of a park.
And it needs but little more to have room to realize by art, and
with shadowing trees, the sparkling picture that the poet, Alfred B.
Street, thus presents in his “ Forest Walk.”
“A narrow vista, carpeted
With rich green grass, invites my tread:
Here showers the light in golden dots,
There sleeps the shade in ebon spots,
So blended that the very air
Seems net-work as I enter there.”
To secure a good lawn, arich soil is as essential as for the
kitchen garden. On small grounds the quickest and best way
of making a lawn is by turfing. There are few neighborhoods
where good turf cannot be obtained in pastures or by road-
sides. No better varieties of grass for lawns can be found
than those that form the turf of old and closely fed pastures.
Blue-grass and white clover are the staple grasses in them, though
many other varieties are usually found with these, in smaller
proportions.
THE LAWN. 109
The ground should be brought to as smooth slopes or levels as
possible before laying the turf, as much of the polished beauty of
a perfected lawn will depend on this precaution. If the ground
has been recently spaded or manured, it should be heavily tramped
or rolled before turfing, to guard against uneven settling. A tol-
erably compact soil makes a closer turf than a light one. Marly
clay is probably the best soil for grass, though far less agreeable
for gardening operations generally than a sandy loam. After com-
pacting the soil to prevent uneven settling, a few inches on top
must be lightly raked to facilitate laying the turf, and the striking
of new roots. Before winter begins all newly laid turf should
be covered with a few inches of manure. After the ground
settles in the spring this should be raked off with a fine-toothed
rake, and the lawn then well rolled. The manure will have pro-
tected the grass from the injurious effect of sudden freezing and
thawing in the winter and early spring, and the rich washings from
it gives additional color and vigor to the lawn the whole season.
The manure raked from the grass is just what is needed to dig into
the beds for flowers and shrubs, or for mulching trees. This fall
manuring is essential to newly set turf, and is scarcely less bene-
ficial if repeated every year. Cold soap-suds applied from a sprink-
ling-pot or garden-hose when rains are abundant, is the finest of
summer manure for grass. If applied in dry weather it should be
diluted with much additional water. The old rhyme—
“*Clay on sand manures the land,
Sand on clay is thrown away”
is eminently true in relation to the growth of grass. The clay
should always be applied late in autumn.
If grounds are so large that turfing is too expensive, the soil
should be prepared as recommended above for turfing, and seeded
as early in the spring as the ground can be thoroughly prepared
and settled. If the surface has been prepared the preceding °
autumn, then it will be found a good practice to sow the grass seed
upon a thin coating of snow which falls frequently early in March.
Seed can be sown more evenly on snow, because better seen, than
on the ground.
110 THE LAWN.
A variety of opinions prevail concerning the best grasses for
seeding. It will be safe to say that for lawns timothy and red
clover are totally unsuited, and that the grasses which make the
best pastures in the neighborhood, will make the best lawns. The
following mixture for one bushel of seed is recommended in Hen-
derson’s Manual of Floriculture, viz :
12 quarts Rhode Island Bent Grass.
4 quarts creeping Bent Grass.
10 quarts Red-top.
3 quarts Sweet Vernal Grass.
2 quarts Kentucky Blue Grass.
1 quart White Clover.
We have seen very successful lawns made with equal parts, dy
weight, of Kentucky blue grass, red-top, and white clover seed.
The quantity required is about a half bushel to each one hundred
feet square.
When rains are frequent, x0 awn can be brought to perfection
of cut less often than once a week, and two weeks is the longest time
a lawn should remain uncut, except in periods of total suspension
of growth by severe drouth. Where shrubs and flowers are placed
properly, there will always be clear space enough to swing a lawn
scythe or roll a lawn machine. Only in the most contracted yards
should there be nooks and corners, or strips of grass, that an or-
dinary mower cannot get at easily, and without endangering either
the plants or his temper. Places that are so cluttered with
flowers, trees, and shrubs that it becomes a vexatious labor for
a good mower to get in among them, are certainly not well
planted. Good taste, therefore, in arrangement, will have for its
first and durable fruits, economy, a product of excellent flavor
for all who desire to create beauty around their homes, but who
can illy afford to spend much money to effect it, or to waste any in
failing to effect it. ‘The advice to plant so as to leave sufficient
breadth to swing a scythe wherever there is any lawn at all, is none
the less useful, though the admirable little hand-mowing machines
take the place of the scythe ; for a piece of lawn in a place where a
scythe cannot be swung, is not worth maintaining.
THE LAWN. 111
Rolling mowers by horse or hand power have been principally
employed on large grounds ; but the hand machines are now so
simplified and cheapened that they are coming into general use on
small pleasure grounds, and proprietors may have the pleasure of
doing their own mowing without the wearisome bending of the
back, incident to the use of the scythe. Whoever spends the early
hours of one summer, while the dew spangles the grass, in pushing
these grass-cutters over a velvety lawn, breathing the fresh sweet-
ness of the morning air and the perfume of new mown hay, will
never rest contented again in the city. It is likely that professional
garden laborers will buy these machines and contract cheaply for
the periodical mowing of a neighborhood of yards, so that those
who cannot or do not desire to do it for themselves may have
it done cheaply. The roller is an essential implement in keeping
the lawn to a fine surface, and should be thoroughly used as soon
as the frost is out of the ground; for it will then be most effective
to level the uneven heaving and settling of the earth. After
heavy rains it is also useful, not only in preserving a smooth
surface, but in breaking down and checking the vertical tendency
of grass that is too succulent.
The season after seeding many persons are discouraged by the
luxuriance of the weeds, and the apparent faint-heartedness of the
grass. They must keep on mowing and rolling patiently. Most
of these forward weeds are of sorts that do not survive having their
heads cut off half a dozen times; while good lawn grasses fairly
laugh and grow fat with decapitation. Weeds of certain species,
however, will persist in thrusting their uninvited heads through the
- best kept lawns. These are to be dealt with like cancers. 2
AND GROUNDS. 143
variegated-leaved small plants or shrubs on the border in front of
them. ‘The group beyond, projecting towards the house, is sup-
posed to be composed of a variety of the best arbor-vites broken
in color by some of the dark yews,—the little out-lying member of
the group to be the Irish juniper.
It is impracticable to trace through all the details. The reader
must observe that the very small shrubs which are indicated
in isolated positions on the lawn are intended for very com-
pact evergreen or other shrubs, which take up but little room and
are pleasing objects at all seasons of the year. At the four outer
corners of the two bays may be planted, in pairs, specimens of the
Irish and Swedish junipers, or some of the slender yews. At the
corner of the open space in front of the carriage-house is a horse-
block, to be shaded by a white pine. Nearly in front of the side
entrance to the house is a rosary, for which may be substituted
with good effect a Bhotan pine, with a cut-leaved weeping birch
close behind it, if the proprietor does not wish to make and keep
up the rose-bed with the expense and care which it annually re-
quires. If the birch just named has been selected for the tree
near the corners of the front veranda, it need not be repeated.
These grounds, with no other plantings than are indicated,
would doubtless look bare for some years. The places which the
trees and shrubs are ultimately to cover, must be filled, in the in-
tervening time, with annuals and, bedding-plants which will make
the best substitutes for them. We would decidedly advise not to
plant trees or large shrubs any nearer together than they ought to
be when full grown, on the tempting plea that when they crowd
each other some of them may be removed. Nine persons out of
ten will not have the nerve to remove the surplusage so soon as it
ought to be done, and when they do see the unsightly result of a
crowded plantation, there will be one good excuse for not doing it,
viz.: that trees which have grown up together have mis-shaped
each other, so that when one is cut away those that remain show
one-sided, and naked in parts. It is better to have patience while
little trees slowly rise to the size we would have them ; and, while
watching and waiting on them, let the ground they are eventually
to cover be made bright with ephemeral flowers and shrubs. When
144 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
the trees approach maturity they will have developed beauties that
crowded trees never show.
PLATE [TT
Crowded and Open Grounds Compared, on a Cottage Lot of fifty
Jeet front.
Here we have two lots 50 x 200 each. The plan and position
for a small cottage-house, and the walks, are the same on both.
The plan on the right is intended to show the common mode of
cluttering the yard so full of good things that, like an overloaded
table, it lessens the appetite it is intended to gratify. Let us pic-
ture Mr. and Mrs. A., master and mistress of the house, unskillful
but enthusiastic, engaged in their first plantings. The lot is a
bare one. Fruit trees are the first necessities ; places are therefore -
found for four cherry, and five pear trees, without trespassing much
on the “front yard,” which is sacred, in true American homes,
to floral and sylvan embellishments. It is to fill this ground
that our proprietors are now to make choice of trees and shrubs.
Mr. A. and wife are agreed that evergreens are indispensable, and
that the balsam fir and the Norway spruce are the prettiest of ever-
greens—for “everybody plants ¢iem.’”’ Accordingly a couple of
Norway spruces flank the gate at a little distance inside, and a pair
of balsam firs (prettiest of trees as they emerge, fragrant, from the
nurserymen’s bundles) are placed conspicuously not far from the
house-steps, on each side the main-walk. Mrs. A. suggests that
the weeping-willow is the most graceful of all trees. Who can
gainsay that? Mr. A. does not, and in go two willows in the two
front corners of the yard. Then there’s the mountain ash with a
“form as perfect as a top, and such showy clusters of red fruit,”
suggests Mrs. A., “and everybody plants them.” Of course this
tree is planted, one on each side of the yard, midway between the
walk and sides of the lot, in that open space above the willows.
Then the walk is bordered from the gate towards the house
with rose-bushes of all sorts, while lilacs, honeysuckles, spireas,
Plate I.
&
&
soft.
40
uo
= Car + a ; " he
“dap Pues. J 95 Se RBs 55 BRINN EEO EROS
phe
& Rasp
aULtag at Wt}
2
TTL.
2
ae
Ba
S|
20
10
10
at ” ea
‘ane
7 Hi
i
pene One
+
ada‘grers bat Tinuned +
Bar) ecient? A. wi
* ad Gate
sebwatt seh rot ALi wg atte bo saben ied Ge
as iy ts ay (pine ww bs abe oth cls Avni a
tm qeo siz, todd gleues, Took! Soe g nah (bom. thy)
e ted) suotwat & gathigw ite ie Sint i ; neal, ba, .
ston weeiliaddt TiipAer Weer 7s sara fy zed ies gah
i fixer aotiby Fe, erin pai Mz ) BES Sw a
sf } , aa
Abs to a ade .
f-, pices a¢ly : Patae: i
os i,
ijevatep feat wrdtloh
ech tek wanker Str
| ere ay
iheans wat! Sutde :
an hae TLE iF ner aif Ht rae. cif Pa Fol and
nT entity ‘pe ati niiy
etinas “SeKtioe | blo
gh HR oct iL ey = 2
st ferred: a SE Shoe enh “toad bite
AD ints? balan? bai . hederaan ees re ED PADX UIYIDIY
. l |
=- tar =)
= Aaa tte ge i, pg py
ad a ee NM Ns Woop Ee
“dg
lo
AND GROUNDS. 147
breadth of top. In selecting some deciduous miniature trees for
these places we would choose those that have low, parasol forms,
and clean, tree-like, but very short stems. The common orange
quince tree, if planted in a deep moist soil, grown thriftily, and
treated with the same attention that we would bestow on a valuable
exotic, is one of the most beautiful of very low spreading-topped
shrubby trees, and well adapted to the places under consideration.
The kilmarnock willow, though it has neither the beauty of blossom,
leaf, or fruit, that distinguish a well-grown quince tree, is certainly
a sort of model of formal grace and symmetry, and might be used
on one side and balanced on the other with a low-grown ever-
flowering weeping cherry, Cerasus semperfloreus. Or luxuriantly
grown single bushes of the common fragrant syringa, tartarian
bush honeysuckle, rose weigela, or lilac rothmagenszs, will be ap-
propriate for the same place.
The plan in general is too simple to require explanation, and
is introduced to call attention to the superior beauty of simplicity,
compared with complexity of planting, on small places.
PLATE IV, A AND B.
Designs for a Lawn on a Lot of fifty feet front with considerable
depth.
This design has already been alluded to in Chapter XI, on
Arrangement in Planting, in illustrating the application of Rule I
to small places. The lot has a front of fifty feet, and an in-
definite extension in the rear. The plan is designed to show
the pretty space of lawn that can be kept on a quite small lot,
provided the latter has depth enough, by placing the house well
back. The lot is supposed to be between side properties which
it is impracticable to connect with, and therefore isolated by
close fences and border shrubbery from them. The distance from
the street to the bay-windows is eighty feet. The compact house
plan is adapted to the position by having its entrance on the side,
so that the best window-views possible under the circumstances
148 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
will be secured from the bays of the two principal rooms. The
walk, as we have previously observed, is made near one side, to
leave all the central portion of the lot in open lawn. It is not
possible to keep this openness of expression, and at the same time
have large trees on the lot. They must be dispensed with ; and in
stocking the borders to make a rich environment of verdure for the
lawn, the choice must be exclusively among small trees.and shrubs.
Let us begin at the gate. Here we would set out to have a hem-
lock arch ;—though the trees as shown on the plan erroneously
symbolize deciduous trees. At the opposite front corner we
would plant the two slender weeping firs, Adzes excelsa imverta
and Picea p. pendula. But as their growth is slow compared
with that of many fine deciduous shrubs, a mass of the latter
may be planted near the firs, to fill that corner with foliage until
the latter are from twelve to twenty years old, when the weeping
firs will be large enough to fill it beautifully without support.
The border on the left should be made up of evergreen shrubs
or trees, as varied in foliage as possible, and of those sorts which
do not exceed six or seven feet in height and breadth. ‘The iso-
lated small trees or shrubs which stand out from this border are
designed to be of deciduous sorts, the most charming for their
forms, foliage, or flowers ; the largest of which should not, within
ten years, exceed ten feet in breadth. These, and the dwarf shrubs
which flank them, can be selected from the lists to be found in the
Appendix. As some of those which are in time the most interest-
ing are of exceedingly slow growth, bedding plants and annuals
which will preserve the same form for the groups by their propor-
tioned sizes may be substituted. But there is no question of the
superior beauty, in the end, of the place which is largely composed
of trees and shrubs that make it charming in winter and early spring
as well as in summer. The quick and brilliant effects that may
be produced with bedding-plants can, however, be combined some-
what with more permanent plantings, if the planter will be watch-
ful not to let his vigorous but ephemeral summer-plants smother the
slower growing dwarfs. The latter will not long survive being thus
deprived of sun and air in summer, and then left bare in the bleak
winter, while their summer companions which lorded over them
wn
AND GROUNDS. 149
have been carefully removed to the cellar or the green-house.
A pine tree is shown on the left near the house. This is ex-
ceptionally large. It is intended for a white pine, which grows
rapidly in breadth as well as height, and might soon cover half the
width of the lot with its branches. But it is readily “drawn up,”
as foresters say,—that is, it is easily reconciled to the loss of its
lower limbs, and sends its vigor to the upper ones; so that it
naturally becomes an over-arching tree. In time it will over-top,
and form an evergreen frame for that side of the house, while the
lawn under it will be unbroken. The small round shrubs near the
outside corners of the bay-windows may be, one, a golden arbor-
vite, and the other the golden yew, both rather dwarf evergreens,
of pleasing form, and warm-toned verdure. Between the bay-
windows, and near the house, is a suitable place for an elegant
rose-pillar or trellis, and a bed of roses. Directly in front of it,
and sixteen feet from the house, is a good position for a fine vase,
or a basket in a bed of flowers, as shown on the plan. The pair
of trees nearly in the middle of the front, near the street, we would
have the weeping Japan sophora, on a line with the middle of the
house, and not more than four feet apart. The main walk is repre-
sented on the plan by two modes of planting; the one, marked A,
characterized by an alternation of shrubs and bedding-plants on
the right, and beds of flowers on the left ; the other, marked B, by
a symmetric disposition of three groups of trees crossing and °
arching over the walk, and a belt of shrubs against the fence.
For the first, or shrub and flower-border plan, the following
selection of shrubs is recommended on the fence-border. All the
way from the street, to opposite the house, we would plant the
Irish and English ivy close to the bottom of the fence, and would
endeavor to make it cover the latter completely. Supposing the
fence not to be more than four or five feet high, these ivies can
generally be made to effect this, and although the growth near the
top may often be winter-killed, the plants, if taken care of, will
finally make a rich wall of verdure. If there is no probability of
eventually joining, by openings on that side, with neighbors’ im-
provements, it will be a great addition to the beauty of this
border to have the fence a well-made stone wall, upon which the
150 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
ivy is always most beautiful. From the hemlock arch to a point
twenty feet from the fence, plant with tree-box, mahonias, and
rhododendrons, set two and a half feet from the fence ; then a
concave bed ten feet long is devoted to bulbous flowering-plants
and annuals ; the next ten feet to be occupied by the pink and the
red-flowered tree honeysuckles six feet apart, with the fragrant
jasmine between them ; the next ten feet in flowers as before ; the
next to be occupied by the Dewtzia crenata alba and the Deutzia
crenata rubra flore plena, six feet apart, with the Dew/zia gracilis
between them; the next, flowers ; and the last group of shrubs to
be the Lz/ac rothmagensis and the Weigela rosea six feet apart,
with the Sfzrea calosa alba between and the golden yew, Zaxus
aurea, beyond ;—closing the planting on that side. On the veranda-
posts five different vines may be trained ; on the fence in front of
them nothing better can be done than to cover it with Irish ivy, or
such low-growing annual vines, on cords or wires, as will make the
best wall of leaves and flowers during the summer, and which can
be readily cleared away before winter. Beyond the veranda, on
the left, is a place for a group of shrubs of anything that the lady
of the house fancies. The evergreen at the end of the narrow
walk around the veranda should be some tall and handsome tree.
If the soil is sandy, the white-pine kept well trimmed will make a
fine mass of evergreen verdure the most quickly. In a climate not
more rigorous than that of Philadelphia, the Lawson cypress, C.
fawsoniana, is a good tree for the place; further north, the
pyramidal spruce, Adies excelsa pyramidata, a slender, vigorous, and
peculiar variety of the Norway spruce, will answer well; and so
will a Bartlett or Seckel pear tree, or any good cherry tree. The
evergreen, however, makes the best back-ground setting for the
house. By planting an evergreen on each side the walk, at that
point, an arch may eventually be cut under them to form a vista
from the veranda into the garden. This purpose may be most
quickly effected with white-pines or hemlocks.
The embellishment of the walk-border by the other mode, as
shown on the plan B, may be done as follows: the border of ivy
along the fence or wall, and the principal shrubs for twenty feet
next the front, may be the same as on the first plan ; but all the
AND GROUNDS. 151
flower-beds are to be omitted. Twenty-three feet from the street,
and two feet from the walk on the right, plant an American Judas
tree, Cercis canadensis; four feet further, on the same side, the
European Judas tree, Cercis seliguastrum ,; opposite to them, on the
left side of the walk, a clean stemmed white-flowering dogwood,
Cornus florida. Sixteen feet from the upper Judas tree, plant a pair
of sassafras trees four feet apart in the same relative positions as
the Judas trees in the first group ; opposite to them, on the left of
the walk, the Scamston weeping-elm, grafted eight feet high on a
common elm stock. ‘The next group, sixteen feet further on, is
made with a pair of Kolreuteria paniculata on the right, and a
narrow group of low choice shrubs on the left of the walk. Very
dwarf evergreens, or deciduous shrubs, may be planted to the left
of each of these groups, as indicated on the plan, or those places
may be filled with single plants of rich and abundant foliage, like
the more robust geraniums, the Cod/eus verschafelti, cannas, little
circles of salvias, etc., etc.
It is intended that the groups of low-growing trees which border
this walk shall form flat arches over head, not more than eight feet
over the walk ; and the trees must be reared and pruned to effect
this object. The Judas trees and the dogwood naturally spread
quite low. The study with them will be, how to draw them up so
that they will not be in the way over head. ‘The sassafras, though
a flat-topped tree, sometimes gets too high before beginning to
spread. If it keeps a strong centre-stem it should be topped at
eight feet high to hasten its spreading. ‘The Ko/reuterias are rather
too large for their place, but are low-spreading trees of great deli-
cacy of foliage and warmth of color; and even if they finally
extend their branches far towards the bay-windows, the view under
them will be the more pleasing.
152 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
PLATES V AND VI.
Designs for Village Lots 60 x 150 feet: one an In-Lot, and the other
a Corner Lot.
These designs are very simple and inexpensive in their
character, and have been partially described in Chapter XI. The
house-plan is the same in both ; not compact, but rather stretched
along the side of the lot farthest from the street so as to
leave a fair space on the other side, upon which the best rooms
and the verandas (which may be considered the pleasantest sum-
mer rooms of a house) are located. The house-fronts are each
forty feet from the main street. Both ground-plans are supposed
to open into other yards adjoining, on a line from ten to twenty-
five feet from the street ; on that line they are, therefore, left un-
planted with anything that will obstruct views across the lawn.
On Plate V the walks are made in right lines; while, on Plate VI,
the entrance being at the corner, convenience dictates curved lines
as the most desirable. If, on the latter, the gateway were in the
same place as in the former, the straight-line walk would be pre-
ferable, as there would be no object in making it otherwise.
PLaTE V.—The front gate is to be arched over in some of
the modes suggested in Chapter XIV, and on the left a dense
screen to the corner is to be made with evergreen shrubs or
shrubby trees. Twenty feet from the front, and five feet from
the left side, a tree of medium size is represented. It may be
any one of the following: a Magnolia machrophylla, catalpa,
double white or red-flowering horse-chestnut, bird cherry (Prunus
padus), a cut-leaved weeping birch, purple-beech, Ko/reuteria, Vir-
gilia, red-twigged linden, grape-leaved linden, scarlet maple,
purple-leaved maple, Saéisburia or ginkgo tree (if cut back at the
top), or a sassafras. Any handsome tree will do which branches
low, but still high enough to allow a person to walk under its
branches after it has been planted five or six years, and which
does not quickly become a great tree. Five feet from the fence,
av
Plate V.
asi HU |
4 LON ABS Be EE YS
5 We
yy ‘ . h
eY eres Pi) y
Drving Sard
ih ealyA
eS id a
perme reaaa rat
paved vard ep
Falak.
ak eile ee
8 Hash -reom
ow
SAYS IG WAAL DD
/ G7 2
if Self g- Poor Bed- roan
4
je}
J
fine onl
sits 45 F
whe aaee
Dy.
ERE e9
ACTSL Ss
| es
> gullswb> aha
é& tert OSS 7
ine yh teat
5 :
TTA one, bee
abig'cs Bog
Cys
i} fs st A!
nixon. Hiw alae
Gm brn, estowi yhatle enkill
kar petingy NOT Iaartey varie! AL :
in Lion pechyig eda |
wticivnol S77 ailnvnauod Sale 3
“yc lasgpe ieee bry) gash; Fé Io x
are porta de or ig
(la likinaeto iebmegricrys ages
AND GROUNDS. 153
facing the main entrance steps, we would plant the pendulous
Norway spruce, Adzes excelsa inverta; along the fence towards the
front, a dense mass of low-growing evergreens ; along the fence on
the other side of the spruce (opposite the bay-window), a hemlock
hedge, merging as it recedes from the front to the grape-trellis into a
belt of evergreens. ‘The groups of shrubs indicated in many places
against the house, must be of the best species, which grow from
two to seven feet in height ; and ought to embrace in each group
one or more shrubs with fragrant flowers, so that there shall be no
summer month when the windows will not be perfumed from them.
It is becoming a fashion to decry the planting of shrubs in contact
with dwelling houses. This fashion is a part of an extreme
reaction that possesses the public mind against the old and un-
healthy mode of embowering houses so completely under trees,
and packing yards so densely with shrubs, that many homes were
made dark and damp enough to induce consumption and other
diseases ; and physicians have been obliged to protest against
their injurious effects on the health of the inmates. But low-
growing shrubs planted against the basement-walls of suburban
houses, and rising only a few feet higher than the first floor, are
not open to any such objections. A house that is ested in shrubs
which seem to spring out of its nooks and corners with some-
thing of the freedom that characterizes similar vegetation spring-
ing naturally along stone walls and fences, seems to express the
mutual recognition and dependence of nature and art; the
shrubs loving the warmth of the house-walls, and the house
glad to be made more charming in the setting of their ver-
dure and blossoms. Many pleasing shrubs will do well where
their roots can feel the warmth that foundation-walls retain in
winter, which will not flourish in open exposed ground. Some will
do well in shady nooks and northern exposures which cannot be
grown in sunny projections ; others need all the sun of the latter
exposures, and are grateful in addition for all the reflected heat
from the house-walls. The foundations (provided of course that
they are of a deep and substantial character) thus become protect-
ing walls that offer to the skillful planter many studies in the
selection and arrangement of small shrubs. No well-constructed
154 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
house will be dampened, or have the sunlight excluded from its
windows, by such shrubs as we would recommend for planting in
the groups indicated against the houses in Plates V and VI, Small
as they are, each one of these little places for shrubs are studies.
Whether to plant a single robust shrub in each place, which will
spread to fill it, or to form a collection of lilliputian shrubs around
some taller one, is for the planter to decide. We cannot here in-
dicate, in detail, the plantings for all these places. It will be ob-
served that the right-hand front corner of the lot is filled with
shrubs, supposed to be but a part of a group, the other part of
which is on the lot of the adjoining neighbor. This may be com-
posed of large shrubs, such as altheas, deutzias, lilacs, etc., for
the interior, and weigelas, bush honeysuckles, Gordon’s currants,
berberries, and low spireas of graceful growth for the outside. ‘The
tree ten feet from the right-hand corner should be one of the
smallest class. The weeping Japan sophora grafted not more than
six feet high, the ever-flowering weeping cherry, the new weeping
thorn, the double scarlet thorn (Coccinnea flore plena) will make
pretty trees for such a place. If something to produce a quick,
luxuriant growth is preferred, the Judas tree, Cercis canadensis, or
the Scamston weeping-elm, grafted on another stock seven or
eight feet high, will do ; thovgh the Jatter will eventually become a
wide-spreading tree too large for the place.
The isolated small tree, or large shrub, about seven feet from
the fence near the middle of the front, may be an Andromeda
arborea, or the Indian catalpa (the hardiness of which is not fully
tested north of Philadelphia), the purple-fringe (grown low as a
tree), the tree honeysuckle, Lonicera grandiflora, grown low on a
single stem, the Weigela amabilis, also in tree-form ; Josikia or
chionanthus-leaved lilac, the dwarf weeping cherry (a very slow
grower), the Chionanthus virginica (a little tender north of Phila-
delphia), the rose acacia grown over an iron frame, or any out-
arching, low, small tree, weeping or otherwise, the foliage of which
is pleasing throughout the season. Or, if a single evergreen is
preferred, any one of the following will do: the dwarf white-pine,
P. strobus compacta, the golden yew, Zaxus aurea, the weeping
silver-fir, Picea pectinata pendula, the golden arbor-vite, or the
ee
AND GROUNDS. 155
weeping arbor-vitea. None of these will grow to greater size than
the place requires, but they grow slowly. A pretty effect may be
produced here by planting the erect yew, Zaxus erecta, where the
centre of the tree is indicated on the plan, with a golden arbor-
vite in front and a golden yew behind it. The erect yew is taller
than the others, and very dark, so that if the three are planted not
more than one or two feet apart, they will grow into a beautiful
compact mass made up of three quite distinct tones of foliage. Or
another pretty substitute for the one small tree, as shown on the
plan, may be made by using the excessively slender Irish juniper for
a centre 1, and grouping cose around it the golden arbor-vite 2, the
Podocarpus (or Taxus) japonica 3, the dwarf silver-fir, Picea com-
pacta, 6, the pigmy spruce, Adies excelsa pygme@a, 4, the dwarf
hemlock, Adies canadensis parsoni, 5, and the creeping euonymus,
Faponicus radicans marginatus. This will in time make an irregu-
lar pyramid composed of an interesting variety of foliage and
color, and easily protected in winter, if the plants are of doubtful
hardiness or vigor.
The vase and flower-beds in front of the bay-window need no
explanation. All the flower-beds shown on this plan, except the
one opposite the back-porch, should be filled only with flowering-
plants of the lowest growth: the bed excepted, and the place
behind it, shown as shrubbery, may be occupied by taller plants,
which are showy in leaves or flowers: but we think the effect will
be more constantly pleasing if the latter is filled with evergreen
shrubs from two to seven feet in height, mostly rhododendrons.
At the front end of the bed of roses, on the right, we would
plant the Nordmans fir, Picea Nordmaniana, an evergreen tree of
superior foliage, and believed hardy in most parts of the country.
It eventually becomes a large tree, but will bear trimming when it
begins to encroach too much upon the lawn.
The hemlock screen represented opposite the bath-room win-
dow should be thrown back to the end of the wash-room if the
owner prefers to have that strip of ground in lawn, rather than
under culture. We ask the reader to excuse us for having placed
it where it is, for the space between the house and the currant-
bushes allows of a pretty strip of lawn six feet wide, from which
156 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
narrow beds may be cut adjoining the foundation-walls, for beds of
low or slender annuals, which will not sprawl too far away from
the house. ‘The space will certainly be more profitable to the eye
in this way than it can be in fruits and vegetables.
Piatr VI.—This plan is so similar to the preceding, and both
are of so simple a character, that. the intelligent reader will learn by
an examination of the plate what manner of planting is intended.
This plate differs principally from Plate V in having four pine trees
of conspicuous size on the street margin of the lot. This pre-
supposes a well-drained sandy soil, for without a congenial soil
the pines will not develop great beauty. Supposing this condition
to be satisfied, evergreens may be made a specialty of this place,
and used as follows: Close by the left-hand gate-post (entering
from the street), plant a bunch of the common border-box ; a foot
from it, and midway between the walk and side fence, a plant of
the broad-leaved tree-box ; a foot further, on the same mid-line,
a plant of the gold or silver striped-leaved tree-box; then fill
in with hemlocks a foot apart, and a foot from the fence, as
far as the group is designated. Four feet from the same gate-
post, and two feet from the walk, plant a Podocarpus japonica ;
eight feet from the gate, and three from the walk, the Cephalo-
taxus fortunit mascula; four feet beyond, and four feet from the
walk, the golden arbor-vite. Between the right-hand gate-post and
the pine tree, fill next to the gate with the common English ivy, to
trail on the ground and form a bush; next, midway between the
fence and walk, and four feet from the post, the golden yew (Zaxus
baccata aurea); next, same distance from the walk, Sargent’s
hemlock (A. canadensis inverta); and between the pine and the
fence, fill in with mahonias (aguifolium and japonicum). The
pine here alluded to, to be the common white pine. The
dwarf trees shown on the plan, twenty feet from the gate, are
the Abies gregoriana on one side the walk, and on the other
the Picea hudsonica, or the Picea pectinata compacta. ‘These, and
the gateway groups, form an entrance through evergreens alone.
In climates more severe than that of New York city, substi-
tute the Pinus strobus compacta for the Cephalotaxus fortuni
_Ple ae VL
re
pea
Se)
cS
Ree a EN
Agee
oS
Drving Nard
Aree
NJ 27 LATED (
ees -
BLIP LOG IPADLY AB
e ; : ; vt ll
| c OS qi
WW ole
i CG
Was/e-r |
Fe f-
hilchen
Parlor
ade
SAISOY JO
At =i af
hee 3 |
earn vu
ileene sdd®
is ashlp! Ce:
o eit: j
GRAD
VRS
1S (Roth
SuigesWr a,
ey ahs
nobrtiw ns
te etude a
fhe Py, ee
a js
pe %
9 7 ty
| See
= abeite aa
% it To oy
Wie, aye ela ai
ie Laafrrpe exer ehies
Re 1k neritneede WEE a,
VA soy ac + > Ehret nis
se isan lying: £ cs ge oF
yal ho tic ih ogh
-
AND GROUNDS. Ly
mascula. The pine tree in the right-hand corner may be an
Austrian, taking care to select one of short dense growth.
Between it and the corner fill in with a mass of assorted rhodo-
dendrons, or with such shrubs as bush honeysuckles, deutzias of
the smaller sorts, the common syringa, purple berberry, variegatetl
elder, etc. The single tree in the middle of the front may be the
weeping Japan sophora, the Judas tree (Cercis canadensis), or a
neatly grown specimen of the white-flowering dogwood (Cornus
florida). The two small trees marked on the plan ro feet in
front of each front corner of the house should be the two slender
weeping firs, the Adzes excelsa inverta and the Picea fectinata pen-
@ula, which will in time form a graceful flanking for the bay-
window, and point the two groups of fragrant-blossomed deciduous
shrubs shown on each side of it. The shrubbery shown between
the walk and the main side veranda and its column vines should be
entirely composed of bedding plants of rich foliage and successive
bloom, which can be cleared away late in autumn. The remainder
of the plan is so like that for Plate V, that no further designation
of trees and shrubs need be made. A planter who is familiar with
the dimensions and qualities of trees and shrubs may make a
different choice, perhaps improve on those here named, and give
another character to the place. The gateway entrance, for in-
stance, may be bordered by low-growing umbelliferous trees like
the Judas tree, the weeping sophora, the Scamston elm, the sassa-
fras, or the Kolreuteria paniculata, of which any two would soon
grow to form a natural arch. The use of any of these trees will
not prevent the planting, under them, of those small evergreens
like the ivy, the box-wood, and some others which flourish in par-
tial shade. Or, some of the trees mentioned in Chapter XIV for
artificial arches, may be employed in the same place instead of the
groups of low evergreen shrubs, or the trees just named. The
pine trees which are shown on the plan (if, as before remarked,
the soil is congenial to them), in connection with the other ever-
greens, in the course of ten years would give an evergreen character
to the outer limits of the lot without trespassing too much on the
lawn space ; and although a repetition of the same species of tree
is not usually desirable on a small lot, the white pine unites so
158 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
many more qualities which suit it for the places indicated, than
any other evergreen, that we would make its use a specialty of the
plan. The exquisite Bhotan pine is still of doubtful longevity
with us ; that is to say, it occasionally dies out after eight or ten
years of healthy growth, just when its fountain-like tufts of droop-
ing foliage have become so conspicuously beautiful as to endear it
greatly to the owner. The same may be said of the long-leaved
Pyrrenean pine. Neither the Austrian or the Scotch pines drop
their lower limbs with so little injury to their symmetry as the
white pine, nor have either of them so fine a texture of foliage or
wood when seen near by. On small lots, ground-room cannot
well be afforded for that extension of the branches of evergreens
upon a lawn, which constitutes one of their greatest beauties where
there is space enough around to allow them to be seen to advan-
tage. Therefore trees which develop their beauty overhead, and
permit the lawn to be used and seen under their boughs, are more
desirable.
Prare Wil:
A long, narrow House, with Front near the Street, on an In-Lot sixty
feet wide, and of considerable depth.
We have here an inside lot of sixty feet front, occupied to the
depth of one hundred and thirty feet by the house, the walks and
the ground embellishments. The kitchen-garden is back of the
grape trellis, which should be of an ornamental character. The
house is stretched out to correspond with the form of the lot, which
is supposed to have no desirable ground connections with the adjoin-
ing lots, yet not so disagreeably surrounded as to make it neces-
sary to shut out by trees and shrubs the out-look over the fences
from the side-windows of the bay. The style of planting here
shown is such as would suit only a person or family of decided
taste for flowers, and the choicest selections of small shrubs. In
the rear left-hand corner is room enough for two cherry trees,
under which the lawn forms a sufficient drying-yard, and a con-
venient currant-border utilizes a space next the fence. Besides
oY ee
> Currant. Border x
—-
=
oper Saxe
Bed Room
W715
antry
WMitehen
1x16
Living Room
15% 18"
Parlor
15x16"
—
LILELAL
Bis
u
Ls
y
ie We 7
is reel pe OM
Cee ea
ock-4150 be
Yyht: Vist
ae Lp 9 ad, iby
|, 2 “4
nezeaoin
hori
lie tert Wisely wide
elerale stp
jaa Hy vt. create re
en rf riya ft ria pinay
a iittt AL «ole tam ee Doe
a as aig 7
AND GROUNDS. 159
the cherries, no large trees are to be planted except hemlocks
(marked H), which are gracefully shrubby in their early growth,
and can be so easily kept within proper bounds by pruning, that
they are introduced to form an evergreen flanking for the rear of
the house, and back-ground for the narrow strips of lawn on either
side of it. In time they will overarch the walk, and under their
dark shadows the glimpse of the bit of lawn beyond, with its bright
flowers, will be brought into pretty relief. Our engraver has been
somewhat unfortunate in the extreme rigidity of outline given to all
the trees and shrubs shown on this plan, yet precision and formal-
ity are peculiarities which the narrow limits of the lot render
necessary, and the completeness with which this specialty is
carried out will constitute its merit. Nearly all the shrub and tree
embellishment is with small evergreens, flowers of annuals, and
bedding plants. Flowers are always relieved with good effect
when seen against a ‘back-ground of evergreens. It will be
observed that the close side-fences are, much of their length,
uncovered by shrubbery. They must, therefore, be very neatly,
even elegantly made, if the proprietor can afford it. They then be-
come a suitable backing for the flowers that may be made to form
a sloping bank of bloom against them. By finishing the inside of
the fence ez espalier, it may be covered all over with delicate
summer vines whose roots, growing under it, will interfere little with
planting and transplanting seeds, roots, and bulbs in front of
them. In naming the trees intended for this plan, it must not be
supposed that other selections equally good, or better, may not be
made by a good gardener. The following is suggested as one of
many that will be appropriate to the place:
A, A. Two hemlocks planted two feet from the fence and from the
walk to form an arch over the gate when large enough, as
shown in Chapter XIV.
B. Parson’s dwarf hemlock two feet from the walk and six feet
from the fence.
C, C, C, C. Irish junipers two feet from the walk.
D. Space between juniper and corner post on the right may be
filled with mahonias, English ivy, and azalias that love shade.
160 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
E (next to the fence). Dwarf weeping juniper, ¥. oblonga pendula,
E (in the centre of front group). The pendulous Norway spruce,
Abies excelsa inverta, the central stem of which must be kept
erect by tying to a stake until it is from six to eight feet
high.
F, F. One, the dwarf Norway spruce, Adies gregoriana, and the
other the dwarf silver-fir, Picea pectinata compacta.
G (in the front group). Golden arbor-vite.
G (opposite bow-window of living-room). A bed of assorted
geraniums.
G (opposite dining-room). A single plant of Codleus verschafeltt.
H, H, H. Hemlocks ; for the left-hand front corner use Sargent’s
hemlock, Adzes canadensis inverta ;—its main stem to be kept
tied to a stake until it has a firm growth six feet high.
, 1, I (on the left side of walk). Dwarf-box for clipping.
(on right side of walk). The weeping arbor-vitae and the dwarf
weeping juniper, F. oblonga pendula,
J. LPodocarpus japonica, if protected in winter.
K. Parson’s arbor-vite, Thuja occidentalis compacta, two feet from
the fence. Between K and L plant a golden arbor-vite.
L. The pendulous silver-fir, Picea pectinata pendula, four feet from
the fence. Directly back of it, midway between it and the
fence, the erect yew, Zaxus erecta, whose deep green foliage
will contrast well with the golden arbor-vites near it, and as
its hardiness in all localities is not so well proved as that of
the other trees near it, its placement back of them, and near
to the fence, will serve to insure its safety from cold.
Irish and Swedish junipers near the fence.
The dwarf white-pine, P. strobus compacta, four feet from the
fence ; and behind, on each side, small rhododendrons. Four
feet above the pine, near the fence, plant a common hem-
lock, and when it is large enough to form a back-ground for
the dwarf pine—say from eight to ten feet high—keep it well
clipped back to prevent it from spreading over the dwarfs, and
taking up too much of the lawn.
O,O. Round beds for verbenas or other creeping flowers of con-
stant brilliancy.
= =
4s
AND GROUNDS. 161
P. Bed for favorite fragrant annuals or low shrubs.
Q (by the side of the kitchen). Bed for flowering-vines to train on
the house, or, if the exposure be southerly, or southeasterly,
some good variety of grape-vine. Whichever side of the rear
part of the house has the proper exposure to ripen grapes
well, cannot be more pleasingly covered than with neatly
kept grape-vines ; which should not be fastened directly to
the house, but on horizontal slats from six inches to-a foot
from the house; and these should be so strongly put up
that they may be used instead of a ladder to stand upgn to
trim the vines and gather the fruit. )
R. Rhododendrons,
S. Bed of cannas, or assorted smaller plants with brilliant leaves
of various colors. :
T, U, V, X, Z. A bed of rhododendrons.
W, W, W. May be common deciduous shrubs of any favorite full-
foliaged sort.
Y. Rhododendrons and azalias.
Opposite the corner of the veranda where fuschias are indi-
cated, the space should be filled between the Irish juniper and
the fence with the golden arbor-vita and the Podocarpus japonica,
planted side by side.
The foregoing list for planting is made on the assumption that
the owner is, or desires to be, an amateur in the choicest varieties
of small evergreens, as well as in flowers, and willing to watch
with patience their slow development ; for there is no doubt that
with deciduous shrubs a showy growth of considerable beauty can
be secured in much less time. Yet the type of embellishment
made with such a collection of evergreens as have been named for
this place, is so much rarer, and has so greatly the advantage in
its autumn, winter, and spring beauty, that we would have little
hesitation in adopting it.
For the benefit, however, of those who wish a quicker display
of verdure in return for their expense and labor in planting, we
subjoin an essentially different list of trees and shrubs for the
same plan, viz. :
II
162 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
A, A. Two Scamston elms (planted two feet from fence and walk)
grafted on straight stocks eight feet from the ground, to form
a tabular topped arch over the gateway, by interweaving the
side branches which are nearest to each other. These grow
so rapidly that all the space within ten feet from the centre
of the gate will in six years be deeply shaded by them, so
that only those plants which are known to flourish in deep
shade should be planted near the gate. Among these the
English ivy may occupy the same place in the corner as
before.
B. May be the Cephalotaxus fortunit mascula, or purple magnolia.
C, C (nearest the gate). Daphne cneorum. C, C (near the ve-
randa). Should be Irish juniper as in the first plan, and the
space marked fuschias to be filled as before recommended ;
C on left-hand tront of lot to be an Irish or Swedish
juniper.
D. Box-wood, spurge laurel, hypericum, purple magnolia, or
rhododendrons.
E (middle group). Andromeda arborea, or, south of Philadelphia,
the Indian catalpa, C. Aimalayensis.
F, F. Spirea reevesit flore plena and Spirea fortuni alba. G (of
same group). Spirea Van Houtti. In the spaces between G
and F the Deutsia gracilis and the Andromeda floribunda may
be planted within two feet of the stem of the Andromeda
arborea.
H \in left-hand corner). Two deutzias, the white and red, D.
crenata alba and D. crenata rubra flore plena, planted side by
side. ‘The other H’s to be hemlocks as in the other plan.
I, I, I, I. Tree-box on left of walk, Siberian arbor-vite on the
right.
J. Deutzia gracilis.
K. Purple berberry two feet from fence. Above it, the same dis-
tance from the fence, the variegated-leaved althea.
L. Common red Tartarian honeysuckle, four feet from fence.
Behind it, next to the fence, the spurge laurel, Daphne
laureola.
M. Two Swedish junipers one foot from fence.
AND GROUNDS. 163
N. Weigela rosea three feet from fence. Close to fence, on each
side of it, the English ivy.
. Beds for creeping flowers as in previous plan.
Bed for annuals or low shrubs.
. Same as in former list.
. A bed of salvias, to fill in between the hemlocks.
Cannas, or some lower bedding annuals.
The lilac, Rothmagensis rubra.
. Gordon’s flowering currant.
Two dwarf rhododendrons, voseum elegans and album can-
aidissima, and behind them towards the grape trellis and next
the fence, the taller rhododendrons, granaiflorum and album
elegans. These will fill as near to the trellis as anything
should be planted.
X. Rhododendrons, grandiflorum and candidissima planted to-
gether.
ACHP ROWO
Shrubs shown at the house-corners should be selected from
those whose branches droop toward the ground, well covered with
foliage, and whose flowers are fragrant; such as the corhmon
syringa, bush honeysuckles, jasmines, wild roses, purple magnolia,
etc., etc. ; the beauty and abundance of the foliage throughout the
season being of more importance than the blossoms. But there
are shrubs which combine nearly every merit of foliage, bloom,
and fragrance, and these are often the common sorts best known.
It is not practicable to name in detail everything which may be
planted on a lot of this size, and the two lists just given will form a
ground-work into which may be interwoven a great variety of quite
small shrubs without breaking the arrangement intended.
In whatever way this place is planted, the area in lawn is so
narrow that it can only be made to look well by the nicest
keeping.
164 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
Prarie Value
A simple Plan for a Corner Lot one hundred by one hundred and
seventy feet, with Stable and Carriage-house accommodations.
By referring to Plates IX and XII, and comparing them with
the one now under consideration, it will be seen that there is a
similarity in the forms and ‘sizes of the lots and the house-plans.
A comparison of their differences will be interesting. Plates VIII
and IX represent corner lots 100 x 170 feet, having stable and
carriage-house accommodations, while Plate XII is an in-lot
100 X 160 feet, without those luxuries, but with convenience for
keeping a cow. Plan VIII is designed to illustrate the utmost
simplicity of style, requiring the minimum of trouble and expense
in its maintenance. In both plans the nearest part of the house
stands thirty feet from the side street, and eighty-two feet from
the street upon which the bay-windows look out. On this plan
the short straight walk from the side street to the veranda is
the ‘only one that requires to be carefully made, and is but
twenty-seven feet in length from the street to the steps ; while on
Plate IX there is an entrance from both streets, connected by a
curving walk with the main house entrance, and other walks to the
kitchen entrances and carriage-house. This difference in the walks
is suggestive of the greater embellishment of the latter plan in all
other respects, and, with its vases, flower-beds, and more numerous
groups of shrubbery, indicates the necessity for the constant services
of a gardener. Plan VIII, on the other hand, with its plain lawn,
and groups of trees which require but little care, and its few plain
flower-beds, may easily be taken care of by any industrious pro-
prietor, before and after the hours devoted to town business—
especially if the wife will assume the care of the flowers—and if
the lawn is in high condition, and the trees are kept growing lux-
uriantly, the simplicity of the planting will not result in any lack
of that air of elegance which most persons desire to have theit
places express ; for it is not so much costliness and elaborateness
that challenges the admiration of cultivated people as the uncon-
Plate Vill.
Cow-yard 4 Manare
en
Raspberry Border
i iluifi eae mit en ii a
WH
Wh
MH |
Hi
it Lit yi ial
call, I fe
aif,
a
ag)
vee
Dry ti
AG oe
# Pate oe \ one
He | x Paad
=~ x SS) . ny
ve NY 3 x is >
g7 8 Sa Se CPT te ag
Mi a NS 3 ‘ 4. =~
4 a}
vu & f Sed ae ; 2 sCR
> ss RN S
cS 8 8 oy Ses ‘ & %
Be 7% & Ye
tS a age 6
cio Cor
oak
i2ambre pis s
igwood ee
Ye
Ligue
Bi
2° Ry
ge
oS
‘ Me: ef
, =e 224
4a)
30
20
Ww
10
1
3
Street
1]
in
Abi
spiny
at
wm
AND GROUNDS. 165
scious grace with which a plain dress may be worn, so as to appear
elegant notwithstanding its simplicity. It will be observed that
there is no vegetable garden on either plan, but a good number of
cherry, pear, and other fruit trees, as well as an abundance of
grapes, currants, raspberries, and strawberries are provided for.
Yet in the neighborhood of the carriage-house, the ground in culti-
vation under the trees may serve to produce a small quantity of
those low vegetables which take but little room, and are wanted in
small quantities only.
Supposing the walks to be laid out as shown on the plan, the
first things to be planted are the fruit trees. Three cherry trees—
say the mayduke, black tartarian, and late-duke ; seven pear trees
(not dwarfs)—say one Madeleine, one Dearborn’s seedling, one
Bloodgood, two Seckels, and two Bartletts ; two peach trees, the
George the Fourth or Haine’s early, and Crawford’s early ; and
a few orange-quinces near the stable, are all the fruit trees there is
room for. The sides of the carriage-house and stable will afford
the best of places for the growth of grapes; the vines, however,
should not be fastened directly to the wall, but on a trellis six
inches or a foot from it, to allow a circulation of air through the
foliage. Besides these, a few vines may be grown to advantage on
a trellis back of the kitchen, and on a circular trellis around the
gravelled space in front of the carriage-house,* and also on the
back fence, marked raspberry border, if preferred. Currant bushes
and raspberries do well in partially shaded situations, while grape
vines need the most sunny exposure. The places for one or the
other must therefore be chosen with reference to the light and
shade adjacent to buildings, fences, and trees.
The fruit trees being disposed of, let us turn to the lawn-
ground. ‘The front gate recedes from the street four feet, forming
a bay from the side-walk. On the left, as one enters, the view is
all open across the lawn. On the right of the gate, along the
fence, there is a heavy mass of shrubbery, to be composed of lilacs,
honeysuckles, weigelas, or any of the thrifty common shrubs which
* The carriage turn-way is represented a little broader than it need be. There should be ten
feet space between it and the back fence to make room for the trellis for grapes.
166 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
do not grow bare of leaves at the bottom. Or, if an evergreen
screen is preferred to these blossoming shrubs, the border may be
planted irregularly with the American and Siberian arbor-vites.
On the left, next to the fence, and close against it, we would plant
English ivy, tree-box, periwinkle, or myrtle for the first ten feet,
and hardy dwarf arbor-vitaes, hemlocks, and yews: on the next ten
feet. On the right of the walk, and two feet from it, is a straight
bed for annual and bulbous flowers, which is backed by a bed of
shrubbery running parallel with the walk, designed to shut from
view the kitchen drying-yard, under the cherry and pear trees.
This screen should be composed entirely of evergreens which can
be kept within seven feet in height. In the front, next to the
flower-bed, may be a collection, in a row, of the finest very small
dwarfs, of as many species as the owner desires to procure, backed
by a dense mass of arbor-vitzes and hardy yews intermingled. The
row of dwarf evergreens should in time occupy the space which is
marked as a bed for annuals, while the former are too small to
fill it. The masses of. shrubs shown against the house may be of
common sorts which are favorites with the proprietor or his family,
and that do not exceed seven feet in height. On the left of the
walk the flower-beds 1, 2, and 3 may be filled, each, with one
species of low flowers not exceeding nine inches in height, so as to
make brilliant contrasts of colors. Beds 4 and 6 may be filled
with bulbous flowers in the spring, and later, with geraniums,
lantanas, or salvias. Bed 5 admits of some skill in arrangement.
In its centre, next to the house, we would try the Japanese striped
maize ; next to it a half circle of salvias ; outside of these a half
circle of mountain-of-snow geranium ; next, a circle of Coleus ver-
schafelti, and, next the grassy margin, the Mrs. Pollock geranium.
Another season the same bed might be splendid with cannas alone,
as follows: for the centre, one plant of the blood-red canna, C. san-
guinca chatei, six feet high ; one foot from it, three plants of the C.
sellowt, four to five feet high ; next, a circle of the C. faccida, three
feet ; and for the outer circle the C. compacta elegantissima, two feet
high, alternated with the C. augustifolia nana pallida. If the occu-
pant of the house does not wish to obtain plants from the green-
house to stock these beds, they may be cheaply and prettily filled
AND GROUNDS. 167
by annuals graded in size in the same manner as above indicated
for a bed of cannas. The circular border of cultivated ground be-
tween the dining-room bay-window and the hemlock border may
also be filled with annuals, graded from those that grow only a few
inches high next the grass, to an outer circle made with flowering
plants from four to six feet high. Bed 7 is intended for an assort-
ment of geraniums. At 8 is a good place for the pendulous silver-
fir; and at 9 for Sargent’s hemlock, Adzes canadensis inverta, trained
toa straight stick, and kept small by pruning.
On a line with the side-walls of the house, and twenty feet in
front, two sycamore maples are designated. We do not intend to
recommend this variety as any better or more beautiful than the
sugar, red-bud, or Norway maples, or than the horse-chestnut, but
it represents a type of trees with formal outlines, and rich masses
of foliage, which are appropriate for such places ;—unless the style
of the house is picturesque ; in which case elms, birches, and other
loose growing trees would be more appropriate. The centre group
of evergreens is mostly composed of common and well-known
sorts, the points being representations of the arbor-vite family,
and the centre of the taller hemlocks. Lawson’s cypress is still a
rare tree, and its hardiness is doubtful north of Philadelphia.
Where it may not be safely used, a full-foliaged specimen of the
Norway spruce may be substituted. South of New York, near
the sea-coast, we would also substitute the G/yp/o-strobus sinensis
pendula for the arbor-vite fiucata. While these trees are small
they will appear insignificant in so large a bed ; but we advise no
one to trust himself to plant trees more thickly than they should
eventually grow, on the plea that when they crowd each other a
part may be removed ; for however sound the theory, it is rarely
carried out in practice. Besides, no trees are so beautiful as those
which have an unchecked expansion from the beginning ; and this
is especially the case with evergreens, some of which never recover
from the malformations produced by being crowded during the
first ten or fifteen years of their growth. ‘Therefore, let the open
spaces between the permanent trees, in the beds which are out-
lined for cultivation, be filled during their minority with showy
annuals or bedding plants ;—taking care not to plant so near to
168 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
the young trees as to smother or weaken them by the luxuriant
growth of the former.
The evergreen group on the right is intended to be made up
entirely of firs—hemlocks, Norway and black spruces—mixed in-
discriminately, to show as a mass, and not as single specimens,
If the proprietor has a desire for rarities in this family, they can
be substituted.
The group on the left, as its symbols show, is intended to be
entirely of pines. In the centre, plant a white pine and a Bhotan
pine side by side and close together, the former on the south side
of the latter. Fifteen feet back of them put in an Austrian pine ;
towards the front the cembran pine; to the extreme right, the
dwarf white pine, P. strobus compacta, and in the spaces between
fill with the varieties of the mugho or mountain pine, or with
rhododendrons.
The deciduous group lightly outlined near the right hand
corner explains itself. If thriftily grown, the trees there marked
should make a beautiful group in summer, and a brilliant one in
autumn.
The pair of trees near the left-hand corner we would have the
Kolreuteria paniculata.
The hemlock border on the left, opposite the dining-room bay-
window, is intended to form a close screen, to grow naturally till
the trees occupy from seven to ten feet in width from the fence,
when they are to be kept within bounds by pruning. They
should be planted about two feet apart.
PLATE, LEX.
Plan for a Corner Lot 100 x 170 feet, planted in a more elaborate
style than the preceding plan.
In describing the preceding plate, allusion was made to the
greater expensiveness of this plan. Premising, therefore, that
it is intended for a person who loves his trees and plants, and
who can afford to keep a gardener in constant employ, we will
Plate IX.
Hemlocks
.
Re Aadaed Border, PEPE thal It p
hated a sliyithiil
ital), HH hl! h mh
" Hh
i H Hil ih HUN
(i Sdraw
Syl
Manure Yard
Carriage
ve = >
oo Sere an ees Wi)
al te Grape Bonen inh
~ ar 1°.
Bo
~
=
S$
KR
S.
NO
%¥ VU
5
®
$
aN
wie Sy
yr
hoes
ak
x
ue
is x
Roa
S wes,
Re io
gH Pe iy
OU ga
oS Rae?
= 8 Oe
he a3
es
re
latalpa
hampfert
Ye.
RS
ss
AS
~
Thas
Wo
d Aces - :
? ws
Aieav ie
Ee aes
Mute ac). 2eEe ieee 4
i oval ; rae i
te-allyy) pune azalk tes
l¢ k by
bu
34 |
lL t%
j be Cell es ‘
he a oe
Z aay an ia i
a,
AND GROUNDS. 169
briefly describe those features of the place which need expla-
nation.
The front entrance of the place (the one at the bottom of the
page on the plate) is designed to have an elm tree arch over it,
similar to that shown by Fig. 40 in Chapter XIV. The group A,
on the right near the gate, may be entirely composed of rhodo-
dendrons.
The group E is composed of a pair of weeping silver-firs
(nearest the gate), the mugho pine on the left, and the dwarf
white pine, /. compacta, farthest from the gate.
Group B, on the right, will shade the walk with the low and
broadly spreading top of the Kolreuteria paniculata at its point,
behind which may be another group of rhododendrons, and close
to the fence a compact border of hemlocks, which must be allowed
to spread well upon the ground, and mingle their boughs with the
rhododendrons, but not to exceed eight or ten feet in height.
The group C, with a sugar maple (in the place of which a pair of
Magnolia machrophyllas, planted close together, might be substituted
with good effect) in front of it, is to be composed of a circle of
choice dwarf evergreens on the side next the house, backed by a
hemlock border along the fence, as described for the preceding
group.
From the following list a choice of dwarf evergreen trees
or shrubs can be made: Pinus strobus compacta, Pinus stro-
bus pumila, Pinus sylvestris pumila, Pinus mughus, Picea pec-
tinata compacta, Picea pectinata pendula, Picea hudsonica, Abies
nigra pumila, Abies nigra pendula, Abies excelsa gregoriana, Abies
excelsa inverta, Abts e. conita, Abies canadensis inverta, Abies
canadensis parsoni, Andromeda floribunda, tree-box, Buxus ar-
borea, Hypericum kalmianum and H. frolificum, the kalmias,
the creeping junipers Funiperus repens, Funiperus repanda densa,
F. succica, F. suecica nana, F. hibernica, F. oblonga pendula,
F. spaeroides, Thuja aurea, Thuja occidentalis compacta, Taxus
baccata aurea, Taxus erecta, Taxus baccata eegantissima, Cepha-
lotaxus fortunit mascula, Taxus or Podocarpus japonica, the rho-
dodendrons, and the mahonias. For the sizes and character-
istics of all these, we must refer the reader to the descriptions ot
170 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
evergreen trees in Part II. By selecting the smallest evergreens
for the front of the group, and placing the larger ones behind, even
a small bed like this will accommodate a large number of speci-
mens. ‘The side towards the veranda is laid out in a formal
circle for convenience in first laying it out, but as the planting
progresses, and as it becomes desirable to add one small thing
after another to the group, this, as well as some of the other
groups, may be enlarged in the manner shown by the dotted lines ;
or, it can be laid out in that manner at first, if the list of small
choice evergreens to be purchased is large enough to fill it. Most
of the finer dwarf evergreens are rare and costly compared with
common sorts, so that the lists must be made with prudence, in
order that these, together. with other more indispensable purchases
from the nurseries, shall not amount to so large a sum as to sur-
prise and discourage the planter. Where the resources of the
proprietor will not permit him to procure at once everything that
can be advantageously used on the place, it is best to plant, the
first season, all the larger (which are usually the commoner and
cheaper) trees and shrubs, keeping the beds filled with showy
annuals, while acquiring, year by year, choice additional collections
of permanencies. But it is quite essential to the formation, of
tasteful grounds that all the large permanent trees and shrubs be
placed properly in the beginning, so that whatever is afterwards
added will be of such subsidiary character as will group with and
around the former.
The group’ D, from the gate to the pear tree, should be com-
posed of a mass of low evergreen trees or shrubs planted about six
feet from the walk; and from the foot-walk gate to the carriage
gate with a hedge of Siberia arbor-vitee planted two feet from the
fence. Between this hedge and the pear tree, at the intersection
of the walks, there will be room enough for the following: mugho
pine (P. mughus), the dwarf white pine (P. s. compacta), the Ceph-
alotaxus fortunit mascula, the conical yew (Zaxus erecta), the
golden yew (Zaxus aurea), the golden arbor-vite (Zhwa aurea),
Sargent’s hemlock (Ades canadensis inverta), and the weeping
juniper (¥. oblonga pendula). By alternating the dark and light
colored foliage of these evergreen shrubs, placing the dark ones
*
AND GROUNDS. ee 74 F
farther from the walk than the light ones, they will form an in-
teresting border, and in time a dense screen.
Fifteen feet from the end of the veranda towards the front
street, and twelve feet from the walk, a pine tree is indicated.
This may be either the common white pine, or the more beautiful
Bhotan pine, if one is willing to risk the permanence of the latter ;
—unless the soil of the locality is such that neither of these pines
will develop its beauty—in which case we would substitute either
Nordmanns fir (Picea nordmaniana), or some deciduous tree which
branches low. This tree is placed for the purpose of breaking
the view from the street to the veranda, so that persons sitting in
the latter will have a partial privacy from the street passers. If
the soil is deeply fertile, and not too dry, the A/agnolia soulangeana
may be substituted for the pine, in climates not more severe than
that of New York city ; while further north the double white-flower-
ing horse-chestnut, allowed to branch low, is admirably adapted to
the position. ‘The white birch, in front of the centre line of the
house, should be the cut-leaved weeping variety, which is too
beautiful and appropriate to the place to allow anything else to be
substituted for it. The tree in front of the other corner of the
house, in the climate just mentioned, may be the Magnolia
machrophylla; in the northern States, any one of the following:
the red-flowering, or double white-flowering horse-chestnut, purple-
leaved beech, grape-leaved linden, the sugar, red-bud, Norway or
sycamore maple (especially the gold-leaved variety of the latter),
the oak-leaved mountain ash, or the tulip tree. While the tree is
young a group of shrubs may be planted on an irregular line with
the side of the house, so that the tree will form its centre, as shown
on the plan. The position of two magnolias on the left may be
determined by reference to the scale. In a region too cold, or a
soil too thin or dry for the magnolias, we would substitute a
group of three beeches—the weeping beech in the centre, the cut-
leaved nearest the house, and the purple-leaved nearest the street.
It will be observed that this side of the lot connects quite openly
with the adjoining lot—-having few trees or shrubs on the margin.
If there is no division fence, or only a light and nearly invisible
one, and that lot is pleasingly improved, the views across it from
172 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
the parlor and dining-room windows will exhibit a generous expan-
sion of lawn which it is desirable to secure ; and it will probably
include in the view from them some embellishments which this
place has not. If, however, there is anything unsightly in the
neighbor lot, or any unfriendly disposition on the part of its
owner that induces him to ignore the advantage of mutual views
over each other’s lawns, and to fence or plant.to prevent it, that
side may then be filled with masses of shrubbery in a manner
similar to that shown on the left of Plate IV.
The group G, at the left, may be planted from the street to the
pine with the strong growing old shrubs—lilacs, weigelas, honey-
suckles, syringas, deutzias, etc., etc. Under, or rather near, the
white or Austrian pine (the former pine if the soil is sandy, the
latter if it is clayey), plant almost any of the yews, the Sargent
hemlock, the Aypericum kalmianum and H. prolificum, the tree-
box variety angustifolia, and the variegated-leaved elder, all of
which flourish in the shade of other trees. At the upper extreme
of the group plant the pendulous Norway spruce, Adzes excelsa
inverta; eight feet behind it the common Norway spruce, and
between this and the pine the Chinese cypress, Glypto-strobus
sinensis pendula, and some of the evergreen shrubs just named.
The belt of hemlocks against the fence, opposite the dining-
room bay-window, is to be terminated at the front by a slender
weeping silver-fir, Picca pectinata pendula. ‘The trees at the two
corners of the dining-room bay are intended for Irish junipers,
or the weeping juniper, ¥. oblonga pendula. Other trees and shrubs
are designated on the plan, and need no explanation.
There are many small flower-beds on the plan, and one quite
large rose-bed in the middle of the front at F. The latter is to
have an elegant rose-pillar, or a substantial trellis in the centre,
with groups of roses of varieties graded to diminish in size to the
points. Or, if preferred, this may be a group of evergreens with
the slender weeping silver-fir for a centre, and lower trees and
dwarfs around it, so as to form the same figure of a cross. This
will, in time, be more beautiful throughout the greater part of,the
year than the rose-bed, but the latter can be made far more
brilliant in summer. Yet the rude, briary appearance of rose-
oer d1eQ YorESsy,
wee
AGHi. Tae Wien
vor thy i alalinl cH
Raspherry & Blaskberry horder tity Bai,
aay lait ep Sn geet Mie a Ban ao
&
%
a bx ¥
ie] eS es
Ass,
{e]
[-)
AND GROUNDS. 13"
bushes, after the leaves fall, is a serious objection to them when
compared with the cheerful elegance of a well-formed evergreen
group at all seasons of the year. The other flower-beds are
small, and of the simplest forms. Beds 1, 1, 1, 1 should be filled
in spring with bulbous flowers, and later with verbenasy portulaccas,
Lhlox drummondi, escholtzias, or similar Jow plants. Beds 2, 2 may
have three geraniums in each, the largest variety in the middle.
Beds 3 and 5, in the wall-corners, should have some little evergreen
vines, say English or Irish ivies, planted in the extreme corner,
with heliotrope and mignonette around them. Bed 4 may be
planted as suggested in the description of Plate VIII. Beds
6, 6, 6, 6 may be filled with four varieties of cannas of about equal
height ; 7,7, and g with low bulbs in spring, and later with gladiolii
in the centre and petunias or other flowers of similarly brilliant
and abundant bloom, around them. Bed 8 to have a mountain-of-
snow geranium, or a Wigandia caracasana in the centre, and three
robust plants of Colleus verschafelti on the points ; 10 is a mass of
cannas ; 11 may be a bed of hollyhocks, with a tall sort in the
centre, and low varieties around it. We have merely suggested the
flowers for the various beds as a starting-point for persons unfa-
miliar with flowers. Most intelligent ladies, as well as gardeners,
are more familiar with flower culture than with any other garden-
ing art, and will be able to vary the beds from year to year, and to
improve on the selections here given. They will also learn by
experiment, better than they can be told, the best materials to
use in embellishing with flowers and wreathing leaves, the vases
near the entrance steps.
yeaa XS
A Simple Plan for Planting an Interior Lot two hundred feet front
and three hundred feet deep.
This plan represents a large mansion on an in-lot two hundred
feet front by three hundred feet deep. Plate XI is the same house
and lot treated more elaborately. The same differences, carried
out on a larger scale, may be observed between these two plans of
174 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
grounds, as between those of Plates VIII and IX ; the one here
described having a less extent of drive, walks, and ornamental
plantations than the plan shown by Plate XI. All the surround-
ings are supposed to be the same, and the different modes of laying
out the grounds are meant to represent simply the different tastes
or means of occupants. Here the proprietor is supposed to desire
grounds of the most simple character, which will be at the same
time suitable to the mansion and the lot. The entrance road,
turnway, and drive to the stable are the most direct and simple
that can be made ; and they constitute also the only entrance
walks to the house. Ninety feet of the rear of the lot is devoted
to utilities, viz.: to carriage-house conveniences, to a kitchen-
garden, and an orchard ; the ground in the latter being also de-
voted to culture for small fruits and vegetables until the fruit trees
are large enough to shadow the whole ground. ‘The front two
hundred and ten feet, is all devoted to the house and its ground
embellishments. The drive is ten feet in width ; the circle around
which it turns is thirty feet in diameter. An avenue of three elm
trees on each side of the entrance-drive are its only decorations,
though the street-trees in a line with them will give it the appear-
ance of an avenue of eight instead of six trees. In the centre of
the circle a pine tree is designated—to be a white pine if the soil
is sandy, otherwise an Austrian. These trees are chosen because
they are of rapid and healthy growth, and cast their lower branches
as they grow large, so that the lawn beneath them, while it is
deeply shadowed, is not destroyed, and the view under the
branches is unobstructed. This will be rather an objection than
a merit with those persons who desire the main entrance to be
quite secluded and concealed from view. We would recommend
for them that the circle be planted with a group of firs, whose
branches rest upon the ground during all stages of their growth,
and would eventually cover the whole circle with an impene-
trable mass of foliage. A single Norway spruce planted in
the centre will do this. So, probably, would a Nordmanns fir,
Picea nordmaniana. While these trees are small, the borders of
the circle (supposing it to be desirable to shut out the view of the _
approach road from the porch) may be planted, four feet from the
AND GROUNDS. Blinds
road, with quick growing deciduous shrubs, such as bush honey-
suckles, lilacs, weigelas, deutzias, etc., which can be removed when
the centre tree begins to crowd them. Or, with one of the same
large evergreens in the centre, a gardenesque border may be
formed around the circle with single specimens of rare dwarf
evergreens, planted four feet from the road. Doubtless the noblest
feature of such a turn circle is a single great spreading tree
like a mature white oak or American chestnut, and if the pro-
prietor appreciates the pleasures of hope, and desires the greatest
simplicity of effect, he had better plant the latter. We have seen
specimens of the American chestnut of colossal size, which men
now living remember as sprouts.
A Jot so large as this must needs have a ground-plan of the
planting made on a large scale, and as it is extremely difficult to
carry out any system of planting for such a place from a verbal
description, we shall not attempt to describe in detail all the
materials that form the plantation, but make merely a rough
inventory of its properties. Though it is an in-lot, and in the
main designed without connection with adjoining lots, from which
it is shown to be separated by high fences or walls and shrubbery
to within sixty or seventy feet of the street, yet on this front space
we have left openings on each side for connections with adjoining
grounds. Back of this, each side of the lot is bounded by screens
of evergreens. On the right of the drive to the carriage-house is
a cold grape-house. The house-front is supposed to be to the
east, so that this grapery has a southern exposure. It may seem
to have no border for the roots of the grape vines, if it is supposed
that the road in its front has been made by excavating all the
good soil and substituting broken stone and gravel only. But we
would not have this done. For a road-bed, or for a grape border,
the drainage must be equally deep and effective. That being
secured we would make the road-bed of the best grape soil, and
pave over it with stone, after the “ Belgian” and “ Medina” pave-
ment manner, at least as far as the length of the grape house ;
using no more sand or gravel than is necessary to bed or fill in
between the stone. Of course this bed will rise and fall by the
freezing and thawing of the soil beneath, but this will do no
176 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
harm. The rich soil of the pavement-bed will also start vegeta-
tion between the stones, but on so narrow a road, in constant use,
the extra labor required to keep the surface clean is inconsidera-
ble. On the other hand the pavement acts as a cooling mulch
in summer and the contrary in winter—it equalizes both the tem-
perature and moisture of the roots, and by the reflection of heat
from its surface, adds to the heating power of the sun’s rays in
maturing the grapes within. Were the road-bed not made suitable
feeding ground for the roots of the vines within, such a position for
a grapery would of course be impracticable ; but when thus pre-
pared it becomes the most advantageous for the production of
good grapes, as well as convenient of access. Beyond the cold grape-
house the fence is made use of for training hardy grape vines. On
the left is a bed designed for growing Delaware grapes on stakes,
at first, with the intention of making them eventually into self-
sustaining low trees. On and near the garden-walk from the back
veranda are also .trellises and an arbor for hardy grapes. A row
of seven cherry trees planted one hundred feet from the back line
of the lot forms a sort of dividing line between the decorative and
the utilitarian parts of the lot. The orchard-rows back of it, when
the trees are well-grown, will, however, add much to the pleasant
character of the vistas from the front street, and need not be out
of harmony with the groupings on the lawn in front of them.
While the trees are small, and the ground cultivated in garden
crops, it may be desirable to have a grape-trellis or an arbor-vitee
hedge-screen midway between the rows of cherry and pear trees, or
a bed of tall and massy annuals ; but after ten years the effect will
be better if there is no division between the lawn and the orchard.
PrArE Xe
A Flan for a First Class Suburban Home on a Lot two hundred feet
Sront and three hundred feet deep.
This plan differs from the coundry residence of a retired citizen
in this, that it is a home which does not include orchards, pastures,
and meadows, but is devoted to the development of sylvan beauty
ae
Plate XI -
Manure yard
& Archery
=
| ERATURE ERM
AND GROUNDS. nuded
rather than pecuniary utilities, or farm conveniences. It is a suita-
ble home for a family of cultivated people, with ample means, and
rural tastes.
The orchard which takes an important place in the preceding
plan is here omitted, to make a more extensive lawn and a fine
pleasure-walk. ‘The entrance-drive is more expensive than in the
preceding plan, and a side entrance walk is added. In dispensing
with an orchard we have endeavored to introduce in other places
enough fruit trees to supply the family with those kinds of fruit
which it is most indispensable to have on one’s own place. It will
be seen that there are four cherry trees on the north (right) side of
the house ; four pear trees along the border leading to the carriage-
house, three more on the left-hand border of the kitchen-garden,
and four peach trees. Some of the groups in other parts of the
grounds may now and then include a fruit tree. Apple and pear
trees, Siberian crabs and quinces, which harmonize well with some
of the purely ornamental trees, may be introduced in sufficient
numbers in this way to furnish a good supply of summer fruits.
The north fence back of the evergreen-screen is a continuous trellis
for hardy grapes. Grape trellises also occupy the ends of two
divisions of the kitchen-garden back of the house. If a grape-
house is added, it may occupy either the place indicated on the
preceding plan, or be built with its back to the walk on the left of
the garden, and facing the left. In this case a few of the trees
there would be omitted, and a slight change made in the arrange-
ment beyond. Raspberries can be grown in abundance on the
border next the back fence, strawberries under the growing fruit
trees, and currants on the walks where designated. The kitchen-
garden is certainly small for so fine a place, being but 60 x 80
feet, including the central-walks ; but this space, if well used for
those things only which can be better grown than bought, will
produce a greater amount of vegetables than many persons sup-
pose ; and in addition to this space permanently dedicated to such
things, room will be found for many years on the borders and
among the young trees of a plantation to grow many vegetables
which are by no means unsightly. In fact, such plants as beets,
carrots, parsnips, cabbages, and sea-kale, all of which have foliage
12
178 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
of great beauty and are of low growth, can occasionally be grown
to advantage, to cover ground which needs cultivation, in places
where they will fill in with as good effect as flowering annuals. A
good gardener can also grow strawberries with profit in young
shrubbery plantations, where their presence will not be noticed.
Let us now suppose ourselves in the street on the side-walk
at A. From that corner the house and grounds will be seen to
good advantage, but the finest lines of view on the latter will be
obtained further to the right. At the point B, the whole length of
the lawn to the evergreen boundaries and shrubby groups of the
croquet and archery ground is an unbroken expanse, margined
on the left by varied groups of trees with clear stems, whose
shadows fleck, but do not interrupt the view ; behind these, masses
of large flowering shrubs form continuous bays and projections of
foliage that rest upon the lawn; while on the right, in the distance,
glimpses of the pleasure-walk, now open, now lost to sight behind
verdant arches and projecting groups, and nearer, the long vine-
covered front of the veranda, and the light colors of many flower-
beds in dark bays or on open lawn—altogether, will give from
this point of view an impression of beauty and extent not often
realized on less than an acre and a half. Nor will the view be less
pleasing from the main entrance at C, for from this point the trees
and the shrubbery on the left are seen to better advantage, and
the evergreen groups, summer-house, and flower-beds of the far
corner come into view. From D and E the views are shorter, but
take in a variety of groups and single trees which will be more or
less interesting according to the choice of materials in planting,
and the luxuriance with which they are grown. Glimpses may
also be seen from these points of the long lawn and the flower-
beds on the south side of the house. At F, over the gateway, we
would have a hemlock arch like some of those shown in Chapter
XIV. Standing under this arch, narrow openings between shrubs
and trees give a glimpse directly in front, margined by low beds of
flowers, of the fruit trees and vines that border the drive down to
the carriage-house front ; which should, of course, be designed to
form a pleasing centre of this vista. The views will also be pleas-
ing in every direction as one walks along towards the house. On
piss
Plate XIL N
.
—— RLSM aS = = — —$<—<
Ti leat er sable’ hei Uh GA
7 RAUL DET Tes Bae sista
H % Sede
Man ure H th Wedntinas Rasy, defi tihihatts «sah
Cow Wood
» J “= ! Rubbish
Coal oe
[
vard
S
¥
ri
c
a
PAROS OTA Pe
Area | pea Grape borden Leela a
Ba ee aa
Croquet
n nN
ground
AND GROUNDS. 179
the line G, H, between thirty and forty feet from the street, an
open line of lawn is maintained with a view to reciprocity of vistas
with the smaller front grounds of adjoining neighbors.
As remarked of the preceding plan, this design embraces too
much for verbal description, and should be planted after a well-
considered working plan. But there is one small feature to which
we would call attention, viz.: the triangular piece between the
entrance-road and turn-ways. This is marked to be planted with
fir trees, to grow into a dense mass, in order to counteract as far
as possible, by its shadows and the depth of its verdure, the bare
exposure of the surrounding roads. The centre tree should be
the Norway spruce, and the others surrounding it, hemlocks.
A careful examination of the plan will, we trust, supersede the
necessity of any further description.
hous DIO
An Inside Lot one hundred feet front, and one hundred and
sixty feet deep.
Reference was made to this plate in descriptions of Plates VIII
and IX, the house-plan and the lot, in form and size, being nearly
the same; this plan being an in-lot with no carriage-house and
stable, and the others being corner lots with these conveniences.
The lot here represented is supposed to have an alley on the
rear end, and to front on the south side of an east and west
street. This gives the bay-window front of the house a northern
exposure. A great advantage, in the outlook from the windows,
results from this exposure, viz.: that one sees the sunny-side of all
the shrubbery in the front grounds, and thus has the satisfaction
of finding his verdant pets always in a smiling humor. The
house is sixty feet from the front street, and about the same
depth in the rear end of the lot is devoted to the kitchen-
garden, fruits, and cow, wood and coal-house; this part be-
ing separated from the part devoted to lawn by a grape-trellis
and border. Near the street the neighbors’ lots are supposed
iso PLANS OF RESTDEN CES
to offer satisfactory openings where indicated by the upper dotted
lines on each side. The groups of shrubbery are placed so
as to illustrate many of the suggestions of the rules given in
Chapter XI. No long vista of lawn is possible, but the groups
and single specimens of shrubs or dwarf trees, with a few bedding-
plants and flower-beds, if properly chosen, and planted in con-
formity with the plan, and well grown, will hardly fail to make
a yard of superior attractiveness ; especially pleasing as seen
from the bay-windows ;—the arrangement having been made with
reference to the effect from them.
Description —Let us begin at the front-entrance gate, from
which a walk four feet wide leads straight to the veranda entrance,
and a walk three feet in width to the kitchen entrance. On
each side the front gate arbor-vitee trees (the Siberian) are desig-
nated, with low masses of evergreen shrubs between them and
the fence. An opening to a straight walk like this is especially
appropriate for a verdant arch, and if the proprietor has the
patience to grow one, the substitution of the hemlock for the arbor-
vitae is recommended. For an arch, the trees should not be planted
more than two feet away from the walk.
The only large trees on this plan are a pair of maples, about
twelve feet, diagonally, from the corners of the veranda and
main house respectively ; a white or Austrian pine on the right
border, four cherry trees in the right-side yard, and the pear trees
in the kitchen-garden department. The maples may be the purple-
leaved, and the golden-leaved varieties of the sycamore maple. A
hemlock screen or hedge bounds the croquet ground on the south ;
at the corner are a few Norway spruces ; next, in front, a group of
arbor-vitees ; then a.continuous hedge of the same for twenty feet,
terminated by a group of arbor-vites and yews chosen to exhibit
contrasts of color.
The group on the left, between the upper dotted lines, is to be
composed of a variety of strong growing common shrubs, with a
Lawson’s cypress or a Nordmanns fir, or the Chinese cypress,
Giypto-strobus sinensis, where the symbol of the arbor-vite is
shown. Towards the street from that tree we would put in ever-
green shrubs only.
AND GROUNDS. 181
The lilac group in front may embrace all the finest varieties of
that family—the common white and Charles the Tenth varieties
near the centre ; the chionanthus-leaved next towards the house ;
the Chinese red, Rothamagensis rubra, next; the Persian white,
Fersica alba, next; the dwarf, Syringa nana, at the point ; and the
Chinese purple and white for the two wings of the group. Near the
fence we would plant a few common bush honeysuckles, as the
dust from the street has a less injurious effect on their foliage than
on that of the lilacs.
The central front group, to the right of the lilac group, may
be :—a purple fringe tree nine feet from the fence, and in succes-
sion from it, towards the house, the pink-flowering honeysuckle,
Lonuera grandiflora, five feet from the fringe tree ; the Deutzia cre-
nata rubra, four feet further ; and at the point, the Deutza gracilis,
four feet from the latter. The shrub on the right may be Gordon’s
flowering currant.
The single small trees on each side the entrance, twelve feet
from the front, and fifteen feet from the middle of the walk, may
be, one the weeping silver-fir, and the other the weeping Norway
spruce, grown as slenderly as possible. ‘The shrubs towards the
fence, under and next to the fir tree on the right, may be hardy
varieties of dwarf evergreens or a bed of mahonias.
The group in the right-hand corner may have at its point
towards the house a bed for cannas, or other showy-leaved plants ;
next to it the Chinese purple magnolia ; back of that the AZagnolia
soulangeana, grown low, or a weeping Japan sophora, and between
it and the front, a bed of rhododendrons, or two or three mugho
pines; the projecting shrub on the left to be the dwarf white
pine, P. strobus compacta.
The side border, under and near to the large pine, we would
have a bed of rhododendrons ; next to these, towards the street,
the evergreen shrub, Cephalotaxus fortuni mascula, and for the point
in front of it, the golden yew. Along the fence, above the pine,
the border may be composed of the finest collection of hardy ever-
green shrubs that the proprietor can afford ; or, if they are too
expensive, or too long in developing their beauties, the border may
be made almost as satisfactory with common deciduous shrubs.
182 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
w
The groups in front of the veranda, between the cherry trees,
and those against the house, may be composed of shrubs which
are family favorites, or with annual and perennial flowering plants
of graded sizes. ‘The flower-beds adjacent to the main walk are
for low-growing plants only. The two small bushes behind the
flower-beds nearest the gate are to be, one the golden arbor-vite,
and the other the golden yew ; and in the rear of the next flower-
bed on the right, an Irish juniper is intended. Between the bay-
windows a weeping juniper, ~ oblonga pendula, or the weeping
Norway spruce, Adies e. iverta, may be planted, or the bed may be
occupied as described for Plate VIII. The beds directly in front
of the bay-windows can be different each year, with such plants
as some of the medium-sized cannas, the Wigandia caracasana,
the (Vicoteana atropurpurea grandifiora, and the Japanese maize
for the centre plant, and round, bushy-headed plants, like the
geraniums and the Coleus verschafelti, for the projecting parts of
the beds. .
Since the engraving has been completed, we perceive that the
kitchen department of this lot—that back of the grape-trellis—
might be more advantageously planned, but as we cannot now
correct it, the reader’s ingenuity must be exercised to improve it.
lear MOUUE
A Flan of the Grounds for a Commodious House with a side-entrance
porch, on an Inside Lot having a front of one hundred and sixty
Jeet on the street, and a depth of three hundred and eight feet.
The front of the main veranda of the house is seventy feet
from the street ; the distance from the porch-front to the side of
the lot is sixty-five feet, and the space between the house and the
right-hand side of the lot is forty feet. This is a very desirable
form of lot. It allows of a long reach of lawn on the entrance-side,
and sufficient openness on all sides to be in keeping with so large
a house ; while there is ample room for stable and carriage-house
conveniences, fruit trees, and a vegetable garden.
Plate XMl
Manure
SALsLIVYIN] TF , Pun _
Sanlagdeny : yi
Yard
a
Drying
en) ra
100 ft. OS
90
80
AND GROUNDS. 183
This is the first plan that shows a residence with its carriage-
porch and main entrance on the side—an arrangement that econo-
mizes space to great advantage on narrow lots, and enables the
architect to have more liberty in the arrangement and exposure of
the principal rooms, and to make more pleasing views from their
windows over-the grounds.* It will be seen that the turn-way of the
carriage-road is partly back of the house, around a circular grass
plat twenty feet in diameter, in the centre of which is a pine tree.
The drive turns close to the back veranda, where a platform-step is
provided for easy ingress and egress from carriages. ‘This is likely
to be the carriage-porch of the family when unaccompanied by
friends. Beyond the turn, the road is straight along the trellised
boundary of the kitchen-garden, and widens with abundant space in
front of the carriage-house. Near the rear of the lot are a few
cherry and peach trees ; back of the drying-yard and kitchen are
others. A row of pear trees on the left of the main drive are
enough to furnish a summer and autumn supply of this delicious
fruit; while in other portions of the grounds, apples and crab-
apple trees may be introduced as parts of groups. Of the small
fruits the garden plan shows an ample provision.
The purely decorative portion of the place may be in part de-
scribed as follows:—beginning at the carriage-entrance. This starts
from the middle of the opening between two street trees, and is
flanked on either side simply by a pair of trees of any fine variety
of elms or maples, chestnuts, horse-chestnuts, oaks or beeches, to be
planted ten feet from the fence, and the same distance from the
drive. While they are young the ground for a radius of six feet
around them should be kept in cultivation, and planted on its outer
margin with such deciduous shrubs as flowering-currants, purple
berberries, variegated-leaved elder, privet, glossy-leaved viburnum,
common bush honeysuckles, or whatever else will grow in partial
shade, not exceeding six or seven feet in height, and with branches
bending to the grass. When the trees are ten or fifteen years
* We cannot commend this house plan as particularly adapted to the lot. The plan for the
grounds grew up around the house as athing already fixed. The latter is designed to meet
the wants of a man of “‘ bookish” tastes, as well as wealth, who needs a fine library-room separate
from the family room.
184 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
planted, all these must be removed. Or the groups of. shrubbery
around these trees may be composed entirely of rhododendrons if
the proprietor can afford it. The group to the left, adjoining the
neighbor-lot, is intended as a continuation of the group around the
left-hand gateway tree, and may be composed of similar shrubs of
larger growth. The two small pine trees farther up on the left,
marked 1, are to be the mugho and dwarf white pines—the latter
towards the house. The group of shrubs (2) between these and
the carriage-way, and near the latter, should be choice small hardy
evergreens—say, for the centre, the weeping juniper, F% oblonga
pendula, or the erect yew, Zaxus erecta; each side of this, on a line
parallel with the road, and three feet from the centre, the golden
arbor-vite, and the golden yew; at the ends, and three feet from
the latter, plant the dwarf silver-fir, Picea pectinata compacta, and
the dwarf spruce, Ades gregoriana. Outside the line of these,
and midway of the spaces between them, plant the pygmy spruce,
the dwarf black spruce, the dwarf Swedish juniper, the juniper
repanda densa, the trailing juniper repens, and the Daphne
cneorum. ‘The first pair of fir trees on the left, next the fence (3),
may be, one the Norway, and the other the oriental spruce. The
border along the fence is to be of hemlocks ; the next pair of firs
(4) may be the cephalonian fir, nearest the fence, and the Nord-
manns fir ten feet in advance of it. The pine tree (5) opposite the
bay-window of the room marked S, is improperly placed there. It
should be fifteen feet further towards the front of the lot; and is
intended for the Bhotan pine. The two small trees on the left (6),
opposite the turn-circle, are a pair of Judas trees. The group of
four trees next the fence (7) may be a pair of sassafras in the
middle ; a weeping Japan sophora nearest the house, and the
white-flowering dogwood farthest from the house. An _ under-
growth nearest to the fence may be made with the red-twigged dog-
wood, Cornus alba, the flowering-currants, and the variegated-leaved
elder ; and the border continued to the rear corner with common
and well-known shrubs. No. 8 is for a Kolreuteria paniculata,
connected by overarching shrubs with the side-border,; 9 is a
weeping beech ; ro, 10, masses of hemlocks ; the tree in the far
corner an Austrian pine; 11 a white pine, and behind it an
AND GROUNDS. 185
Austrian pine; and hemlocks and white pines fill the border
towards the carriage-house.
On the right of the lawn the fruit trees are sufficiently symbol-
ized. At 12,a purple beech; at 13, a group of the choicest shrubs
increasing in size as they recede from the house. For the point
nearest the carriage-road the Andromeda floribunda is well suited ;
eighteen inches behind it the Deutza gracilis; the same distance
from that, two plants side by side and one foot apart from the A/o-
dodendron roseum eegans ; then pairs of plants of rhododendrons
in the following order, A. album candidissima, R. grandiflorum
gloriosum ; and beyond them, for the end of the bed, Sargent’s
hemlock, or the pendulous Norway spruce, 4. ¢. imverta; or,
the weeping silver-fir, Picea p. pendula. ‘The group at the turn of
the carriage-road, and on a line with the pear trees, may be com-
posed of any good common shrubs of large size, being careful to
place those which grow bare at the bottom in the rear of those
whose foliage bends gracefully to the ground. The bed adjoining
the rear veranda is for the choice small pet-flowers of the lady
of the house, whatever they may be.
On the front, the large tree to the right of the carriage-road,
nearest the house, is intended for the cut-leaved weeping birch,
or a pair of them planted but a few feet apart. At 14 may bea
single plant of the old red tartarian honeysuckle, grown in rich
ground and allowed to spread upon the lawn. At 15, on the
end towards the house, a Japan weeping sophora grafted not
more than seven feet high ; in the middle, on the side towards
the street, the Andromeda arborea; and on either side of that
the Deutzias crenata alba, and Crenata rubra. At 16, towards
the house, the broad-leaved strawberry tree Hvonymus latifo-
dius; on the left of the group the Wegela rosea; four feet to
the right of it the Weigela amadatis; four feet to the right again,
the Weigela arborea grandiflora; and at the right end of the
group, the great-leaved snow-ball, Viburnum machrophyllum; and
between these and the strawberry tree, the dwarf snow-ball, 7-
burnum anglicum. At 17 plant the great-leaved magnolia, JZ.
machrophyllum. At 18 we would make a flat pine tree arch over
the gateway, as suggested in Chapter XIV. At 19 is a bed of
186 PLANS OF RESIDENCES.
shrubs that should be always in high condition, as it is conspicu-
ous from every point of view. We will suggest for its point
nearest the house the Sfirea callosa alba; then the Deutzia gra-
cilis ; next, two feet from the former, the Spzrea reevesi flore plena ;
next (in the middle line of the bed), the Sperea callosa fortunit, with
a Daphne cneorum on each side of it to cover its nakedness near
the ground ; and for the end of the bed nearest the entrance-gate,
the Chinese red, or the Chinese purple magnolia. Or this bed
may be filled with evergreen shrubs or shrubby trees alone, as
follows: for the point nearest the house, the Daphne cneorum ; near,
and behind it, the Andromeda floribunda ; next, two feet from the
former, a pair of rhododendrons, Roseum elegans and Album can-
didissima ; next, in the middle, a single rhododendron, g/oriosum,
with a rhododendron, everestianum, on each side of it ; next, in the
centre line of the bed, the Cephalotaxus fortunit mascula; and for
the end of the bed next the street the golden yew, or the golden
arbor-vite. No. 20 is the weeping juniper, Od/onga pendula ; 21 is
a grand rose-bed; 22, a belt of common shrubs; 23, an Irish
juniper; 24, a Swedish juniper; 25, Siberian arbor-vites, con-
tinued as a high hedge around to 26, where it is terminated by a
Nordmanns fir. In the centre of the semicircle which this hedge
is intended to describe, and on a line with the centre of the dining-
room, is to be an elegant vase for flowers ; and four circular beds
for low brilliant flowers are intended to make the view from the
bay-window more pleasing. The very small shrubs at the corners
of that bay-window represent Irish junipers.
The flower-beds in this plan need not be described in detail.
Quite a number of vases are marked on the plan, but they are not
essential to the good effect of the planting, though pleasing addi-
tions if well chosen and well filled. |
Fig. 43 is a view of the house on this plan, taken from a point
on the street line fifty or sixty feet to the left of this lot, looking
across a portion of the neighbor-lot, and its light division fence.
The architect having kindly furnished a sketch of the house with-
out any reference to the grounds, we have endeavored to sketch
the sylvan features as shown on the ground-plan, from the same
point of view ; but it is quite impossible in small engravings to do
Bice Ain:
ages
sid
Wu Bi
188 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
justice to the pleasing effects of such plantations. Photographic
views occasionally give exquisite effects of parts of embellished
grounds, but even these fail to convey a correct impression of the
accessories of the central point of view. It is quite certain that a
place planted (and well kept) in the manner indicated by this plate
and description, will be far prettier than any picture of it that can
be engraved.
PLaTES XIV anp XV.
Two Methods of Planting a small Corner Lot.
In these two plates we desire to illustrate two modes of treat-
ing a village corner lot of fifty feet front, where the small depth of
the lot, or other circumstances, requires the house to be placed
quite near the front street. ‘The house plans resemble each other
in form, though it will be seen that the one on Plate XIV is set
but five steps above the level of the ground, and has its kitchen
and dining-room on the main floor, while the plan on Plate XV
is a city basement house, with kitchen and dining-room under the
bed-room and parlor, the main floor being raised ten steps above
the street. The two ground plans (by which we mean plans of
the grounds) differ essentially in this, that the first has one side-
wall of the house directly on the street, so as to throw its narrow
Strip of lawn, and embellishments, on the inside of the lot, away
from the side-street ; while on Plate XV the entire length of the
house on that side is supposed to be a party-wall, as if it were
part of a block, or one of a pair of houses.
GrounD PLAN oF PLATE XIV.—The veranda front is but
eight feet from the street. Unless the approach-steps are of a
character less plain than those shown on the plan, little can be
done to decorate this narrow space. The veranda can be covered
with vines, and a strip three feet wide in front of it may be de-
voted to choice flowers; but we would advise to have nothing
there but the vines and the lawn. On each side the steps we
would plant either the tree-box, the golden yew; the golden arbor-
STREET.
SIDE
» Plate XIV
Paved Yard
x s
Sh Dee
SAAT NT
ge
t
MMi er
SSSSSSSF
SS
|
Dining Room
ZA Yd
Wc pea
>
2
dq
SSE AO eeermeeeeeneeres SS Sy SSSI
Bed Room ae
Uy,
7
WWW:
|
Bee
ae | SAME | } LMLLEME LLL
UMW » TTT LW
if
ee:
0 2 4 6 8 0 12 1% 16 % 30
Scale 16 feet 1 Inch.
Gj a 8
FRONT STREET.
a ’
ag
Be
oh
atin
iy"
a uae
AND GROUNDS. 189
vita, or the arborescent English ivy. If the front were to the
north or east, and the soil a moist, friable loam, a very elegant
sylvan arch might be made in time by planting six hemlock trees ;
two in the corners just described, and four inside the gate—two
on each side, and but a foot apart, as shown by the dots at a, a.
Two of these could be made to grow into an arch over the gate,
and the others to form two arches at right angles to the first, on
each side of the walk. This would only be practicable, however,
in case the town authorities will allow the trees nearest the gate
to develop into the street ; but with four feet additional width in
front of the veranda, it would be feasible without such privilege.
In the left corner of the front, a Siberian arbor-vita screen is
intended. The veranda on the left is intended to be partially
inclosed between the posts with lattice-work, and covered with
vines—there being just room enough between the veranda-founda-
tion and the street liné for the protection of their roots.
Let us now turn to the narrow lawn-strip on the right ; a space
but twenty feet wide and seventy feet deep to the arch-entrance
of the grape-arbor and kitchen-garden on a line with the rear of
the house. Midway of this strip the bay-window projects. The
two objects to be kept in view in laying out this bit of a lawn
are, first, to make the most pleasing out-look from the bay-
window ; and, second, the most pleasing in-look from the street.
It is assumed that there is no desirable connection to be made
with the lot on the right, so that a fence necessarily bounds
the view on that side. We must suppose also that there is no
house built, or likely to be built, up to that line, otherwise it would
not be sensible to place the house on the street-side of the lot, but
rather in the manner shown by Plate XV.
The close fence, back to opposite the bay-window, should be
covered with English ivy if it can be made to grow there. Unless
the exposure is due south, there ought to be little difficulty in
getting the ivy to cover the fence if the owner will take the trouble
to have it thatched over with straw on the approach of winter,
and the base well mulched. A fence in such a place, if of wood,
must be a neat piece of work, and well painted. Ivy will not
creep up painted wood. We would therefore make a kind of
190 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
trellis from post to post on the inside of the fence, and put down
small sticks with the bark on, by the side of the ivy roots. These
should be inside the trellis-bars, and reach nearly to the top of the
fence, and be fastened there. The plants will readily climb these
sticks and soon hide them from sight. In a few seasons, if they
have been safely preserved through the first winter,* the branch-
ing arms of the ivy will extend over the bars of the trellis, and
by their radiating growth soon weave a self-sustaining wall of
verdure. By the time the barky sticks decay, the ivy will have
no need of their support. ‘This ivy-wall being the right flank of
our little lawn, it is essential that it be well planted.
At the street front of this lawn are two Siberian arbor-vites 4, 4,
shown on the plan of a size they are likely to attain in about five
years after planting. Doubtless at first these alone will leave the
front too open, but in ten years they will be all this part of the
place will require.
To return to the lawn: ¢ is the weeping juniper, 7 oblonga
pendula; ad, an Irish juniper; ¢, a pendulous Norway spruce,
Abies e. inverta; f, a golden arbor-vite ; g, the weeping silver-fir,
Picea pectinata pendula; on one side of the latter may be planted
the dwarf silver-fir, Picea pectinata compacta, and on the other the
Picea hudsonica. The dotted circle projecting into the lawn in
front of the arbor-vitee is for any showy bulbous or bedding-plants
which will not spread much beyond the limits of the bed. At 4,
plant Parson’s American arbor-vitee, Zhuwja occidentalis compacta ; at
z, another pendulous Norway spruce ; in front of it a vase ; at /, &,
and /, three bushy rhododendrons ; or, the golden yew, Zaxus
aurea, the erect yew, Taxus erecta, and the juniper, Repanda
densa. At m, Sargent’s hemlock, Adies canadensis inverta; n, An-
dromeda floribunda and Daphne cneorum. Ato and 2, plant a pair
of Deutzia gracilis, or showy bedding plants, or fine conservatory
plants in boxes, buried ;—plants of gorgeous foliage to be pre-
ferred: back of 0, the weeping arbor-vitee ; at Z, the purple-leaved
berberry ; 9, Weigela amabalis ; r, r,r, 7, Irish or Swedish junipers.
* The first winter or two, these sticks may be turned down along the fence with the ivy upon
them for greater ease in protecting the latter.
AND GROUNDS. 191
Near the arch entering the garden, two Bartlett pear trees may be
substituted for them; but in this case the grape vines on the
trellis will be rendered barren as soon as the trees grow to shade
them. As the pear trees will probably furnish the most valuable
crop and form a not inappropriate feature, there will be no impro-
priety in using them. The plants for the side of the house will
depend somewhat on its exposure. The following list will do for
any but a north exposure. From ¢, back to the bay-window, a
selection of the finest low-growing monthly roses, alternated with
Salvia fulgens or splendens, or with any of a thousand beautiful
annuals or perennials of low compact growth. At the inner angle
of the bay-window a group of five rhododendrons ; 2. grandifiorum
in the corner, and four of the best dwarf sorts around it, will be
appropriate. Ifthe exposure of this wall is to the north, we would
cover it with the superb native of our woods, the Virginia creeper
or American ivy. At s, the old bush honeysuckle, Lovicera tar-
tarica. Under the middle window of the bay make a narrow bed
for mignonette and heliotrope. At 4 the Deutsia crenata alba and
crenata rubra flore plena planted side by side so as to intermingle
their growth ; at w, the lilac S. rothmagensis ; at w, the variegated-
leaved tree-box ; at x, Spireas reevesi flore plena and callosa, together ;
at y, the Weigela rosea. ‘This completes a selection for this lawn-
border. Different selections as good or better may doubtless be
made by persons versed in such matters. While the evergreens
recommended for the right-hand border are small, tall gay-blos-
somed plants may be used to fill the bed. If the occupant desires
a quick and showy return for his planting, the evergreen shrubs
which we have named for this fence-border may be too slow in
their growth to suit ; and the fine varieties of lilacs, honeysuckles,
weigelas, deutzias, spireas, syringas, and snow-balls may be sub-
stituted.
The veranda that opens from the dining-room has some flowers
at its base, vines on its posts, a lilac-bush at z on the right of the
steps, and a compact hedge of Siberian arbor-vitas on the left to
screen the kitchen-yard from observation. The trees near the
gate may in time be made to overarch it. The grape-trellis
should finish with an arch over this’ entrance to the garden. The
192 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
tree 7, in the garden, is an Irish juniper, which is so slender that
its shade is not likely to injure the grape vines.
We have considered these grounds too small to introduce any
trees, not even fruit trees ; but of small fruits the garden may have
a good supply.
Piate XV.—There being no bed-room projection on the side
of the house, the lawn is seven feet wider than on the preceding
design. The house being a city basement plan, with a high porch,
the entrance is designed with more architectural completeness.
The street margin of the lot is supposed to stand twenty-one
inches above the level of the sidewalk, with a stone wall all
around, the coping of which is to have its upper side level with
the lawn next to it, and to be surmounted by a low iron fence.
The front porch (designed for iron) is approached by three stone
steps on the street line, landing on a stone platform 4 x 6. The
side walls of the steps to the porch form vase pedestals. The
walk to the basement is fourteen inches below the level of the
lawn, and seven inches above the street sidewalk. At the angles
of the basement area wall, the copings are squared for the recep-
tion of vases. The rear walk, from the side street, rises by two
steps on the street line, so that it will be below the level of the
lawn for ten or fifteen feet from the gate. The ground should rise
about one foot from the fence to the house.
For the benefit of readers not very familiar with the study of
house-plans, some explanation may be necessary to an understand-
ing of the back-stair arrangement on this plan, which will be
found quite simple and convenient. The dining-room being in
the basement, broad stairs lead down to it from the main hall.
Servants may come up these stairs from the basement, and go
into the second story by the back stairs from the passage (which
also opens into the library-room) without entering the hall or
the living-rooms of the main floor. If it is considered essential
to have a direct communication between the bed-room and the
basement, a private stairway may be made from the closet, under
the back stairway.
The library is to have a glazed door (glazed low) to enter the
} Sa) Yili MLL TELL, LLL LL ll [LG LALLA y
=5 came
LILI IL LILLTVD LTD
Plate XV.
aw ALAC
y
SS
WLLL
iS S
y SSS
WAAR RR
y
Md
LAAULS AdIS
70 12 14 1 18 20
le 16 feet. 1 ireh.
6 &
Sea
4
| res
if to Se Bae,
& aisle
A aff ante -
Maik!
ibe roe
** ry 5 ir 4
‘at BO,
jg
ae ‘eke y'
ie LUSTY VND
alt Chores Se
AND GROUNDS. 193
side veranda. Through this a pretty perspective down the garden-
walk will be seen. More space being devoted to lawn in the rear
of this house than on the preceding plan, three cherry trees are
introduced there.
The best frontage for this place would be to the north, giving
the open side of the house an eastern exposure. A front to the
east or the south would not be objectionable, as the side lawn and
lookout from the house would still be sunny ; but if the house were
to front to the west, then the open side would be to the north—
an uncheerful exposure, that ought to be avoided where possible.
The verdant embellishment for the ground may be as follows :
first, four vases filled with flowers, two by the side of the main
steps, and two on the area coping. The former should be the
more elegant forms. At a, is an Irish juniper (which should be sct
a foot or two farther from the walk) ; at 4, a group consisting of
a Lilac rothamagensis in the middle, and the double white and
double pink-flowering deutzias on each side of it; or of the Weigela
amabalis in the centre, with the common tartarian bush honey-
suckle on one side, and the pink-flowering deutzia on the other.
These are expected to expand freely over the fence and sidewalk.
At ¢, Sargent’s hemlock ; at d, a weeping Norway spruce (zzverta) ;
at ¢,a dwarf white pine (compacta) ; at f, the erect yew, Zaxus
erecta ; g, g, Parson’s arbor-vite and the golden yew; at 4%, the
weeping silver-fir, Picea p. pendula; at 2, the Japan podocarpus,
in the climate of Cincinnati, and the golden arbor-vite farther
north. At 7, another weeping Norway spruce ; at &, the Cephal-
taxus fortunii mascula nearest the street, and the weeping arbor-vitze
on the side towards the house. At 4 Nordmanns fir, Picea nord-
maniana ; from Z to 0, a screen of Sargent’s hemlock ; m, weeping
juniper, ¥. oblonga pendula; n, Siberian arbor-vite ; 0, the pendu-
lous red-cedar, $ wirginiana pendula; p, the weeping silver-fir ;
g, the weeping Norway spruce, Adzes e. mverta. A hemlock
screen to be continued along the street line from g across the walk,
so that the two trees nearest the gate may in time form an arch
over it. At 7, near the front of the house, may be the dwarf
Hudson’s Bay fir, Picea hudsonica, or the low dwarf silver-fir, Picea
pectinata compacta, or the slender Irish juniper. The shrubs near
13
194 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
the house-wall may be low-growing roses, or rhododendrons alter-
nated with the scarlet salvia among them. In the inner angles of the
bay-window, if of brick, we would have the English ivy, or the
Virginia creeper ; if of wood, then some rhododendron of medium
height, and around them at y and z, compact masses of the smallest
sorts ; or one side may be more quickly filled with a single pink
deutzia, and the other with a tartarian bush honeysuckle. The
shrubs at the corner of the rear veranda may be the Chinese sub-
evergreen honeysuckle on the post ; a Swedish juniper next to it ;
and the erect yew, the golden yew, and the golden arbor-vitee
around the juniper.
The materials for the flower-beds s, 4, u, v, w, x, need not be
specified in detail.
The border back of the rear walk represents currant bushes.
It might better be a grape-trellis.
PLATE XVI.
A large Mansion on an In-Lot of two hundred feet front by three
hundred and forty feet deep.
This house is, in size, much above the average of suburban
homes, and the area of the lot is sufficient to harmonize with the
mansion-character of the house.* The arrangement of the drive-
way is quite simple. The house being placed nearly in the middle
of the width of the lot, and the stable, vegetable-garden, and
orchard, occupying the rear third of the length of it, there is not an
extent of lawn in proportion to the depth of the lot; the ground
design being in this respect inferior to that of Plate XI, where a
lot forty feet shorter has a lawn much longer. The difference is
mainly in the greater extent of the orchard, the vegetable-garden
and the stable yard on the plan now under consideration ; and the
different positions of the mansion and the stable on the respective
* The vignette at the head of Chapter VI is from a drawing of this house, kindly furnished
by the architect, R. W. Bunnell, Esq., of Bridgeport, Conn., but the grounds as there shown are
not intended to illustrate this plan.
Plate ‘XVI.
c
is
Ly
ay
oye
5S
<
res and Blackberries.
“SILLLGYIVIT PUD SItsaqdsoey SoD)
+
Orchard
PAIN
BEES
Yard
Stable
Bia
Librar
‘he
200
90
it}
_—
;
rT
dy a cal
j ee it ee sat i
‘ola tooce baile) Saat
it of Sie entodt tego
nol oben Sih Bie
nettasiionn” ett tis ion
& oO} bovis ei ang
Inupe an IG
fi sat
: progres
Hae Sognot 1g n Br:
gg Sa 16. fobs unde iv
“silo sdb may oa
loch stat Bo bastart toa
yossibe odk Weds teat
vito Sitar Ssltagks
i ftore hb Sag. Shgag
aie
iyqernends ol gan-Thpi's 16.9
f g920% StS Mbit) wilt 12 Aatiok
200) Gat
pete sisnemreq 1G
_eoare Alea qs te
remy. Dru toden as elven? sigue lA.
amines ac ah etaigas dnile 3 220
25h) fodidgion Zar aspoewee
10 A pie (tim sabage: ods
oh oth, wo”: eroliglvaa:
Sind crcl lie Sgethegos ye
ht. dSo) fesd brig” Saif toh.
penshy gitira bouralg qT:
4a Ses shee
AND GROUNDS. 195
lots. The design of Plate XI is for a front to the east; the house
is therefore placed near the north side of the lot, the exposures of
the principal rooms are to the east, south, and west, and the views
out of them are made longer and nobler by thus crowding the
house and all its utilitarian appendages towards that side. The
present plan is suited to a lot having a frontage to the south, and
the plan calls for an equally good exposure for the rooms on both
sides of the house. The liberal space allowed for orchard, vegeta-
ble-garden and stable-yard necessarily deprives the ground of the
fine air that longer and broader stretches of unbroken lawn pro-
duce; but each of the principal rooms having exposures differing
essentially from the others, the variety of views must atone for their
want of extent.
The carriage-entrances to this place are shown nearer to the
corners than they should be. On so broad a front there should be
twenty feet instead of ten, between the drive at the entrances and
the nearest part of the adjacent lots. Premising this alteration to
be made in the plan, the only change in the planting would be that
the trees B, C, and I, J, shall be planted nearer together, and more
nearly at right-angles, than parallel, with the front of the lot. The
capital letters on the plan are used. to designate the larger class of
trees of a permanent character, and the small letters, the shrubs
and very small trees.
Though this is an in-lot, and generally margined by high fences
and close plantations, one opening on each side has been left to
give views across neighbor-lots which are supposed to warrant
it. If the reader will follow on the plan we will select trees and
shrubs as follows: on the left of the left-hand gate as we enter
may be a weeping willow, midway between the drive and the ad-
joining lot line, and ten feet from the front. The margin, 4, 4, is
to be planted with a dense mass of fine common shrubs, or left
more open, accordingly as the neighbor-lot at that point is pleas-
ing or the reverse. B, is a golden willow ; and C, a weeping birch.
All these trees grow with great rapidity. D, may be a weeping
beech ; E, a group of three sassafras trees ; F (nearest the house),
the Kolreuteria paniculata; F (nearest the street), the purple-leaved
sycamore maple; G (northwest of the bed-room), the golden-leaved
196 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
sycamore maple ; H (though it is not so marked), we would pre-
fer to make a pair of pines, the Austrian and the white, the former
in the rear of the latter. The pine tree directly west of the bed-
room may be either the white, Austrian, Bhotan, or Pyrenean,
the two latter being the most interesting, but of uncertain lon-
gevity. Beginning at the right-hand front entrance, J, K, may be
Scotch weeping elms, and I, the Scamston elm. The shrubbery at
and near the entrance is for effect during the first ten years after
planting, and to be removed when the elms shadow that entrance
sufficiently. At L, plant a Kolreuterta paniculata; at M, the
paulonia; at N and O, weeping birches; at P, the Magnolia
machrophylla ; at Q, Nordmanns fir; at R, a Magnolia tripetata ;
at S, the weeping beech; at T, a white or Austrian pine; at U, a
hemlock screen; at V, a group of Norway spruces. ‘The fruit trees
on the plan may be known by their symbols.
Of shrubbery and shrubby trees the middle group (unlettered)
near the front is the most important, as it is visible from almost
every point of view in and near the grounds. Measured on the
curved line of its centre, it is fifty feet in length, and may be made
an artistic miniature arboretum of choice things, either evergreens
or deciduous ; but should be all one or the other, on its upper
outline ; though the wder-shrubs may be deciduous and evergreen
mingled. In either case its arrangement should be planned, and
its materials selected by a skillful gardener. It is impracticable, in
the limits of this work, to present the working details for such
groups on a scale that can be readily followed ; we therefore
merely suggest that the centre should be made with something
that will not exceed twenty feet in height at maturity, and the
group should diminish in height at the sides, so that the points
may be occupied by interesting dwarfs that may be overlooked by
persons passing on the sidewalk.
The shrubberies at a, and 4, 4, 4, d, d, and ¢, are simply masses
of the good old syringas, lilacs, honeysuckles, snow-balls, currants,
altheas, and the newer weigelas, deutzias, spireas, and other shrubs,
which may be arranged in a hundred different ways to give the
foliage and forms of each a good setting.
The small tree at ¢ may be the American red- bud « or Judas tree,
AND GROUNDS. 197
Cercis canadensis; at f, Magnolia conspicua ; at g, Magnolia mach-
' rophylla; at h, amass of hemlocks ; at z,a pair of weeping Japan
sophoras ; and behind them the white-flowering dogwood, the
broad-leaved euonymus, and the variegated-leaved elder; at 7, a
Norway spruce in front of a hemlock hedge ; at & (near the front
veranda), a dwarf white pine in the centre, the Hudson’s Bay fir on
one side, and the dwarf silver-fir, Picea pectinata compacta, on the
other. While these are small, fill in between them with low com-
pact rhododendrons. At 7 and m, Austrian pines headed back
from time to time to force a dense growth; at 2, , 2, a belt of
hemlocks and arbor-vites ; 0, Sargent’s hemlock ; 4, the weeping
juniper, ¥. oblonga pendula, or the Indian catalpa. The shrubbery
adjoining the house on the east side may be composed largely of
rhododendrons ; on the west side, of shrubs and bedding-plants
that flourish in great light and heat.
The rose-bed adjoining the front middle group may be omitted
without detriment to the plan, and a smaller rose-bed made in the
triangle formed by the intersecting branches of the carriage-road,
where a vase is marked, for which a rose-post may be substituted.
Besides the climbing roses to be planted one on each side of the
post, there will be room in this triangle for three compact rose-
bushes.
The flower-beds and vases shown on the plan need no explana-
tion to the intelligent reader.
We desire to call the reader’s attention to the fact that this
house-plan, and the size and form of the lot, are precisely the same
as in Plate XVII, following ; but the lots have different exposures,
the houses are placed quite differently on them, and the ground
designs are totally changed to suit the circumstances. A com-
parison of the two is a good study.
198 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
PuatTeE XVII.
A large Mansion occupying one end of a Block, with streets on three
sides, and an alley on the fourth.
Having already called the reader’s attention to the identity of
this house-plan with that of Plate XVI, and to the fact that the
lots are of the same size and form, but otherwise differently cir-
cumstanced, we will briefly sketch the peculiarities of this design.
The lot is 200 x 340 feet. It is supposed to be desirable that the
house should front on the street that occupies the long side of the
lot. The house and stable conveniences occupy so much room,
that if the house were thrown back to introduce a carriage-road to
the front steps, it would be crowded close to the alley ; and even
then the drive would be so short as to belittle the noble char-
acter of the house and lot. ‘The mansion is, therefore, placed
so far towards the front that its entrance porch is but forty
feet from the street; a carriage-road to the front is dispensed
with, and a broad straight foot-walk alone conducts to the front
steps. The private carriage-entrance is by a straight road from
the side street to the steps of the back veranda, and the coach-
yard ; and the family can get into their vehicles there, or in
front, at their option. For visitors, a landing on the side-
walk is quite convenient enough tothe front door for all ordinary
occasions.
It will be seen at a glance that the distribution and arrange-
ment of the useful and the decorative parts of this plan are un-
usually convenient and beautiful ; and that a place carried out in
conformity to it would produce a more elegant effect, with the
same materials and expense, than the plan of Plate XVI. This
difference is not to be attributed to the greater street exposure of
this plan, or to the different position of the house on the lot, which
the surrounding streets necessitate ; but is principally the result
of a more happy distribution of the several parts. It would be
dificult to plan with greater economy in the use of space. But
the form and exposure of the lot on the plate alluded to, will
ta)
16}
Co) ts} fe fe) fe is
F
1) OOL
ee COPE TEST RETESET SY
Ps
fitasehaslasi hides heiatidoea ed Mabe
oe
1) 4 Z
E E
. E
2: Se enreb eect fitter Piper eMC, fled tor erent, rans fia oer
fy 3
ie
By)
5 |
TEESE ara ae SRELARARBADSSAAAAAARARRARADAR SALSA!
UI ppt Yr)
Ika eo aie
Wealy.
| = IDG XIV) |
SPD AALIY)
Wy) sarzsaqgdsny Sosiye AN i
svi
ay
te! Is} & 1c) i)
fel
Po oe so Bo oe.
we * Dus ~ Sy
: Ga LS I ee ae
PPONM JY IUDIDUT POVDILLD)
SPIN PORE SIDA LT 7 P41)
&
.
°
s
.
.
.
°
.
e
.
°
PAPYILG MPI BP YIDIG APIS
Sper ew
.
SPUDALNY)
i MIM WG NM PLL Y YO LY ¥ SODLLIGASOY Nile RG,
TAX OM
= =
VB
a arre Siaeri sth ness
A Ae
. . (OV BS rey FARE Ht Snbesq |
: ros SOs EITEE Sats sata Oh
ot ifthe ry Xx ste! no beam
dk tadléw-tootFo Bn
Sial zy VEIBSE
iL avrode et
‘ folk aericusle ¥
( ere)
jo wiv s Mio at
shag GoM isd oat Agia soles ie :
: ly (omsanayis iota ue |
ef etal ST “salitit Eis i
° \ tise os Bb | out ittests re dies:
‘ 1 riz id iuomtiy ‘saobodings
ie ies al Me ee Bath Be
| rsh lap P: Si¥le +i onl tostieadiay
z 5 t Ade the ¥ stipe cdf sdnateds aid pone
* 59 80 efresl: out
6 neta | 2 Svatt bsaknide FOR ait 7
as .
. dingIgd zich bioysd Yaw ass xy 1
) . ban ci,
‘ : ioiid> er fered ony to ong
; ith ti L) SLL pula ys we yteddiite V6
seat bie shastey ori to: le
af
2 | Soutel ey 16 iHOx1 Of Oeste Teh fy ont
7 * sp ie ol gurttte side te ;
ri sls. tape bgt ea Gtt STabIqod
.. Sina mga od Jom yam sablqeente =
ooh, SOT Bt ee
: , 5 .»eved Sy ston node Se et Jk
; is 1 el) of SORNm 8 aid postianina oat
7 fin tt “s ved: ree aisvule adt mo /t9
” di “cel | i eto Shade adi *
= JesW 905i 98 30
tt Yc) aden ijoofon: ee a gatwollat
~ithire if) bile 20473 5 on bobs ovat {stig '
=. ee
- f
¥ cf “ys ele ie
Tf
AND GROUNDS. 199
permit of modifications in the arrangement of its parts that for
some persons might prove improvements.
To offset the greater length of carriage-road which the lot as
planned on Plate XVI exhibits, this plan calls for a much greater
length of foot-walks. In vegetable garden and orchard ground, the
two plans are nearly equal. ‘This one, however, lacks a stable-
yard, that is shown in the former ; which may be provided, if
needed, by placing the carriage-house directly in the rear of the
residence, and enclosing a space between the former and the
vegetable-garden. If this were done, however, it would be neces-
sary to cut off a view of the coach-yard from the main hall looking
through the back veranda.
A peculiar arrangement of shrubbery will be observed in front
of the house. The latter being close to the street, it is desirable
to cover it from too close and continuous observation of the passer-
by, as far as can be done without belittling the main entrance way,
or crowding shrubbery close to the veranda. The walk opening,
on the street line, is sixteen feet wide—the gate being in a bay.
For this distance the entire front of the house, as well as charming
vistas of the lawns on each side, are in full view; and the im-
pression of the place obtained here would be the finest. But
passing either way, beyond this opening, along the sidewalk, the
lower part of the house is entirely concealed by the two diverging
masses of shrubbery, a, a, which, while they thus act as a partial
screen of the veranda and lower windows, open out so as to leave
a fine expanse in front of the house in lawn, vases, and flowers.
Two horse-chestnut trees at the points of these groups will make
an appropriate flanking for the front entrance.
Though this plan may not be impracticable whatever the point
of the compass its front faces, yet the most beautiful interior ef-
fects—that is, as seen from the house, and within the grounds—
will be realized by a frontage to the north; while the best effect
as seen from the streets will be produced bya frontage to the
south—either a north or south front being better for this plan than
one to the east or west.
The following is one selection of trees and shrubs for the
place—the capital letters indicating the large trees, and the small
200 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
letters the inferior trees and shrubbery. A and B are the purple-
leaved and the golden-leaved sycamore maples; C, the weeping
willow; D, the weeping beech; E and F, the common and the
cut-leaved weeping birches ; G, the ginkgo or Salisburia tree ; H,
the purple-leaved beech ; I, the Kolreuteria paniculata ; J, J, the
red-flowering, and the double white-flowering horse-chestnuts ;
K, K, a pair of pines in each place—the Bhotan (exce/sa) and
white pine in one, and the Bhotan and Austrian in the other—-to
be planted six feet apart, the Bhqtan on the north side in both
cases ; L, white pine; M, Austrian pine; on the right of N, the
weeping Norway spruce; and on the left, the Cembran pine, or
(south of New York and near the sea) the cypress, Glypto-strobus
sinensis ; O, the white or the Austrian pine, as the soil may be
better for one or the other ; P, a mass and belt of hemlocks ; Q, a
weeping Scotch elm; R, the grape-leaved linden ; S, nearest the
intersection of the walks, the sugar maple, and to the right of it
the purple-leaved sycamoré maple; T and V a mass of Austrian
pines, with an undergrowth of hemlocks; U, catalpa ; W, a pair
of weeping Norway spruces, with hemlocks behind them; X, the
weeping silver-fir backed by hemlocks and flanked with a group
of rhododendrons ; Y, a pair of pines, the white and the Pyrenean,
six feet apart ; Z, the Austrian and the Bhotan pines, the same
distance apart.
Of the shrubbery we can indicate only the general character of
the groups, and name specimens only when standing singly, or a
few ina group. The masses a, a, may be shrubs of fine common
sorts, the taller in the centre line of the group, and the margins
filled in with rhododendrons; or may be composed entirely of
evergreens, such as the arbor-vitas, yews, dwarf firs, junipers, and
pines, with rhododendrons and azalias among them. The de-
ciduous shrubs, however, would make a fine border in much less
time, and at less expense than the latter. At 4, a Weigela amabilis
in the centre, and on each side the weigelas rosea and hortensia
nivea ; at ¢, the two deutzias crenata alba and crenata rubra flore
plena ; at d, d, d, d, d, masses of common shrubs, not allowed to
exceed seven feet in height, forced to make a dense mass at the
bottom, and planted to form an irregular outline next to the lawn;
AND GROUNDS. 201
at ¢, the oblong weeping juniper, ¥ oblonga pendula; f,a pair of
weeping Japan sophoras grafted nine feet high, and planted ten
feet apart ; g, the Chinese white magnolia; 4, a mass of rhododen-
drons and purple magnolias ; z, z, hemlock gateway arches—the
hemlocks to form a dense screen for ten or fifteen feet on each side
of the arch; 7, the Hudson’s Bay fir; 2, the Magnolia machrophylla;
Z(adjoining the house), a mass of evergreens of dwarf character,
including rhododendrons, kalmias, and azalias ; m and 7, hemlock
screens ; 0, a mass of rhododendrons. The small group under the
corners of the drawing-room bay-windows may be composed of the
English or Irish ivys in the corners, and low varieties of rhododen-
drons ; or, of brilliant bedding-plants alone.
This place is large enough to make a conservatory a desirable
feature. If wanted in connection with the house, by using the
room marked P as a library-room, the room L (if that side of
the house has an east exposure) would be an admirable place
for it. If a distinct structure is preferred, a good place would
be on a line with the carriage-road, and ten feet from it, in the
corner of the orchard nearest the house.
The large flower-bed near L is intended for large bedding
plants. The great rose-bed at the intersection of the walks on the
right would require to be filled with uncommon skill to make it
pleasing throughout the summer season, though it may be superbly
beautiful in June, and interesting under ordinary treatment, with
partial bloom, until frosts. In winter and early spring, however, it
can hardly be otherwise than unsightly. A group for that place,
of more continuous beauty, which will cost less labor in its main-
tenance, may be composed of the following evergreens :—for the
centre the weeping Norway spruce (zzverta) ; around it the follow-
ing, the positions for which must be determined by a study of their
characters: the Sargent hemlock, Parson’s dwarf hemlock, varie-
gated-leaved tree-box, golden and weeping arbor-vites, the erect
yew (erecta), the golden yew, the Cephalotaxus fortunit mascula, the
Podocarpus japonica, the creeping juniper (repens), the juniper
repanda densa, the juniper oblonga pendula, the juniper speroides,
the Hudson’s Bay fir Audsonica, and the dwarf firs, Picea pectinata
compacta and Abies gregoriana.
202 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
The group of large flower-beds opposite the library window,
with a vase in the centre, should be filled with rather low flowers,
and made as continuously brilliant as possible. Forming the fore:
ground of a fine stretch of lawn beyond them, the view as seen
from the main window of this room may be made quite elegant
and park-like in its effect.
PLaTE XVIII.
Plan for a Residence of Medium Size, with Stable and Carriage-
house, Orchard, and Vegetable-garden, on a Corner-Lot 200 X 300
Jeet.
Here we have a house of moderate size on a lot which gives
ample space around it, and which is provided with length of car-
riage-road disproportioned to the size of the house. It is suited to
the use of a small family, who entertain much company, and keep
horses and carriages.
The location of a large kitchen-garden in the southwest corner
of the lot, where the lawn might be extended with fine effect, as in
Plates XI and XIII, was made in order to place the orchard away
from the side street, and the enterprise of bad boys. ‘The vegeta-
ble-garden offers few temptations for moonlight poachers over a
street-fence, but an orchard in the same place is almost irresisti-
ble. By interposing the kitchen-garden between it and the street,
the fruit is safer. Were it not for this reason we would decidedly
prefer to have the kitchen-garden back of the house, the orchard
on the south side of the lot, and so arranged that the ground under
the trees should appear to be a prolongation of the south lawn.
The plan being made with reference to the’ protection of the
orchard, sacrifices to this object Rule I, of Chapter XI—there being
no length of lawn on the lot commensurate with its size. Yet
the manner of grouping, in those portions of the lot which are in
lawn, is such as to conceal this defect in a great degree from the
eye of an observer in the street, or in the house ; though it is evi-
dent enough on the paper plan.
Plate XVI.
WES HMR hanes Haspboerries & Blackberrtes Va aE ai pe", “a
'
' Coward & manure
wLuy == & 1, y
& nh > v
¢ a an, eo 5 a xs
eee { / <
3d RR SY fe < Curriages
gl 5
POs ier S
Keto pire Dts
ISOS ONO ON ON SN
Py Ml
I
ig
& 8 RAPE Ben ca
Ts
< SS es __
ans TORN aa JZ
ee, 4
> Q
Croguet
Ground ©
NOENOD
Ge
c
eer :
Sua 25
hao kb 9
ee | ‘ nig’ r i
obi gant w
Jotkiaas
ee
ote. potmoleeg aa
(mews ET Se ree q
ANgwent solrig jatky ;
. bap 39e gina pif Ti
ttle) y acta suri
D3N Ge en pitessite
hovodiahy gil vine
NIG arkadte oomrdt oft
ptgaid ARTGWO) if 8)
ort bee alow ada ier
wal ts Pani Two 26 7
AND GROUNDS. 203
We have alluded to the length of carriage-road on this lot as
disproportioned to the size of the residence. ‘This is so decided
that we must consider the plan as an example of a fault to be
avoided, rather than a plan to be followed. Not only the length
of the drive is objectionable for a residence of this simple
character, but also the corner entrance, which is usually the
least convenient point for crossing the street-gutters and the
side-walks. Plate X shows a much more sensible entrance and car-
rlage-way.
In other respects this plan is better ; the grouping being such
as would give very pleasing effects, whether looking towards the
house or from it. On the south are several openings to the street,
and on the north one only, connecting with private grounds on
that side.
Supposing the roads, walks, orchard, and garden to have been
laid out as shown by the plan, the following trees and shrubs are
suggested for some of the principal places. ‘The lines conforming
in part to the forms of the groups of shrubs are intended to show
the form of beds to be enriched and prepared for them.
The group at a, on the left of the corner entrance-way, to be
composed of a weeping willow or a weeping Scotch elm in the
centre, and the three best varieties of dogwood on the three points
of the group ;—the bed to be filled, while these are growing, with
spreading shrubs of low growth. The group, on the right of the
same entrance, to have an American weeping elm in the centre,
anil at z, 7,2, and Z the American and European Judas trees, the
broad-leaved strawberry tree (Znonymus latifolius\, and the dog-
wood (Cornus florida) ; and between them the syringas, weigelas,
variegated elder, flowering currants, etc., etc.
The trees at 6 and ¢ may be the double-flowering white and the
red-flowering horse-chestnuts ; between them and the fence a mass
of large shrubs. At d, a weeping beech ; between it and the fence
plant shrubs, to be removed when the beech needs all the space ;
near the fence Siberian arbor-vites to form a concave hedge to,
and across, (overarching) the side-entrance gate. At e, ten feet
from both the walk and the drive, a pair of sassafras trees four feet
apart, with an oval mass of low spreading shrubs—spireas, flower-
204 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
ing-currants, berberries, deutzias, red-twigged dogwoods, and honey-
suckles around them. At jf, a choice selection of the most pleasing
shrubs, either deciduous or evergreen ; of the latter an assortment
of the best rhododendrons will make a superb group. At g,a
Magnolia machrophylla; h, nearest the house, the Kolreuteria
paniculata; h, near the gate, the osage orange. At 9, in the
centre of the front, a purple beech ; at 7 and 7, groups composed
of the weeping Norway spruce (éverta) for the centres, and the
golden arbor-vite, and the erect yew (7axus stricta or erecta), the
golden yew and the Podocarpus japonica, on opposite sides of them.
If for this central space it is desired to make a quick mass of
foliage in the place of these small groups, a weeping willow, or a
group of two or three osage orange trees planted at 0, a group of )
deutzias at mm, and of weigelas or bush honeysuckles at x, will
quickly effect it. At the left of the gateway on the right, a pair of
pines, the white and Austrian ; # and g, the dwarf mountain pine
(P. pumila) and the mugho pine (P. mugho) ; r, the dwarf white
pine ; and between these, while smal], plant evergreen shrubs. At
s,is a belt of shrubs terminated by a pair of pines, the Austrian
and the Bhotan. At 4, a pair of weeping birches; at w, w, two
pairs of trees, the purple-leaved and the gold-leaved sycamore-
maples at one end, and the sugar and scarlet-maples at the other,
each pair near together ; and between the trees, while they are
young, a group of deciduous shrubbery. At v, a Magnolia soulan-
geana; at w, the weeping silver-fir (Picea pectinata pendula) ; along
the boundary of the lot in the rear of w, a belt of hemlocks broken
by an occasional spur of spruce or pine trees; x, x, x, weeping
arbor-vites, junipers, or other elegant slender evergreens ; and at
z, another Magnolia machrophylla. On so large a place there will
be room around the house, and in the various groups, and along
the marginal belts of trees and shrubs, to introduce a hundred
things which we have not named ; and a reference to the plate of
symbols in connection with the ground-plan will explain what
we have not touched upon.
eSircast: t
Silene
in ihe
‘ -
oD AOE Ce reins
U . gat: . 3
hl i %
-
mad
PVE:
patito 4d
' et, Vg
PUSAN Sat
gitolt
i neae td
CaS
t
hele: sy) ive
pe
ice boy Gl
LOA4aLs
Pa ONES
eas i
berrees
Ela
rrants. Hi 1d
Three
c ett Z 7
‘ ‘y 4h
700 ft.
90
50
ee
AND GROUNDS. 205
PEATE Sole
Plan for a Residence of Medium Size on a Corner Lot 150 x 200 feet,
with no provision for keeping a horse or carriage.
This house-plan is the same as that on Plate XVIII, but the
lot is only one-half the depth of that one, though the frontage is
the same. ‘The street on the longer side being supposed the most
desirable to front upon, the division of the lot in lawn, fruit, and
vegetable-garden, resembles, on a smaller scale, that of Plate
XVII; though on this the direct walk to the front door is dis-
pensed with, and only the entrances at the two front corners of the
lot are used. ‘This is rarely a desirable arrangement, but the ex-
pression aimed at in the design of this lot is extreme openness and
breadth of lawn, in proportion to the size of the lot. ‘To dispense
with a walk directly from the street to the front door increases this
expression, but it is not essential to it. If the members of the
family who occupy the house rarely use a carriage, it is not a
matter of much importance to have a direct front walk ; especially
if all the travel to and from the house is along the street, so that
one corner gate or the other makes a nearer approach than a walk
in the centre only. But if the family have often occasion to ride,
the side-entrances will seem an awkward detour; and we would
then by all means dispense with the walk which runs nearly
parallel with the street, and have a broad straight walk to the
front porch, and a smaller walk to the rear of the house, nearly
as here represented. This would, of course, involve considerable
changes in the plan for planting.
An alley is supposed to bound the lot on the left ; a shed and
cow-house* and small cow-yard are therefore represented in the
rear corner on that side, and an arbor-vite hedge is to be planted
inside the fence along the alley. Ten feet from the alley, and
* The grass from the lawn, on such a place as this, if fed as cut, is more than enough to supply
one cow with green food for seven months of the year ;—probably, together with the pail-feed from
the house, enough to keep two cows.
206 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
back of the front line of the house, is a row of four cherry trees,
and two others are indicated on the rear part of the croquet-ground.
Six standard pear trees, on the other side of the house, form a row
parallel with a continuous grape-trellis which divides the lawn from
the vegetable-garden. Some peach trees may be planted in the
garden-square next the cow-house. The borders by the fences
around the back of the lot furnish ample room for currants, rasp-
berries, and blackberries.
The decorative planting of the lawn-ground may be as follows:
on each side of the gateway, at a, plant a group of pines, white,
Austrian, and Bhotan, to be clipped when they begin to trespass
on the walk, and to overarch it when large enough. The group on
the left of the walk, directly in front of the same entrance, should
be composed of shrubby evergreen trees or shrubs, diminishing to
those of small size at the point. At 4, the weeping silver-fir. At
¢, ¢, fifteen feet from the front corners of the house, a pair of esther
of the following species, of the varieties named :—of beeches, the
purple-leaved and the fern-leaved ; of birches, the old weeping and
the cut-leaved weeping ; of horse-chestnuts, the double-white and
the red-flowering ; of lindens, the American basswood and the
grape-leaved ; of magnolias, the machrophylla and the cordata, of
mountain ashes, the oak-leaved; of maples, the purple-leaved
and the gold-leaved sycamore; of oaks, the scarlet (coccinea) on
both sides ; of tulip trees (whitewood), there being no distinct
varieties, the same on both sides, or a tulip tree on one side, and a
virgilia or Magnolia cordata on the other. Our own choice among
these would be of birches, maples, or horse-chestnuts.
At d, the face of the hedge may be broken by a projecting group
of yews and arbor-vites. At e,a group of rhododendrons. At fand
g any one of the following deciduous species of small low trees, if
grown with care and symmetry, viz.: .the Indian catalpa (C. Aima-
ayensis) south of Philadelphia; the Chinese cypress (G/ypto-stro-
bus sinensis); the silver-bell (Halesia tetraptera); the sassafras
(although rather large for the place) ; the dwarf horse-chestnuts,
Pavia coccinea, P. pumila pendula, and P. cornea superba; the Euro-
pean bird cherry, Prunus padus; the American white-flowering
and the Cornelian cherry dogwoods, C. florida and C. mas; the
AND GROUNDS. 207
American and the European Judas trees; the magnolias, Chinese
white (conspicua), and the showy-flowered (sfeciosa) ; the dwarf
profuse-flowering mountain ash (ana floribunda); the weeping
Japan sophora; the double scarlet-thorn (coccinea flore plena) ;
the weeping larch; the Kilmarnock willow; the large-flowered
rose-acacia (grandiflora), if trained and carefully supported when
young ; the American and the broad-leaved strawberry trees ; the
largest and most tree-like lilacs; the purple-fringe ; the syringa,
zeyheri; and the new snow-ball or viburnum, V. machrophylium,
are all pleasing small trees, or tree-like shrubs, any two of which
will be appropriate for these two places. Our preference among
them would be the weeping Japan sophoras grafted from seven to
eight feet high. If evergreens are desired for these two places, we
would certainly select the weeping Norway spruce (zverfa) and
the weeping silver-fir. The small group Z, should be made up of
choice small evergreens, yews, arbor-vitees, and dwarf firs. The pair
of deciduous trees at 4, on the right, may be a catalpa and a pau-
lonia for places south of New York; and northward, a pair of
sassafras and a dogwood (C. florida), to make a group of three, or
a pair of Kolreuteria paniculata only. The group 7, on the upper
side of the walk, is intended to be filled by an Austrian pine, sur-
rounded by evergreen shrubs that will form a dense mass. At 4, a
Siberian arbor-vite, with the erect yew, on one side, and the golden
arbor-vite on the other. At 4 an Irish juniper. Atm, a collec-
tion of magnolias, beginning with the purple-magnolia nearest the
house, next to it the Chinese white, then the AZ. soulangeana, and
at 2, the AZ. machrophylla,—all to be encouraged to branch as close
to the ground as they will grow. At 0, the arbor-vite compacta,
or another purple magnolia. At f, the weeping beech; at g, a
group of the following firs, beginning nearest the house with Nord-
manns fir, next the Cephalonian, and last the Norway spruce. At
vr, another Magnolia machrophylla. At s,a Bhotan pine if on the
north or east side, and an Austrian pine if on the south or west
side of the house. The shrubbery adjoining the house may be
composed of a great variety of common species; but none that
attain a height of more than six feet should be planted under or in
front of windows where they might eventually obstruct the views.
bd
208 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
TWAT exe
A Compact House, on an In-Lot of ninety-six feet front, with ample
depth, and a Lawn connecting with adjoining neighbors.
The main house is here 36 x 40, and the rear part 20 x 32
feet. The front veranda is ten feet in width, and between it and
the street the distance is ninety-six feet. The lot is one hundred
and ninety-six feet in depth back to the grape-trellis that divides
the lawn from the garden, and is supposed to have ample room
back of this for vegetables and small fruits.
Whether or not the occupants of this place keep horse and car-
riage, the front and sides of the lot are designed without any refer-
ence to them.
Floral embellishment is a prominent feature of this design, and
this is nearly all in front of the house. The walk with two street-
entrances encloses a circle seventy-two feet in diameter, on the
margin of which the flower-beds are arranged, leaving the interior
of the circle in lawn, unbroken save by a large low vase for flowers
in the centre. Most of the interest of the place being thus between
the house and the street, where exposure to passers on the street
might annoy the occupants in the care and enjoyment of their
flowers and plants, it is essential that this circle should be hidden
from the street except at the gateways. The reader already knows
that we have no sympathy with that churlish spirit which would
shut a pleasing picture out of sight from the sheer love of exclu-
sive possession ; but we have respect for that repugnance which
most persons, and especially ladies, feel against a peering curiosity
in their domestic enjoyments ; and as the care of one’s flowers and
trees is one of the sweetest of domestic labors, we would protect
the privacy of working hours among them to an extent that may
not degenerate into a selfish exclusiveness. In this plan, as en-
graved, the mass of screening foliage is not as large as would be
necessary, but the trees as there placed will form a sufficient pro-
tection after ten years growth to insure a reasonable privacy for the
floral lawn. It will be observed that this is not effected by a
ms
7
ESR Pm ty POI SS Teh
Puved §
Mi
ie
4-5
§ Sentlery A
Groun d
>
> Croquet =
Scale 8 imch-to 1 foot .
(cit BV IV
NE
ae
fee HEP SS BAS Ray STA Teh Boh et OY
iG
Cold
(rape
House
oe
acne Sea
aa
AND GROUNDS. 209
hedge on the street line, but on the contrary the lawn is open
except at the entrances; and one standing on the sidewalk at A,
though barred from all view of the circle by the mass of evergreens
opposite, may have pleasing glimpses into the place on the lines
A B, A C, and across these corners into the adjoining lot lawns.
The two front gateways should be overarched with evergreen
topiary arches—one side with arbor-vita, and the other with hem-
locks, firs, or pines, as the soil and exposure may make one or the
other preferable. The glimpses into the grounds from under either
of these arches will extend the whole length of the lawn back to
the cold grape-house on the right, and from the left, back to the
grape-trellis that separates the vegetable-garden from the lawn.
A still longer vista may be made from the left-hand gateway by
making a decorative arch in the grape-trellis at the end of the
garden-walk which corresponds with the one at the end of the cold
grape-house.
The evergreen group in the middle of the lot near the street
may be composed as follows: in the centre two Nordmanns firs,
four feet apart, on a line at right angles with the street ; on each
side of these a mass of hemlocks (say four on each side) for a
distance of sixteen feet each way ; and at each point of the group
single specimens of the weeping silver-fir and the weeping Norway
spruce. This will make the group about forty feet from point to
point, measuring from the stems of the last-named trees.
The trees which arch the intersections of the entrance-walks
with the circular-walk, may be double pairs of sassafras on one
side, and one pair of kolreuterias on the other. At ¢, a weeping
beech ; at g, the Chinese cypress (G/ypto-strobus sinensis pendula)
south,of New York, and north of it a group composed of the weep-
ing Norway spruce in the centre, and the following junipers around
it: the F repanda densa, F. oblonga pendula, F. suecica nana, F.
speroides ; or, instead of the junipers, the following dwarf firs, viz. :
the Abies nigra pumila, A. gregoriana, A. conica, A. canadensis inverta
(Sargent’s hemlock), 4. canadensis Parsoni (Parson’s hemlock), the
Picea pectinata compacta, and the Picea hudsonica. At d and 4, the
finest pines for which the soil and location are suited ; at ¢, the
Magnolia cordata; at f, a group of evergreen shrubs next the fence,
14
210 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
and a weeping silver-fir in front of them, opposite the parlor bay-
window. ‘Two small trees are indicated in front of the corners of
the veranda. If small trees are used in these places, they may be
of species like the Magnolia machrophylla, the double white-flower-
ing horse-chestnut, and the virgilia, which develop most beautifully
when branching near the ground, or, like the weeping sophora,
trailing to the ground ; but if large trees are chosen, they should
be of sorts which lift their heads on clean stems, so that their
lower branches will be above the line of view of persons standing
on the floor of the house.
At the point formed by the intersection of the sidewalk with
the circular-walk there should be an interesting collection of ever-
greens of very slender, or very dwarf character. Near the point, and
two feet from both walks, plant the Adzes excelsa pygme ; three feet
from both walks, and back of the former, the Picea pectinata compacta ;
back of these, and equidistant between the walks, the Zaxus erecta ;
then, a little nearer to each walk than the latter, put in a golden
arbor-vita and a golden yew, so as to make the group in the form
of a Y. If the proprietor prefers to have something new and
striking in this location every year, instead of waiting patiently the
interesting development of these dwarfs, this point will be an ap-
propriate place for a skillful arrangement of showy-leaved bedding-
plants ; but as there is ample space for these elsewhere, we would
much prefer marking the intersection of the two walks with some
permanent objects that may be seen in winter and summer, and
which, by living and growing year after year, will at length have
associations and a little history of their own, and become monu-
mental evidences of past labors. It is well always to mark the
divergence of two walks by some permanent tree or group near the
inner angle of intersection, and in the case under consideration, if
the group of lilliputian evergreens should seem too insignificant and
tardy in their development, or (being rarities) too expensive, we
would plant some spreading tree at this intersection, and recom-
mend for that purpose the weeping birch.
From ¢ and f, on opposite sides of the lot, the side fences
should be bordered with evergreen shrubs as far as the back
line of the main house, and thence to the garden may be covered
Bur
wl}
a
gorihliac |
Bia
2 pnahe
Dig) cat
: Pay aie!
MIG hy
hE
Haid ust quest 16 © OT Mae owt he
“ = .
motor Shien ade : : ; peeasars |
ene snes
ay x Ser {% F 1 +
hy os aed Be. SortootaRl eis Te oot ee Cae
6 etic Sar apa? Sake
i
=, : va Pik + or 8
ett abe uid to! yl vy i ty A. mere i i Lrire;
- aloud beh en aul of Aout pain, vA per t;
' its anya yaa apr apes
pauehittn, ‘ :
i bre eeauiart et
ati
ae
70
dO
7
60
70
90
SAVED) (GIRO UNDIS « 211
with grape-vines or other small fruits, or with a continuous belt
of common deciduous shrubs. Against the foundation-walls of the
house we would plant a continuous line of varieties of the English
ivy, even if they creep permanently no higher than the water-table.
Up to that height they often make a shrubby mass of evergreen
foliage, and form a pleasing back-ground for the finer shrubs that
may be grown near the house in front of them. For a running
vine on brick and stone walls, and for draping windows and cor-
nices with foliage, the American ivy or Virginia creeper is greatly
superior in this country to the English ivy. We can go no further
in designating the shrubs to plant near the house-walls than to
merely reiterate that they should be of those flowering and fragrant
varieties which are usually full-foliaged, not apt to get bare of leaves
at the bottom, and which do not exceed six feet in height; in short,
low, compact, or spreading shrubs.
The fruit-tree features of this place are sufficiently designated
by the symbols.
There being a cold grape-house indicated, it is natural to sup-
' pose that flowers and bulbs may be forced in it, and that the
care of these, together with grounds embellished with so many
flowers, will involve the employment of a gardener; to whom,
or to the lady of the house, we leave the selection of the flowers
to be used in filling the beds on the margin of the circle, and
the vase or basket in its centre.
PLATE XXI.
A Plan for a Deep Front Yard, on an In-Lot one hundred feet wide,
with the House on a terrace plateau; designed to harmonize
architectural and gardenesque forms.
This plan is a peculiar study in many respects. All the deco-
rative portion of the grounds is in front of the house, and the
depth from the street to the house-front is even greater in propor-
tion to the width of the lot than in the preceding plan. The
arrangement at the street-front is also more simple and more
212 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
formal ; for here we have a hedge close to the street line, a single
entrance, and a long straight walk in the middle of the lot. To
this extent the plan is simpler than the preceding one; but on
approaching the house the style becomes more ornate and costly.
The house is elevated on a wide terrace, and the steps to reach
the terrace-level are fifteen feet in front of the veranda. These
steps should be of stone, not less than twelve inches wide, nor
more than seven inches rise, and of a length equal to the width of
the main walk. Low stone copings at the side of the steps expand
at the top into square pedestals for vases, and thence are continued
to meet the veranda. Such copings should, where practicable, be
of some warm colored stone. It will be observed that the walk at
the foot of these stone steps widens out into quite an area, and at
this point the design varies by an easy transition from the formal
to the graceful style ; the form of the front of the terrace conform-
ing to the curves of the walks. The walks to the left and right
diverge first by geometric curves, and then enter, by more path-
like lines, dense masses of shrubbery, ending at seats embowered
in foliage. From these, vistas open to the most pleasing features
of the ground.
The house is supposed to be designed in a half city-style, with
a basement-kitchen, and all the principal windows in the front and
rear only. The blank sidewalks, if of unpainted brick or stone,
may be covered with the Virginia creeper, and on the side-ground
back of the points shown on the plate, fruit trees may be planted.
If the lot is three hundred feet deep, there will be room back of the
house for the needful kitchen-yard and a pretty little vegetable-
garden, or a stable and carriage-space ; but hardly for both. A lot
of four hundred feet in depth would be more suitable for a house
thrown back so far from the front street as this, unless space were
obtained in the rear of the house by a latitudinal development of
the lot in the rear of other lots.
As the entire embellishment of this place lies in front of the
house, and as its features are of that gardenesque character which
presuppose a decided love of horticultural art in the occupants,
and therefore the necessity of constant labors to be done near the
street, some thorough protection of their privacy is essential ; and
AND GROUNDS. 213
we have here first introduced a hedge on the street line. The gate-
way should be rather larger than is common on foot-walks, and
covered with a carefully grown hemlock arch. The hedge may be
of hemlock or of Siberian arbor-vita, and not more than six feet
in height. At a, a, it is designed to be hollowed by a concave cut
on the sides and top, so that the latter will not be more than three
and a half feet high in the middle. With this arrangement there
will be three glimpses into the place from the street ; one under
the gateway arch, and the others over the concave cuts in the
hedge. ‘The buttresses on the inside are intended to give variety
in the line, and in the lights and shadows of the hedge. They are
easily made with the hedge by placing two or three hedge-plants
at right angles with the line of the hedge at the points where
wanted.
We have called attention in another place to a peculiarity of
the arrangement of shrubs and trees on this place. There are three
long lines of view, each of pre-eminent interest from the different
points where each is likely to be most observed. First the walk-
view, as seen from the gateway looking towards the house, or from
the terrace steps looking towards the gateway; the second and
third, on the lines between the bay-windows and the scollops in the
front hedge, ranging the whole distance over an unbroken lawn
elegantly margined on both sides with flowers, shrubs, and trees.
If the reader will raise this plate nearly level with the eye, and
glance along the lines indicated, he will appreciate better than we
can explain what we have endeavored to accomplish in this plan.
It is desirable, in order to achieve the best result of this arrange-
ment, that the character of the foliage on the two sides of the lot
should be so different as to give a distinct effect to the views out
of the two bay-windows. In addition to these three prominent
lines of view, charming long narrow vistas may be made to give
interest to the seats at the ends of the walks.
One selection of trees and shrubs for the most prominent places
on this plan may be the following:
Group 1, on the left: at a, the weeping juniper (od/onga
pendula) ; at b, the erect yew (Zaxus erecta); at c, the golden
yew (Zaxus aurea); at d, the weeping Indian juniper (%
214 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
repanda densa); at ¢, the dwarf Swedish juniper (F suecica
nana).
Group 1, on the right: at a@, the Siberian arbor-vite; at 4,
Parson’s arbor-vite (Zhwa occidentalis compacta); at c, the
Nootka Sound arbor-vite (Zhwa plicata); at ad, the erect yew
(Zaxus erecta); and at ¢, the dwarf silver-fir (Picea pectinata
compacta).
Groups 2, 2, may be composed of evergreens as follows: at a, a,
the mugho and mountain pines (P. mugho and P. pumila) ; at b and
¢, in one group, dwarf white pines (P. strobus compacta); and on the
other the Chinese yews, Cephalotaxus fortunit mascula and C.
adrupace. Or, of deciduous shrubs, the group may be as follows:
at a, on the left, the Weigela amabatis ; and at 6 and ¢, the deutzias
crenata alba and crenata rubra flore plena. At a, on the right, the
great-leaved snow-ball (Viburnum machrophyllum) ; and at 6 and ¢,
the red-tartarian honeysuckle and the lilac vo/Amagensis.
Groups 3, 3, are for showy-leaved bedding-plants or roses ; 4, 4,
may be filled with choice geraniums.
Figures 5, 5, 5, 5, represent a pair each of Irish and Swedish
junipers.
Beds 6, 6, are for roses or showy annuals, perennials, and
bulbous flowers; 7, 7, and 9, 9, represent single plants remarka-
ble for beautiful or showy foliage ; and 8, 8, are for brilliant low-
blooming flowers.
Figures ro, 10, on the left of the walk, may be, one the golden
arbor-vita, and the other the Podocarpus japonica; or the rhododen-
drons album elegans and gloriosum. If of deciduous shrubs, one the
purple-leaved berberry, and the other Gordon’s flowering-currant ;
or, one the dwarf snow-ball (Viburnum anglicum), and the other
the variegated Cornelian cherry or dogwood (Cornus mascula va-
riegata) ; or the Chinese purple and the Chinese red magnolias ;
or the dwarf catalpas Aimalayensis and kampferi, or any other
compact shrubs or dwarf trees of constant beauty of foliage and
annual blossoms ; 10, 10, on the right, may be, one the weeping
arbor-vitz, and the other the common tree-box.
Figure 11, on the left, the Japan weeping sophora, or the A/ag-
nolia cordata ; 11, on the right, the Chinese cypress (Glypfo-strobus
i
resrea ws:
’
;
ak
Puget.
Bows
emigre} |
3 A a8
Pra 2!
7
sivr./ £ errr:
ng 3 ieee if
ioe
‘ 4s
Per erry ig
ry ee
ake Z
fel
Fa}
&
| Coal
]
Wood
&
Coal
am micec urrants,
I-)
Fast Street
2c]
Seale of ZOll. to the inch.
AND GROUNDS: 215
sinensis pendula); 12, the Magnolia machrophylla; 13, a pair of
Kolreuterias.
Figure 14, wherever it occurs, suggests a weeping silver-fir
(Picea pectinata pendula), a weeping Norway spruce (zverta), or
some other evergreen of slender or peculiar habit; 15, 15, the
golden yew and golden arbor-vite ; 16, the weeping beech, or a
pair of them; 17 and 18, rhododendrons along the walks, and ro-
bust shrubs on the outside—either evergreen or deciduous ; 19, 19,
19, hardy pines best suited to the locality ; 20, 20, 20, borders of
the finest shrubs ; 21, a heavy mass of evergreens not more than
eight to twelve feet high, covering and concealing the slope of the
terrace, with a brilliant flower-bed on its upper or terrace level ;
22, 22, suggest large low basket forms for flowers; 23, 23, are
circular beds for tall flowers. The pedestals at the top of the
steps to the terrace should have elegant low vases appropriately
filled with beautiful plants.
The masses of dark-toned evergreens not numbered represent
close plantations of hemlocks and Norway spruce, with such other
evergreen trees as may best break the monotony of their colors.
PEATE OC UT
Designs for Neighboring Homes with connecting Grounds.
In the chapter on Neighboring Improvements we have en-
deavored to call attention to the great advantage that improvers of
small lots may gain by planting on some common plan, so that all
the improvements of the fronts of adjoining lots may be arranged
to allow each of the neighbors a view of the best features of all.
This plate is intended to illustrate one of the simplest forms of such
neighboring improvements.
The houses themselves are such as proprietors often build in
rows for the purpose of adding to the value, and increasing the sale
of adjacent property ; but the connection of all the fronts into one
long lawn is yet seldom practiced. The elegant effect, however,
which this mode of improvement lends to places which, without it,
216 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
were small and cheap-looking, will add thousands of dollars to
their saleable value. It gives a genteel air to the neighborhood
that five times the expenditure in buildings would fail to produce,
and serves by this fact alone to attract a class of refined people of
small means, who might not find the common run of houses, of the
cost of these, sufficiently attractive to induce them to select homes
there.
Though these five houses are quite similar in size and plan, an
inspection of them will show that only Nos. 3 and 4 are alike. The
others all differ in some respects; the corner houses especially
being adapted to their superior locations and double fronts, and
therefore needing to be somewhat more expensive. The main part
of each is 25 x 38 feet, and the kitchen part 12 xX 20, except on
lot number one, where it is larger. ‘There is an alley in the rear,
upon which outbuildings are located.
The essential feature of the planting on this neighborhood plan
is this: that back of a line ten or twelve feet from the front street, to
the foot-step of the porches, there shall be no shrub or’ tree planted on
any of the fronts; and only those species of flowers which do not
exceed six to nine inches in height. This secures a belt of lawn
varying from fifteen to forty feet in width, the entire length of the
block, and leaves ample space on each lot for a good selection and
arrangement of shrubs and flowers. The light dotted lines on the
plan show the leading ranges of view over this common lawn. Of
course only the lightest of wire fences are to be used between the
lots, if any such divisions are required ; and none at all ought to
be necessary.
Lot 1 is entered from the side-street, under a gateway arbor.
From this entrance the whole length of the block to B and E,
two hundred and fifty feet, is a lawn, broken only by beds for low
flowers, margined one side by the choicest groups of shrubbery, and
on the other by the various architectural features of the steps, vases,
porches, and verandas of the five houses, and their flowers and
vines. Nothing can more strikingly illustrate the advantage of such
neighboring improvements than the view from this point, embrac-
ing as it does, under one glance, all the beauty that may be created
in the “front yards” of five distinct homes, all forming parts of a
te. 4
1) » )
H ’
ily t . a =
1
tf ’
y I
'
t
‘ rr {
+
“ .
by 7 i :
7 -
2) J fi rapt j
1 y 7. | vs
i : v -
1% sex! . _
“yt = 4
' rl
‘ apy is ow Sf
J,
i a si
TOVCT Ye 4 +f ein
< i q
MW Ob ’ i-y i
> . ‘ ,
Pan yi
ul
bit sind wile ?
’ j
eon yori * fi ruse f
7
bos Biawont - I ti yea
Hotei Saajan yi d 2
STs Vig. BIT Ga Mary
: .
f om tat of such FA
S}HRSIO Oy Yb! we ‘
va :
yp, vi
‘a AR ine
D 6)
iy a
en
+
—
i
oe .
} )
r ‘ ‘
| A eagt.
1
i 1. 2h
rz 7
=> ws tw ?
hes UF tank’
44 yily ‘
: ‘
rf? 1
- he he ge
Swale eS cabs WIS els
ie
A
p)
NEAR
AND GROUNDS. 217
single picture. Similar effects are obtained on entering the verdant
gateway arch at E, on lot 5; and also from the side-streets at the
points B and C. The shorter views, from the porches and best
windows of each house, are all made vastly more pleasing than
would be possible on a single lot. The vignette of Chapter IV is
a suppositional view from the porch (A) of the house-plan 2, look-
ing towards B.
From the front street, the in-look between the groups that border
the front, is such as to make each place when opposite to it, appear
to be the most important one.
Only shrubs, or shrubby trees, are to be admitted on the fronts ;
but on the sides, between the houses, cherry and pear trees may be
planted. The flower-beds are all shown somewhat larger on these
plans than they should be.
The selections of shrubs, and their arrangement in the many
groups adjacent to the front street, will require a thorough famili-
arity with the characteristics of shrubs, and should therefore be done
by an experienced gardener. Our plate is drawn on too small a
scale to enable us to designate in detail the composition of all the
groups and single specimens indicated on the plan, and as such
groups of places must of necessity, at first, be all arranged under
the direction of one gardener, it is not desirable that we should
make a suppositional list of shrubs and trees for each lot.
PLATE XXIII.
Three Residences occupying the end of a Block two hundred feet in
width, on Lots two hundred feet deep.
Here the end of the block is supposed to have been divided
into four lots, each 50 x 200 feet; the middle two lots being first
occupied by a commodious double-house, and each of the side-lots
subsequently improved with basement-kitchen houses, of half city,
half suburban character, and the fronts of the three places kept by
agreement for mutual advantage.
The house on the left the reader may recognize as similar to
218 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
the one shown on Plate XV, on a lot of the same width ; but it is
somewhat differently placed on the lot, and the ground arrangements
are different in front and rear. One plan provides for a kitchen-
garden, and the other for a fruit-yard only. It will be observed
that this house, and the basement-house on the other corner, have
blank walls adjoining the neighbor-lots, which are not built up
to the line of the fence, but leave a space, one of five feet and the
other of two feet, between the wall and the lot-line. This is almost
useless for planting ; but we deem it essential to give the owner no
excuse for that miserable shoddy architecture which constructs a
cornice on one or two sides of a building, and leaves it off on sides
that are equally conspicuous ; on the plea, sometimes, that the
owner who has built up to his line has no right to build a cornice
over his neighbor’s property. Though these houses indicate con-
tinuous blank walls on one side, they are not necessarily so, when
this space is preserved ; and if the owner of the middle lot is a
reasonable man, pleasant windows and out-looks may be made
from the halls of both the outer houses, and from the bed-room of
the house on the right. The arrangement of rooms in the upper
stories is likely also to call for quite a number of windows over-
looking the middle lot, and the fact of ownership of even a very
little space in front of them will make it safer for the builder to
plan them. If the occupants of the three lots are in friendly accord,
the high division fences as shown back of the front lines of the
houses, may be dispensed with back to the rear of the same. The
blank walls can be covered with the Virginia creeper, and groups of
shrubbery arranged at their base to better advantage than our plan
shows ; the plan supposing a concert of improvements only in
front of the houses.
The house on the right has the form and extent of an un-
usually commodious and elegant town-house ; the main part being
25 x 50 feet, and the rear 20 x 34. The front-entrance is quite
peculiar, and, if designed by a good architect, will be an elegant
and uncommon style of porch. There is a double object in making
it of this form. It being desirable to have the entrance-gate at D,
where persons passing in will at once have a vista the whole length
of the side-yard to the back corner of the lot (as indicated by the
Plate XXIV
‘ Lip Pt
YS Friite Yard Ss
AND GROUNDS. 219
dotted line), thus receiving a more favorable impression of the
extent and beauty of the ground than if the gate-entrance were
directly in front of the front door, this location of the gateway
naturally suggests a side approach to the porch. Buta porch of
this form is of itself desirable in such a location, by permitting a
heavy mass of shrubs to be planted directly in its front, leaving the
lawn in front unbroken, and making the porch appear more distant
and retired from the street than it would were the steps and walk
directly in front of it, in the usual mode. It also makes a con-
venient front-entrance to the basement at the side of the parlor
bay-window.
The grounds of this group of places are quite simple in the
style of planting ; yet, if laid out as here indicated, the materials
properly chosen and well kept, they would be noticeable for their
elegance. ‘The necessarily small scale on which these groups of
houses and lots are planned, makes it impracticable to describe
them in detail, especially with reference to the selections of shrubs
and trees.
PLATE XXIV.
four Residences, occupying the end of a block two hundred feet in
width, on Lots one hundred and fifty feet deep, and representing
widely different forms of Houses and Lots.
We will here suppose that the two lots on the left, each sixty
feet front, were first purchased and improved ; and the next twenty-
five feet were then purchased by some one who cared little for
grounds, and wished merely to provide himself a good town-house ;
and then the remaining fifty-five feet of the block by some one who
could afford a larger style of improvement, including a carriage-
house and stable. Also, that numbers one and two having built
their house-fronts about forty feet from the street, purchaser num-
ber three has the good taste to put his front on the same line ; but
number four having a much longer house is obliged to crowd
forward of the line a little. It is pleasant to observe how, in this
group of utterly unlike houses, the peculiarity of each adds to the
220 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
beauty of the others; and all succeed, by a harmonious improve-
ment of their grounds on a common plan, to realize a great deal of
beauty for which each one pays but a small share. Suppose the
city-house number three were placed twenty feet nearer the street,
it would then destroy the opportunity for the fine lawn on the line
A, B; its blank side-walls would be marplots of the block on both
sides ; and its front-porch and bay-window, which now have charm-
ing outlooks in each direction, would then have little in view but
the sidewalk and the street. By placing the house back on a line
with the others, the owner has therefore made a great profit for
himself, and conferred an equal one on his neighbors. Let him
carry the same good sense a little farther. He has not cared to
have much ground, but that strip twenty-five feet in width in front
of his house must, in some way, be made creditable to the neigh-
borhood. If it were filled with trees, shrubs, or flowers, these
would destroy his grass-plat and outlooks, and his neighbors would
have no considerable length of grassy ground ; it would be selfish,
after securing pleasant views from his bay-window over his neigh-
bors’ improvements, to so plant his own lot that their views would
be destroyed. We would therefore suggest to him not to plant a
tree, or a shrub, in front of his steps; but to place in the centre of
the space in front of the bay-window a vase for flowers, of the most
beautiful and substantial form that he can afford, and make it his
“family pride” to see that the filling of the vase and of the small
flower-beds in front and behind it is as perfect a piece of art as
possible. The plain lawn surrounding them, and the absence of
any attempt at rural effect in front of this city-house, will alone
give it an air of distinguished simplicity, while these characteristics
will make its lawn, and vase, and flowers, a harmonious part of the
common improvement of the whole block-front. We thus see how
the owner of the narrowest lot of the group holds, as it were, the
key to the best improvement of the block, and by the use of gen-
erous good sense, or the want of it, can consummate or mar the
beauty of a whole neighborhood of grounds.
On lot 1, the house and grounds resemble those shown on
Plate VI, though they are not identical. Besides the fruit trees
in the back-yard it should have no other trees, except one of
AND GROUNDS. 221
small size as shown near the front corner of the veranda ; for which
place we recommend the Magnolia machrophylla. ‘The two small
trees near the corners of the front bay-window, may be the catalpas
himalayensis and kampferi; and the isolated tree nearest the
street, the white-flowered magnolia (conspicua), or a single fine
specimen of weigela, deutzia, lilac, viburnum, or honeysuckle.
The gateway arch should be of hemlock, with evergreen under-
shrubs near it.
On lot 2, but two trees are shown in front of the house. These
are twenty feet in front of the main house corners. Of rapid grow-
ing deciduous trees for this place, none are better adapted than the
weeping birches ; of those of slower growth, the double white-flowered
horse-chestnut ; or of evergreens, the weeping Norway spruce and
weeping silver-fir. The gateway arch should be made with hem-
locks.
Lot 4 has also two trees in front of the corners of the veranda.
These being but eight feet from the latter, should be of some
species which makes clean stems of sufficient height to carry their
branches over its roof, in order not to darken and obstruct the out-
look from the veranda. For this the ginkgo tree, most of the
birches, and the scarlet oak are well adapted. But if it is desired
to have the veranda deeply shaded, and somewhat secluded by
foliage in summer, then the magnolias sowdangeana or cordata, or
almost any of the hard maples and horse-chestnuts, or the beeches
and lindens, will do. We decidedly prefer deciduous trees to ever-
greens, in places so near the pleasantest outlooks from the house
as these trees are located ; for the reasons that their shadows are
broader and more useful in summer, and by dropping their leaves
in autumn, they relieve us in winter of a shade that would be
needless and sombre.
222 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
PV ATE exexeve
Two Suburban Houses with Stables and Gardens, on original Lots
100 x 200 feet, illustrating a mode of embellishment by the addi-
tion of a Lot behind other Lots.
The reader must imagine these two houses originally built on
lots of the same size as that of plan No. 2 of this plate, viz.:
too x 200 feet, having similar lots behind them, fronting on the
side-street.
The owner of the corner lot No. 1, having it in his power, and
desiring to enlarge his embellished grounds, buys the lot 100 x 200
feet in the rear of the two lots, first occupied, and thus doubles the
area of his ground. The carriage-house and stable which he may
or may not have had before, can now be located on the part of the
new lot in the rear of the stable on original lot No. 2. Around it,
in the rear of the same lot, is ample room for the vegetable-garden,
and a yard for the horse and cow. ‘This leaves the entire length
of the ground near the side-street clear for decorative improvement.
The outside kitchen-door of the house on lot 1 is through the
laundry W, where the paths connecting it with the stable and out-
buildings are entirely disconnected from the pleasure-walks. The
carriage-road which connects with the steps of the back veranda is
for the use of the family and household friends only ; the street on
the main front being the place for casual callers to alight.
Had the house been originally designed for the lot as it now
stands, it could doubtless have had its best rooms arranged to look
out more directly on the best portions of the grounds. As it is, the
parlor gets no part of the benefit of the enlargement of the place
by the addition of the rear lot. But the dining-room D, by a wide
window or low-glazed door opening upon the back veranda, com-
mands a full view of the croquet and archery ground, and its sur-
rounding embellishments ; and the family sitting-room S secures
a similar view with a different fore-ground, by a bay-window pro-
jected boldly towards the side-street for that purpose. The outlook
from the unusually large parlor on this plan, depends mostly on the
Manare
TTT]
Hyp bere eeyy ye
meh
k DOO ce
HCE
ORFS NUN veTVUAYEE
TT se
HELE AS)
Manure vard
aNiGoR
&
100 CC,
19]
AND GROUNDS. 223
adjoining place for the fine open lawn that is in view from the bow-
window ; but as the finest rooms of the house on lot 2 are equally
dependent on the outlook across lot 1 for their pleasing views, it
is not to be supposed that the occupants of either would wish to
interrupt the advantageous exchange. The extreme openness of
lawn on the front of both places, and the almost total absence of
shrubbery on the front of No. 1, is for the purpose of giving a gener-
ous air to both, and to maintain all the advantages of reciprocity.
It would be quite natural to suppose that No. 1, which is an old
place remodelled, had once had its front yard filled full of shrubs
and trees, and that in the formation of the new lawn in the rear the
shrubbery was mostly removed to make the lawn more open, and
to stock the groups of the new plantation; and then that the
flower-beds were planned to relieve its plainness, without obstruct-
ing the neighbor’s views, as shrubs and trees might.
The house on lot No. 2 is 40 x 44 feet, with a kitchen-wing
18 x 24. Having the main entrance on the side, the carriage-way
passes the door, on the way to the stable, without unnecessary detour ;
and the best rooms of the house occupy the entire front. The house
is considerably smaller than that on lot No. 1, though all its rooms
are of ample size ; the difference between the houses being in the
stately parlor and bed-room on the first floor, which the house on
lot No. 1 has, and the other has not. The sitting-room and parlor
of the latter, however, opening together by sliding doors, will be
fully equal in effect to the single parlor in the former plan ; and, in
proportion to its size, the latter seems to us the best house-plan.
The details of the planting on both places we can follow no
further than the plate indicates them, without drawings on a larger
scale to refer to. ‘The fronts are simple and open to a degree that
may be unsatisfactory to many persons—especially near the street-
front of the corner lot; but as that lot is supposed to be richly
embellished with shrubbery in the pleasure-ground back of the
carriage-entrance, we believe the marked simplicity of the front will
tend to make the new portion of the place more interesting by the
contrast which its plainness presents to the profusion of sylvan and
floral embellishments of the pleasure-ground proper.
994 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
PLATE XXVI.
A Village Block of Stores and Restdences, iwlustrating a mode of
bringing Grounds back of Alleys into connection, for Decorative
Purposes, with the Residences on the Village Street.
We desire to call the reader’s attention to this elaborate study
of an unusual mode of securing to homes on contracted village lots
the delightful appendage of charming little pleasure grounds.
The business of small villages usually clusters on one street,
and sometimes occupies but a few stores near “the corners ;”’ and
it is a common practice of thrifty and prudent village merchants to
have the residence on the same lot with the store, or on an
adjoining lot. As the village increases, the lots near the leading
merchant’s are those earliest occupied by good improvements, in
stores or residences. Our plate shows a village or suburban block
of two hundred feet front on the principal street, with lots one
hundred and fifty feet deep to an alley.
Let us suppose that Mr. Smith, the wealthiest business man of
the vicinage, has purchased the one hundred feet front on the right,
and erected two fine stores on the corner (one of which he occupies),
and a dwelling-house on the balance of the lot. While beginning
to amass wealth he was doubtless occupying a much smaller store
and house,-and has erected these large improvements when his
means enabled him to move with considerable strength. Let us
further suppose that on the completion of this fine residence, a
couple of well-to-do citizens buy two adjoining lots of twenty-five
feet front each and put up a pair of city houses; and that the
corner fifty feet, on the left, is then improved as shown on the plate.
Mr. Smith, and those who have built after him, have all been
intent on getting themselves good houses, and have not had either
the leisure or the taste to give much thought to grounds for embel-
lishment. With a business exacting all his time, and a young family
to provide for, the business man has looked forward to a new store
or a new house as the w/tima thule of his ambition. But when these
are acquired, and larger means and more leisure and observation of
.
.
h Street
ut
Ss.
oO
oie late XX¥' :
z FEES
yep
oe Seats: ie Lit lansa
(Pa Ae
= —— =
ee
se
re crables
“Yard.
/ ht Carriages)
Mats |Tool
FRoont| etc.
= Library
Librar, Libra | !
or
Sitting
Parlor.
Store.
Of
CS —
os
ies
2S |
o 10 20 30 4O 50 bo 70 80 90 100 fi.
Kast Street.
Street or Alle
North
: »
Leters geet
Lo Sebati ibe fie b
iyi SE: i
i en -gee ices
iriet ow Aik Sue
ciithhnn acd
Siud at ee.
v9) la eres aged ants *
‘Ho eooet Mt that id
(lamiphat Se Ee
i iow ep olgetacts
eon sei a
/ any #) “rite wot
(R5i oli sobs ‘caedth
wie need alt ry
epaueil oat te #
eeHitbe at
RE 14 outs id err
law on snvrerer pes r
Mee
Yar Apply eg fl aye
Th) red tend, hae ns
7 aia iSuGh 4 s
twolin a dl
~ beet inn ee a awe
ih Lith seeded Wie ofl toe wl
~7ig a ) 2a soon ¥
} pil} pais
mi seco} veruseav Ty
iy ee woth dai? ae
ety): h sale Bald
+ athe. wk 9
biti at oa es
a:
AND GROUNDS. 225
the results of culture and wealth in other places. open his eyes. to
other refined objects of expenditure, he cannot but see, living as he
does in the centre of a farming country, with open fields and
pleasant shade-trees only a few squares away, how he has cramped
his house, like a prisoner, between the walls of his stores and his
new neighbors, and has not even play-room for his children. But
the fine house is built and cannot be abandoned. ‘The neighbors,
with fine, but smaller city-houses, are in the same predicament.
They are all persons in good business, with (we will suppose) the
average taste of tolerably educated people for a certain degree of
elegance outside as well as inside their houses.
We have represented the entire fronts of the lots as bounded
by a low stone-wall and coping, making the grounds four steps
(twenty-eight inches) above the level of the sidewalks, and the main
floors of the houses five steps more, so that the basement-kitchens
for which all the houses are planned will be mostly above the level
of the ground. In addition to a fine ow iron fence on the stone
coping, and some elegant vases in the centre of each of the front
spaces between the walks, and the vines on the porches and ve-
randa, the three places nearest the store can have little more done
to them to make them attractive homes exteriorly. ‘The back-yard
of the double-house has room for a little decoration, and as. the
wall next to the alley has an east exposure, it is a good place for a
cold grape-house, and is used accordingly. The rear arcade and bay-
windows of the library and dining-rooms now have a pleasant look-
out on a pretty bit of grass-plat, dotted with a vase and a few beds
for low flowers; the grapery bounding the view in front, and a
square rose-covered arbor marking the intersections of the walks
on two sides of the fruit and vegetable square, behind the store-
yards. The other neighbors follow suit with cold grape-houses.
along the alley; the one on the extreme left improving on the
others by adding a decorative gable-entrance fronting the main
street, and forming a pleasing termination to the view of the side-
yard as seen from the front. These four places now have about all
the out-door comforts and beauties that the lots are capable of ;
but after all they are city houses, on cramped city lots.. The
pleasures incident to the care of these bits of lawn, the filling of the
28
226 PLANS OF RESIDENCES
vases, and the management of the vines and plants in the grape-
houses, all have a tendency to beget a craving for more room ; for
similar pleasures and more beautiful creations on a larger scale.
Mr. Smith, the owner of the stores and the double-house, has been
obliged to buy the lot back of the alley (100 x 185 feet) to get
room for his stable, vehicle, and man-servant. Not being in a
street where property is used for business, or popular for residences,
he buys it for a small part of what lots on the east street are worth ;
and the lot is first used for a horse and cow pasture, or run-ground,
in connection with the stable. Now let us suppose Mr. Smith is
one of those good specimens of business-men whose refined tastes
develop as their means increase, and that he longs, and that his
good family seconds the longing, for those lovely stretches of lawn
flecked with shadows of trees, margined with shrubberies, and
sparkling with flowers, that some friend’s acre has enabled him to
display ; that the family envy the possession of fine croquet grounds
where children, youth, and old people are alike merry in the open
summer air with the excitement of the battles of the balls; that
they desire some better place than the street to air the little chil-
dren, and to stroll with family familiarity on fair summer days, and
evenings, and sociable Sundays.
To obtain all these pleasant features of a home without going
into the country, or exchanging the home in the heart of the village
for a new one farther off, or giving up the convenient proximity to
his business which Mr. Smith has always enjoyed, we propose to
tunnel the alley, and to convert the cow-pasture-lot into a little
pleasure-ground, as shown on the plan. This project, however, pre-
supposes that the soil is naturally so gravelly as to be self-draining,
so that water might never rest in the tunnel, or else that drainage
for the bottom of the tunnel can be effected by a sewer in the alley
beneath it, or not far off.
It may be asked—“ why tunnel rather than bridge the alley?”
The reasons are conclusive in favor of the tunnel.
240 THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES.
Fic. 44. up old fir trees just high enough
to give a clear view of the lawn
under them, as shown by Fig. 44.
The reader will observe that a
glimpse of quite an extent of lawn
is suggested under the branches
of this tree. If, however, the
branches rested upon the ground,
the landscape vista would be
effectually shut out. The advan-
tage of this mode of treatment is
principally on small grounds, for,
were there space enough to secure
ample lawn-views without it, we would by no means recommend
this mode of securing them.
In choosing which to cut out, and which to retain, let it be
observed that a large tree of an inferior sort may be better worth
preserving than a small or thin specimen of varieties that are
otherwise superior. There is no more disagreeable impertinence
to the cultivated eye than the growth of slender starved saplings
planted under the branches of large trees, and striving to get to
the sun and sky by thrusting themselves between the limbs of their
superiors. As between a sugar-maple and a black oak, for in-
stance, the former is by far the most beautiful and desirable species
in all respects ; but, if you have a well branched large tree of the
latter and only young sapling maples, we would sacrifice the sap-
lings of the better breed for the mature beauty of the inferior oak.
There is a dignity in big trunks, and loftiness, for which the pretti-
ness of young trees is an unsatisfactory substitute.
Everybody has heard of the countryman who went to see a city
but “could not see the town, there were so many houses!” His
quaint speech ludicrously suggests the main fault of most old
places ; the multiplicity of their trees and shrubs conceal each
other, so that they have little beauty either singly or in the mass ;
and they are rarely so arranged as to make the home they surround
the centre of a sylvan picture. Wherever there are large trees
there must be proportional breadths of unbroken lawn—open spaces
THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES. 241
from which the trees can be seen, or their beauty is of no avail.
A dense forest around a home suggests the rudeness of pioneer
life, not the refinement of culture. Forests breed timber, not
sylvan beauty. It is the pasture-field, the park, and the brook-
space, that give sun and scope and moisture to develop the sylvan
pictures that painters love. Therefore in renovating over-grown
places, bear in mind that the cutting away of some of your old
trees may be necessary to reveal and improve the beauty of the
others.
Another and different fault of many old places, resulting from
the effort of uneducated planters to avoid the error of over-crowd-
ing trees and shrubs, is that of distributing them sparsely but
pretty evenly all over the place. This is destructive of all picture-
like effects, for it gives neither fine groups, nor open lawn ; and even
the single trees, however fine they may be, cannot be seen to
advantage, because there are no openings large enough to see them
from. ‘This must be remedied by clearing out in some places and
filling-in in others.
There is one value in the possession of thrifty saplings of sorts
not especially desirable, that few persons know, and which is very
rarely made use of. We refer to their usefulness as stocks upon
which to graft finer varieties, and by the greater strength of their
well-established roots producing a growth of the inserted sorts
much more luxuriant and showy than could be obtained in twice
the time by fresh plantings. The black oak is not worth preserv-
ing, unless of large size, but it can be readily grafted with the
scarlet oak. White oaks in superfluous number may be grafted
with the rare weeping oaks of England, or the Japan purple oak, or
some of the peculiar varieties of the Turkey oak. The common
chestnut (casfanea) may be grafted with ornamental varieties of the
Spanish chestnut ; the common horse-chestnut or buckeye with a
number of beautiful and singular varieties ; the common “ thorn
apple” of the woods with exquisite varieties of the English haw-
thorns ; and the same with maples, elms, and all those trees of which
grafts of novel varieties of the same species may be procured.
Scions of rare varieties may be procured at our leading nurseries,
or by sending through our seedsmen or nurserymen to England or
16
242 THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES.
France for them ; for which purpose application should of course
be made as early as mid-winter. These suggestions about using
trees to graft upon, apply only to young trees. Large ones should
not have their nobler proportions marred by such work.
Old apple-trees are not appreciated as they should be. No
tree of its size has a grander spread. Their horizontal branches
often have the majesty of small park-oaks. This look of low
breadth and strength is expressive of its domestic character, and
makes it peculiarly appropriate in proximity to residences of mod-
erate size and cottage character. Few trees are in leaf earlier ;
none are more fragrant or beautiful in bloom ; none bend with such
a ruddy glow of useful fruit. The fall of immature fruit is an objec-
tion to all fruit trees on lawns. If the proprietor is not tidy enough
to have his lawn always close mowed under them, and all insect-
bitten fruit and windfalls picked or raked up as soon as they drop,
then he does not deserve to have trees that are at the same time
beautiful and useful.* These remarks apply especially to full-
grown trees. It is only after the apple-tree is from thirty to forty
years old that it attains a noble expression, and its best character-
istics, like those of the oak and chestnut, are developed in its
old age.
Apple or other low branching. trees that have become decrepit
from age or insects, can be turned to pleasing use by cutting off
their branches several feet from the main trunks and training vines
over them. The pipe-vine or birthwort (Azistolochia sipho), with
its luxuriant mass of large heart-shape leaves, makes a superb show
on supports of this kind. Almost any of our twining or creeping
vines are beautiful enough in such places, and few more so than
the common hop; but running roses, though often used in this way,
are the least suitable. Trees whose tops are not sound enough to
be thus used, may often be sawed off from one to three feet
above the ground, and used for bases of rustic flower-vases or
* We protest against doing violence to old apple-trees by cutting them to pieces to gva/t
them with better ones. The beauty of a broad old tree is worth more than the additional value
of grafted fruit will ever be. One cannot see an old apple-tree near a house thus marred, with-
out thinking that the owner is either beauty-blind, or so penurious that he grudges the old tree
its room upon the lawn unless he can make it pay ground-rent.
Dr Shirai: ¢
Silay lyst Mbby
matin satu tial seal tee oor)
oe MAG ad) poppies Bil ied! 2400q
a
Pics kx. Forms «for Mose -~Beds
£ | Fig.70 \ ~ ae Y . 4 . | A7y. //
ign fas ss |
OF Ob 2 Mi Se 6S AL igor toutes
ce :
Scale ’6™ inch —to one foot
THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES. 243
baskets ; provided they stand in places where it is appropriate to
have flower-vases.
Old shrubs of any of the standard species, if of large size, even
though unshapely, may often be turned to good account in the
places where they stand, by using them as centres for groups of
smaller shrubs. Sometimes their very irregularity of outline will
make them picturesque objects to stand conspicuously alone on the
lawn. Often a shrub of noble size has been hid by inferior shrubs
and trees crowding it, which may all be removed to bring it into
full relief. The beauty of full and well grown single specimens of
our most common shrubs is as little known as though they were
the most recent introductions from Japan. Not one American in
a thousand, even among those most observant of sylvan forms, has
ever seen a perfectly grown bush-honeysuckle, lilac, snow-ball, or
syringa, though every suburban home in the land is filled with
them. Growing either in crowded clumps, or under trees, or in
poor uncultivated sodden soil, we have learned to love them merely
for their lavish beauty of bloom, and have not yet Jearned what
breadth and grace of foliage they develop when allowed to spread
from the beginning, on an open lawn.
There are no worse misplantings in most old grounds than old
rose-bushes, whose annual sprouts play hide-and-seek with the
rank grass they shelter—roses which the occupants from time im-
memorial have remembered gratefully for their June bloom, till
their sweetness and beauty have become associated with the
tangled grass they growin. There is no reason for having a lawn
broken by such plants. Rose-bushes do better for occasional trans-
plantings, and their bloom and foliage is always finer in cultivated,
than in grassy ground. Mass them where they can be cultivated
and enriched together. Plate XXXI shows many forms for rose-
beds, and by using care in keeping the strongest growers nearest
the centre, varieties enough may be displayed in one snug bed to
spoil a quarter-acre lawn planted in the old way—“ wherever there
is a good open space’”—precisely the space that should not be
broken by anything, least of all by such straggling growers as
roses.
Do not be in haste to decide where the shrubs you dig up shall
244 THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES.
be planted again. When the air and sun have been let in to the
roots and tops of the best large trees and shrubs, and the lawn is
completed about them, it may be that the effect of your lawn, and
the trees that shadow it, will be nobler it you omit altogether all
the smaller shrubs. Large trees and shrubs are robbed of half
their beauty if they have not a fair expanse of unbroken lawn
around them.
VINES ON OLD TREES.—Some evergreens, the balsam-fir for
instance, and the hemlock when it is old, becomé gloomy-looking
trees. The black oak and red oak have also a similar expression,
though entirely different in form. If such trees stand where more
cheerful and elegant trees are needed, the desired improvement
may be made by enriching the ground near their trunks, and plant-
ing at their base, on both sides, such vines as the Chinese wistaria
and the trumpet-creeper, which will cover them to their summits in
a few years with a mass of graceful spray and luxuriant leafage.*
The Chinese wistaria is probably better adapted to cover lofty
trees than other climbers, but the trumpet-creeper, Virginia-creep-
er, the native varieties of the clematis, and the Japan and Chinese
honeysuckles, may all be used. The wild grape-vine is admirable
for filling up trees of thin and straggling growth, such as the oaks
before named. The hardy grape, known as the Clinton, is well
adapted to this use, while very good wine can be made of its
fruit. Perhaps no flowering vine excels it in luxuriance of foliage-
drapery, but its prolific fruitage renders it necessary to bestow a
good deal of time in gathering the clusters scattered among the
branches of a lofty tree. There is no question that the value of
the fruit will far more than pay for the labor, but unless picked
clean every year it may disfigure both the tree and the lawn.
Whether the birds will insure against any damage of this kind we
have not had the means of learning.
* An exquisite example of the’effect of such planting is an old hemlock at ‘‘ Cottage Place,”
Germantown, Pa. The tree is three feet in diameter and eighty feet high. At a little distance it
cannot be recognized as a hemlock, so completely is its lofty summit crowned with a magnificent
drapery of the waving foliage of the Chinese wistaria. A root of the wistaria was planted on eack
side of the trunk. Their stems are now from six to eight inches in diameter.
THE RENOVATION OF OLD PLACES. 245
In conclusion, it may be safely said that new places rarely
afford a skillful planter such opportunities for making quick and
beautiful effects at small cost as old places of similar extent. Our
town suburbs would in a half dozen years be more beautiful than
most persons can conceive possible, even without the addition of
a single new home, provided all the old homes could feel the renovat-
ing hands of true artists in home-grounds, and be kept up in the
same spirit. The metamorphosis of such places, from cluttered
aggregations of superfluities, to gleaming lawns, smilingly intro-
ducing the beholder to beautiful trees and flowers that luxuriate in
the new-made space and sun around them, is too great not to in-
spire those who have profited by the change to preserve the beauty
that may so easily be brought to light.
Op HouseEs.—Old places which have houses “just good enough
not to move off or tear down,” are greatly undervalued by most
purchasers. It is not quite in the scope of this work to put ina
plea for old houses, but we must confess to a very loving partiality
for them when tastefully renovated. No one, however, but an _
architect who is known to have a tasteful faculty for such adapta-
tions should be employed to direct the work.* There is a thought-
less prejudice in the minds of most Americans against all things
which are not span-new ; and we have met men of such ludicrous
depravity of taste in this respect, as to cut down fine old trees in
order to have room to plant some pert and meagre little nurslings
of their own buying! Although houses do not grow great by age,
like trees, yet, where strongly built at first, and afterwards well
occupied, they acquire certain quaint expressions which are the
very aroma of pleasing homes ; which nothing but age can give a
home ; and this beauty of some old houses should be as lovingly
preserved as that of the aged apple, maple, or eli trees around
them.
* The attention of the reader 1s commended to Vaux’ “ Villas and Cottages,’ page 205, for
some valuable remarks on this subject.
We are the sweet flowers
Born of sunny showers,
(Think whene’er you see us, what our beauty saith),
Utterance mute and bright,
Of some unknown delight,
We fill the air with pleasure by our simple breath:
All who see us, love us:
We befit our places;
Unto sorrow we give smiles, unto graces—races.
See (and scorn all duller
Taste) how heaven loves color ;
How great Nature clearly joys in red and green;
What sweet thoughts she thinks,
Of violets and pinks,
And a thousand flushing hues made solely to be seen ;
See her whited lilies
Chill the silver showers,
And what a red mouth is her rose, the woman of her flowers.
Chorus of Flowers, LEIGH Hunt.
S all vegetable productions, from the greatest trees to the
minute mosses, are equally flowering plants, it is to be
understood that the subject of flowers, as here treated,
is limited to observations on annuals, perennials, and
bedding plants.
FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS, 247
Considering such flowers as the finishing decorations of a
home, as accessory embellishments rather than) principal features,
it is desired to suggest the places where they may be put with the
best effect rather than to give descriptions of even a small number
of their almost innumerable variety. The immense collections of
our leading seedsmen, and their beautifully illustrated catalogues,
give a bewildering sense of the folly of attempting to know, much
less to grow, a hundredth part of those which are reputed desira-
ble ; and they also force upon us the wise reflection that the good
growth and skilful arrangement of a few species only, will produce
effects quite as pleasing as can be attained with the greatest
variety.
Annuals, perennials, and bedding plants are used in three
tolerably distinct modes, viz.: First, in narrow beds bordering a
straight walk to a main entrance, or skirting the main walk of a
kitchen-garden. Second, in a variety of beds of more or less
symmetrical patterns, grouped to form a flower-garden or parterre,
to be an object of interest independent of its surroundings.
Third, as adjuncts and embellishments of a lawn, of groups of
shrubs, of walks and window views, to be planted with reference to
their effect in connection with other things.
On large and expensively kept grounds all these styles may be
maintained in appropriate places respectively. But on small
lots the first or the last mode should be adopted, though some-
times both may be desirable.
The simplest and rudest mode of planting in the first style, is
to border a walk closely with a continuous bed from two to four
feet wide, filled with flowering plants of all sizes and shapes and
periods of bloom,—here overhanging the walk with unkempt growth,
like weeds, there leaving a broad barren spot where spring-flowers
have bloomed and withered. Fortunately this mode is becoming
less common, and the pretty setting of a margin of well-cut grass
is better appreciated than formerly.
Flower-beds cut in the grass have a more pleasing effect than
when bordered by gravel-walks. When made as marginal embel-
lishments of straight walks, they should rarely be cut nearer than
two feet from the side of the walk if they are of much length
248 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
parallel with it; but where the openings between the beds are
frequent, or the beds are in circles or squares with their points
to the walk, one foot of grass between their nearest points and the
walk will answer. Narrow beds of formal outlines or geometric
forms of a simple character, are preferable to irregular ones. All
complicated “curlecue” forms should be avoided. Plate XXX
shows a variety of shapes for flower-beds on straight walks. Such
beds must, of course, be proportioned in size and form to the
dimensions of the lawn in which they are cut. They should never
be planted where there is not a space of open lawn back of them
equal at least in average width to the distance across the walk
from one bed to another. Being close to the eyes of all those who
use the walks, they must be planted and kept with a care that is
less essential in beds seen from a greater distance. This style of
cultivation necessitates far more labor than the third, which we
have adopted in most of the plans for suburban lots. To keep a
great number of small beds filled through the summer with low
blooming flowers, and their edges well cut, is expensive ; and, if
they are also planned so that the grass strips between them must
be cut with a sickle, few gentlemen of moderate means will long
have the patience to keep them with the nice care essential to their
good effect.
The border-beds shown on Plate XXX, are all arranged
so that a rolling lawn-cutter may be used easily by hand be-
tween them. These plans are especially adapted to places with
straight main walks, where the gentleman or lady of the house is
an enthusiastic florist. Walk No. 1 shows a row of round beds
from two to three feet in diameter on each side; the alternate -
circles to be filled with bushy single plants from one and a half to
two feet high, and the others with low bedding flowers that do not
exceed six inches in height. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are narrow strips,
and circles or squares alternated. Such slender evergreens as the
Irish juniper, clipped tree-box, and some of the many dwarf firs,
may be used with good effect in some of these circles, but must
not be too frequent. The beds at the sides of walks 5 and 6,
require more lawn-room on each side, and will look best filled,
each, with a single color of the lowest bedding-plants. The
Pea. Meee ee
eo inal
Ser GN © E> <
NPL Watk Nee.
oe 80 © ES
itl eo timers’ A] 21d TARE AA
‘ got - ‘ 4
Pte), x abe. d. atioar. vinta iin chesmiameaes
= , ido hed gn canes
yuo «ft, whip bae el
\ " 7 da - y file
“shins etch eae phe
Ri tierer iw Wond DAE Se!
; Py o3s2it) 3
{ ijisesaliS ig
: t azerp sil
ar obi Sorte Ine ae
4 exo Hardy aie Be
: odz allen 2ecehstpodaaikeae
- sw bu Poet pet eel sat
‘oni sah oie eae
waht ponte: y Cea 4
shed sl? te esd See
Ret
hesa aan anhinag nis |
fo ssl eadaoe “ebttth fare 5 : |
: ae MICH TSI merit nicl cht
“Hbesnd telnet
; . : “raven! or ees oaeeaiege geal
: “ por bi-w ote BEd ate stint Oe
; 1 srcep toil a Aly Te gees
_; al td antl Sarin gai
ah lutge oe ahr a a
i’ 4: > adie Sno eben
= ot wiep bres pe be
ia rs a Ses fan
t ; Td) Odpote tise
: : - 1-5? gait anos
7 ner ¢ t ‘Ay Se Sides wom 01
= ote ‘or nal 9 iM
wr.
@ . Ks
vst
‘a>
Src
¢ eli
himeiienaa eT
exgntd <3 BATES Was / cca okby
feb Yleitens esisoge yaa
AND THEIR SETTINGS. 249
same remark will apply to the beds on walks 8 and 11. Walks 7
and ro have larger beds suitable for filling with plants of different
colors and heights. The former is intended to be bordered,
between the beds, with square boxes filled with plants from the
conservatory, and back of them, in the circles, clipped dwarf ever-
greens ; the latter (10) is to have the small circles next the walk
occupied by a succession of pot-plants in bloom, set in larger pots
buried in the grass to receive them, so that the former can be
taken up and put one side when the grass is to be cut.
Flower-beds which are not more than two feet in width, and on
the borders of walks, should have no plants in them more than
eighteen inches high, including the height of the flower-stalks, and
plants from six to fifteen inches in height have the best effect. In
wider beds, by placing the low growing sorts in front, or on the
outside edges of the beds, the higher show to good advantage
behind them.
In sowing flower-seeds, which are intended to cover a bed,
put them in drills across the bed so that a hoe may be used be-
tween the plants when they appear.
To make a fine display throughout the season, in beds for low
flowers, it is necessary to have at least two sets or crops of plants ;
one from bulbs, such as snow-drops, crocuses, jonquils, hyacinths,
and tulips, all of which may be planted in October, to bloom the
following spring; while the bedding-plants for the later bloom,
such as verbenas, portulaccas, phlox drummondii, etc., etc., are
being started. The bulbs of the former should remain in the
ground till June and July to ripen, but the summer blooming plants
can be planted between the bulbs, so that the latter can be re-
moved without disarranging the former. Persons having good hot-
bed frames, or a green-house to draw from, may make more
brilliant beds by more frequent changes, but two crops, if well
managed, will be quite satisfactory.
Few persons are aware of the grand displays that may be made
in a single season by the use of those annuals, perennials, and
bedding-plants which grow quickly to great size. Proprietors com-
mencing with bare grounds can make them very effective tempo-
rary substitutes for shrubbery. Many species, especially those
250 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
half-hardy plants of recent introduction, which are remarkable for
the great size, or rich colors of their leaves, are large enough to
form, by themselves, groups of considerable size and beauty, from
midsummer till frost. Of these, the different varieties of the
ricinus (castor-bean plants) are the most imposing in height,
breadth, and size of leaves. The tree ricinus, &. borboniensis
arboreus, grows in one season to the height of fifteen feet ; the #.
sanguineous, ten feet; the silver-leaved, &. africanus albidus, eight
feet, and the common castor-oil bean, &. communis, five feet.
These are all great spreading plants. The axunda donax is a tall
plant resembling the sugar-cane, grows rapidly to the height of ten
feet, and takes up but little room horizontally. The magnificent
cannas are of all sizes, from two to seven feet in height, and mass
well either in beds by themselves, or with low plants of lighter-
colored foliage in front of them, and the avwnda donax or the Japan-
ese striped maize behind them. ‘The Japanese striped maize is a
curiously beautiful species of corn from four to six feet in height,
with leaves brightly striped with white and green. The hollyhocks
are noble perennials greatly neglected. Few plants make so showy
a display massed in beds, to be seen ata little distance. Height,
three to six feet. The wégandia caracasana is a very robust
bedding-plant which attains the height of six feet, and is remark-
able for the size and beauty of its leaves. The JVicotea atro-
purpurea grandifiora is also noticeable for the robust beauty of its
foliage, to which is added the charm of showy dark-red blossoms.
The beauty of the gorgeous-leaved colleus verschafelli is pretty
well known. In the open sun, and in rich moist soil, each plant
will form a compact mass of foliage two feet in height and
breadth. It also makes a brilliant border for the larger plants.
The larger geraniums can also be used for the same purpose, and
sweet peas, the larger cenotheras, the “ium giganteum, and many
others, are good taller plants to place behind them. While masses
of shrubs usually display their greatest floral beauty in the spring
and early summer, these grand annuals and semi-tropical plants
attain their greatest luxuriance of leaf and bloom at the season’s
close. The brilliantly-colored or variegated-leaved plants, most of
which are half-hardy, require to be propagated and grown in pots
AND THEIR, SETTINGS. 251
in the green-house, but flourish in the open ground during the
summer months with great luxuriance, and are among the brightest
and most interesting features of suburban lawns. We have named
but few out of many of the plants suitable for forming showy
masses or conspicuous single specimens. Descriptive lists of all
which are valuable may be found in the illustrated catalogues of
the great florists and nurserymen.
Fic. 45.
Walk
FO ula
Fig. 45, drawn to the scale of one-sixteenth of an inch to one
foot, is a design for a group of small beds to border a straight short
walk on each side, and opposite each other. A low broad
vase for flowers occupies the centre; the beds 2, 2, to be
filled with brilliant bedding bulbs for a spring bloom, and
such plants as verbenas, phlox drummondii, and portulaccas for
the summer and autumn bloom. The larger beds 3 and 4
(which would be better if finished with a small circle at their
points), will have a good effect filled first with bedding-bulbs
like the former, and afterwards with a variety of geraniums
diminishing in size towards the point of the bed; or roots of the
great Japan lily, Zum auratum, may be planted in the widest
part of the beds to show their regal flowers above the masses of
the geraniums. If such a variety of green-house flowers is greater
than the planter wishes to procure, these larger beds, two on each
side of the walk, may be filled very showily with petunias in one,
dwarf perennial poppies in another, dwarf salvias in another, and
coxcombs or pinks in another. The vase, if a broad one, may
have a plant of Japanese striped maize for its centre, two cod/eus
verschafelti, and two mountain-of-snow geraniums alternated
around it, and around the edge of the vase the znca elegantissima,
the Jobelia erinus paxtoni, the trope@olium, or some half a dozen
other drooping plants of brilliant foliage and blossoms which a
florist may name.
252 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
Fig. 46 is a group of five small
beds on the outside of a circular
walk. No. 1 may be filled with
four canna plants of sorts from
ner ows) Walicy ok ae three to four feet high ; the beds
ee aT meee 2, and 2, one with Lady Pollock
geranium, and the other with
some one gorgeous-leaved plant of about the same size; and beds
3 and 4 with brilliant trailing flowers.
Fic. 46.
Fic. 47.
(el, 4 asad leu
Walk
Fig. 47 is a group of beds requiring more space, and adapted
to the inner side of a curved walk where there is considerable
depth of lawn behind. V— is a large low vase. ‘The circular ex-
tremities a, a, a, may be filled with compact specimens of curious-
leaved plants like the Lady Pollock, or mountain-ofsnow gera-
nium, colleus verschafelti, iresene herbstit, etc., etc.; or they may
be more permanently occupied by such very dwarf evergreens as
the Adies nigra pumula, the garden boxwood, or the Andromeda
floribunda, The narrow parts of the two beds next to the walks
should be occupied by some shrubby little annuals or perennials
which do not exceed nine inches in height, and the balance of the
beds filled with plants increasing in size towards the vase, none of
which, however, should be higher than the top of the vase. ‘The
rear bed should be filled in a similar manner, and being further
from the walk, may be occupied with showy plants of coarser
foliage than the front beds. By an error in the drawing the circu-
lar front of the back bed is made further from the vase than the
side ones. It should be made larger in the direction of the vase,
and have its corners truncated like the others.
AND THEIR SETTINGS. 253
Fig. 48 is a circular series of eight beds
formed on an octagonal plan, with a large
vase for flowers in the centre, a width of four
feet in lawn around the vase, and the beds, ae e =
five feet in length, radiating as shown. The
plan is suitable for an open space, to give G eS © EB -
interest to a window view, or to face a
porch where the entrance-walk runs parallel &
with the house. So many different plants
may here be used with good effect, that,
whichever we may name, may be bettered
by a more skillful florist. Yet we will suggest for the widest part
of these beds, stools of the eight finest Japan lilies, to be sur-
rounded by fall planted bulbs that bloom in April and May, which
can be removed by the first of June; these to be followed by such
plants as gladiolus and tuberoses, on the ends nearest the vase,
and by the finest eight varieties of compact geraniums in the outer
circles. Or the beds may be planted with an entirely fresh variety
of flowers every year.
Fig. 49 is a group of flower-beds suita-
ble to place at the end of a walk or at the
intersection of diverging walks. A rustic
or other vase is here, also, the centre. of the
group, with four or five feet of lawn around
it. The beds a, a, should be filled with
flowers that do not exceed six or nine
inches in height. The beds 4, ¢, and d, are
large enough to allow of considerable vari-
ety in their composition. The two smaller ese ve
ones should have no plants that grow
higher than two feet, while in the middle of
the bed @, and in the trefoil end, may be planted those which grow
from three to five feet in height.
Fig. 50 (drawn to a scale of one-twelfth of an inch to one foot)
requires a larger space such as that made by the turn circle of a
roadway, or a place where a walk or road describes the segment of
a circle with an open lawn on the inside of the curve. A tree might
Fic. 48.
Fic. 49,
254 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
be planted at the centre, where a vase is designated, and these beds
could be formed around it for half a dozen years or more, or until
the shade from its branches renders the location unsuitable for
the growth of flowers. If a tree
Fic. 50. be not preferred, then the single
Mk oF Roadway, vase, or a large basket-vase with a
aio
smaller vase rising out of it, would
be the most appropriate centre-
© piece for such a group. The four
principal beds are about twelve
feet in length on their middle lines,
( ©
and two and a half feet in greatest
diameter. The dots show places
for nine robust and compact plants,
which may be from four to five
feet in height in the centre, and
diminish to one foot at each end.
Where good plants can be ob-
tained from a green-house, we recommend for the centre of one
bed the Canna cocinea vera, or the C. Lindleyana, which grow
to five feet in height, to be flanked with pairs, divided one on
each side, of the following varieties, viz.: the C. Ambata major,
four feet high; the C. dicolor de Fava, three feet ; C. flaccida, three
feet; C. compacta clegantissima, two feet; and C. augustifolia
nana pallida, one foot. Many other varieties will do just as
well as the ones named, provided they are of a size to diminish
symmetrically from the centre to the ends of the bed. For the
centre of another bed the Micoteana atro-purpurea grandifiora, a
noble, large-leaved plant, that grows five feet in height, and
bears panicles of dark-red blossoms ; next to this on either side a
plant of Canna gigantea splendidissima, three feet ; then a pair of
Acanthus mollis, three feet; next the Amaranthus bicolor, two
feet ; and for the ends, the Lady Pollock geranium, one to two
feet. For the centre of a third bed the Wigandia caracasana may
be used, being another of the splendid leaved plants recently intro-
duced. It grows to the height of six feet. This may be flanked
on either side with the Ricinus communis, four to five feet high ;
AND THEIR SLTTINGS. 205
next to these a mass of hollyhocks of stocky growth; next the
Mirabilis (four o’clock), and on the points the Coleus verschafelte.
In the centre of the fourth bed may be a stool of Japanese striped
maize, five to six feet high; next on either side a plant of the
striped-leaved Canna zebrina, five feet high; next, and in the
centre-line of the bed, the Ze//ium auratum, with the Lilium longt-
florum near the edge of the bed; next the Salvia argentia, three
feet; and for the ends of the bed the Amaranthus melancholicus
ruber, one to two feet high. The four outside circles may be filled
respectively with the Col/eus verschafelti, of gorgeous crimson and
purple leaves ; the mountain-of-snow geranium, with white foliage
and scarlet flowers ; the Amaranthus bicolor, with green and crim-
son leaves; and the Lady Pollock geranium with variegated
leaves. The vase for a group of beds of this size should be large,
and well filled in the centre with gay-leaved plants, with more deli-
cate foliage drooping over its sides. If such groups are made
without a vase in the centre, we suggest in place of it, the planting
of an Arunda donax within a circle of Japanese maize, the bed to
be about three feet in diameter, and well enriched ; or the Irish
juniper may be planted as a permanent and more formal centre.
Fig. 51 is a design for a number of beds occupying so great
a space that it would constitute a flower-garden. ‘The centre bed
is supposed to be cut within a circle of four feet radius, so that
it will be eight feet in diameter from point to point. The eight
circular beds surrounding it are each three and a half feet in
diameter, and laid out so that their centres are on a circle eight
feet from the main centre. The inside ends of the outer circle of
beds are segments of circles struck from the centres of the small
beds, and may be made of any form that the surrounding features
of the place suggest. The most elegant feature for the centre of
the central bed would be a broad shallow vase two feet in height,
and four in breadth, on top, elevated on a pedestal two feet
high, which should be concealed by a dense mass of shrubby
flowering plants around it; the sides of the vase to be draped
with pendulous plants overhanging its sides, and its centre filled
with plants of a tropical appearance. Next in elegance to the large
vase-centre would be a basket-bed similar to the one shown in the
256 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
Fic, 51.
Re pain
AOCJOb
aed ;
hy OT
engraving at the end of this chapter. This would require a different
style of planting. Supposing its base to be four feet in diameter,
there would be a margin of two feet all around it for low trailing
flowers. The design for a basket-vase is intended for an open lawn,
and shows a collection of plants quite different from what would be
best for the design under consideration. Here we would have for
its centre a single group of the Canna sanguinea chatet, surrounded
by a circle of Japanese maize ; next a circle of Salvia argentea, and
for the outside border the Lady Pollock geranium inter-planted with
some of the slender, drooping, light-leaved plants, named farther on
in this chapter, for the decoration of vases.
If this central bed is to have neither a pedestal-vase nor basket-
vase, it may still be made the most conspicuous point of interest in
the parterre with plants alone. It is desirable that the lawn should
rise gently towards it on all sides, and that the bed be raised in
the centre as much as may be without making the earth liable to
be washed upon the lawn. In the centre, 7 ‘his flower-garden is
intended to be permanent, we would plant the remarkable variety of
the European silver fir, known as the Picea pectinata pendula, or
the variety of the Norway spruce, known as the Adzes excelsa in-
verta, shown in Fig. 52; and around it a circle of the tallest Japan
lilies ; next a circle of the mountain-of-snow geranium alternated
AND THEIR SETTINGS. 257
with gladiolii ; and for the outside of the same bed, the Coleus
verschafelti, alternated with the Lady Pollock geranium. Some
years will be required to grow the evergreens named to the size
that will make them appropriate centres for such a parterre. If a
showy bed is required the first season without the use of either
vase, basket, or evergreen tree-centre, the following plants may be
suggested to effect it, viz.: for the centre, the Canna gigantea
auriantica, ten feet high; around it on a circle eighteen inches
from the centre, the Canna sanguinea chatet, six feet high, to be
planted one foot apart in the circle ; next on a circle one foot
further out, the Sa/via argentea, or the mountain-of-snow geranium,
to be planted one foot apart in the circle ; for the next circle,
one foot from the same, the Amaranthus melancholicus ruber, a
plant of deep-red foliage from one to two feet high ; and for the
edge of the bed the fern-like low white-leaved Centaurea gymmno-
carpa; or if plants of the latter are too expensive to use freely,
make a border of the common Indian pink, or the blue lobelia.
These plants, if successfully grown, will make a magnificent bed
from midsummer till frost. For a display in the first half of the
season, early blooming bulbous flowers must be relied upon. We
have thus far considered only the central-bed of the group shown
in Fig. 51, and have suggested various modes of treating it which
would be equally applicable to a round bed of the size named, were
it disconnected with the surrounding beds. For the small circular-
beds, each alternate one may have a cluster of the Japanese striped
maize in its centre; the other four beds might have in their
centres the Canna flaccida, the Nicotiana atropurpurea grandifiora,
the Canna gigantea splendidissima, and the Wigandia caracasana.
Around their edges may be planted any well-foliaged flowering-
plants which do not exceed nine inches in height, and a different
species in each bed. The outside tier of beds are for low bedding
flowers or annuals, which should not exceed fifteen inches: in height
for the centres, or more than six inches near the borders. |
Fig. 52 represents a circular-bed with one of the pendulous firs
mentioned in a preceding page, in its centre, and such tall growing
brilliant flowers as the Japan lilies and gladiolii next to it ; a circle
of petunias around them; and creeping plants near the margin.
ati
258 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
Fic. 52.
The common firs are often planted to form centres for such beds,
but they soon grow to such over-shadowing size as to be quite un-
suitable. The weeping silver fir, and weeping Norway spruce,
however, are pendulous to such a degree that they make but slow
additions to their breadth. If their central stems or leaders are
kept vertical by tying to a stake or straight twig bound to the stem
below, and the side branches trimmed back whenever they show a
tendency to the normal form, the appearance shown in the cut may
be preserved for many years. Where these varieties of the fir are
not to be had, the-Irish juniper, or the hemlock, may be substituted.
The former of those trees is almost monumental in its slender
formality, but is pleasing in color and delicate foliage. ‘The latter,
if trimmed back every spring in April or May, but not afterwards
during that season, will exhibit during the rest of the year the most
airy outline of pendulous spray. The trimming in the spring must
not be done so as to leave a solidly conical hedge-like form, but
with some irregularity, zmtfating within slender limits the freedom
of outline natural to the hemlock ;—the idea being to produce by
artificial means the appearance of one of nature’s abnormal varieties
or sports, which will bear the same relation to the common form
of the hemlock that the pendulous fir in the cut bears to its family.
The last cut of this chapter, already alluded to, is a form of
AND THETR SETTINGS. 259
basket-vase now little used, which we recommend as an appro-
priate embellishment for a lawn, when filled with suitable plants.
Such basket forms may be made either of rustic woodwork, of
terra-cotta, or of iron, and need have no bottom ; or at least only
rims around the bottoms on the inside sufficient to prevent them
from settling into the ground unevenly. When filled with earth
they form simply raised beds to be planted with such things as the
taste of the owner may choose. The basket form simply gives an
artistic relief to the bed, and at the same time is so low that it does
not obtrusively break the views over a small lawn, like those tall
vases of a garish complexion which are often seen in lonely isola-
tion, thrust forward “to show.” All vases of classic forms need to
be supported by architectural constructions of some kind, near by,
which harmonize with them in style; or else to be so embowered
with the foliage of the plants they bear, and by which they are sur-
rounded, in the summer months at least, that they will gleam
through leaves and flowers like the face of a beautiful woman seen
through a veil. The variety of forms and sizes for basket-beds is
illimitable ; they may be suited to almost any spot where a flower-
bed is desirable, and can be made cheaply, or with costly art, as
the surroundings may suggest. We venture, however, to warn their
makers not to put arch-handles over them. A basket form is chosen
because it is pretty and convenient, but it does not follow that the
bed of flowers should make any pretence to be in fact a real basket
of flowers. The transparency of the deception makes it ridiculous.
Rustic vases made of crooked joints and roots of trees, and
twigs with or without their bark, have become quite common,
and are often made so strongly and skilfully as to be pleasing
works of art. Strength, durability, and firmness on their bases
are the essential qualities which they must have. Any construc-
tions of this kind which suggest flimsy wood, or bungling carpen-
try, or rotting bark, or want of firmness at the base, though they
may be planted to give a pretty effect at first, soon become rickety
nuisances. But those which are “strongly built, and well,”
are certainly more likely to have a pleasing effect on common
grounds than little plaster, iron, or stone vases, and cannot so
easily be used amiss. All rustic constructions of this kind will last
260 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
much longer, and look cleaner, if the wood is obtained when the
bark will peel readily, and made up with no bark upon it. The
first effect is certainly less rustic, but sufficiently so to harmonize
with the surroundings of a suburban home ; and after a few years
the advantages of the barkless constructions are very evident.
There is a frequent fault in the use of vases, whether rustic or clas-
sic, that mars all their beauty wherever they are placed. We refer to
the want of care in keeping their tops level, and their centres vertical.
A house “out of plum” is not more unsightly than a vase awry.
The plants used with good effect in rustic vases are those which
have large and showy or curiously marked leaves, for the centres,
surrounded by delicate-leaved drooping or trailing plants. The gor-
geous crimson-leaved Coleus verschafelti is a deserved favorite for
vases of good size, being a rank grower and developing its greatest
beauty in exposures open on all sides to the sun. The following
are some of the plants recommended by Henderson, in his book of
Practical Floriculture, for the central portions of small baskets, and
will answer also for small vases: “The Centaurea candida, a plant
of white, downy leaves, of compact growth; Tom Thumb geranium,
scarlet, dwarf, and compact, blooming all summer; Sedum sze-
boldii, a plant of light glaucus foliage and graceful habit ;” and
for large baskets the following: “ Mrs. Pollock geranium, foliage
crimson, yellow and green, flowers bright scarlet; Centaurea
gymnocarpa, foliage fern-like, whitish gray, of a peculiar graceful
habit; Sedum sieboldit variegatum, glaucus green, marbled with
golden yellow; Achyranthes gilsonii, a beautiful shade of carmine
foliage and stem ; Alyssum dentatum variegatum, foliage green and
white, with fragrant flowers of pure white ; A/temanthera spathula,
lanceolate leaves of pink and crimson; pyrethrum or golden
feather, fern-like foliage, golden yellow.” For plants to put around
the edge of a small basket or vase, and to fall pendant from its
sides, he recommends the following: ‘“ Lobelia erinus paxtoni,
an exquisite blue, drooping eighteen inches; Zrop@olum (ball
of fire), dazzling scarlet, drooping eighteen inches ; Lysimachia
numularia, lowers bright yellow, drooping eighteen inches ; Limaria
cymbalaria, inconspicuous flowers but graceful foliage.” For the
edging or pendant plants of a large basket he recommends the
AND THEIR SETTINGS. 261
following, which are also suitable for the edging of a vase: “ Mau-
randia barclayana, white or purple flowers; Vinca clegantissima
aurea, foliage deep green, netted with golden yellow, flowers deep
blue ; Cerastium tomentosum, foliage downy white, flowers white ;
Convolvulus mauritanicus, flowers light blue, profuse; Solanum
jasminoides variegatum, foliage variegated, flowers white with yel-
low anthers: Geranium peltatum elegans, a variety of the ivy-
leaved, with rich glossy foliage and mauve-colored flowers: Favz-
cum variegatum, a procumbent grass from New Caledonia, of
graceful habit of growth, with beautiful variegated foliage, striped
white, carmine, and green.” ‘These are mostly half-hardy con-
servatory plants, and if the proprietor has no conservatory they
must be purchased, when wanted, of the florists, or they may be
started by a skillful lady-florist in her own window. Nearly every
lady of refined taste longs to have a conservatory of her own. But
a building, or even an entire room, built for, and devoted to plants
alone, is an expensive luxury. Those who have well-built houses
heated by steam, or other good furnaces, may easily have a plant-
window in a sunny exposure in which the plants required to bed
in open ground the following summer may be reared ; and beautiful
well-grown plants may be obtained from the commercial florists to
keep the window gay with blossoms and foliage at a price greatly
below the cost for which amateurs can raise them in their own con-
servatories. These remarks are not designed to discourage the
building of private conservatories by those who can afford them—far
from it—but rather to suggest to those who cannot afford them, not
to be envious of those who can.
Roses.—We have not previously mentioned the Rose, among
flowers and bedding plants, for the reason that, being the queen
of flowers, more than ordinary attention is usually considered due
to her. Besides, her royal family are so numerous, so varied and
interesting in their characters, and have been the subject of so
many compliments from poets, and biographical notices from pens
of distinguished horticulturists, that it would be presumption
to attempt to describe, in a few brief paragraphs, the peculiar
beauties and characteristics of the family; still less of all its
thousand members. The mere fact of royalty, however, has at-
262 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS,
tracted such numbers of admirers and chroniclers of their beauty,
that, in failing to do justice to them by any observations of our
own, there is a satisfaction in knowing that scores of their devoted
admirers have written lovingly and sensibly of them; and from
their pages, we may glean and present such general information
concerning the relative rank, characters, and habits of the various
roses as comes within the scope of a work on the arts of arrange-
ment, rather than a floral manual of classification or culture.
In all the languages of civilized nations volumes have been
written on the history, the poetical and legendary associations, the
classification, and the culture of the rose; so that, whoever desires
to be especially well informed on any branch of knowledge per-
taining to roses will seek among the books in his own language
for the special and full information he desires. As roses come
properly under the head of shrubs, we shall, under that head,
give so much on the subject as may be necessary in connec-
tion with the embellishment of suburban places, together with a
plate of designs for rose-beds, of a great variety of sizes and forms,
with various selections of roses that may be used to advantage in
filling them. We will only add here what has before been men-
tioned in connection with the subject of arrangement, that the
planting of rose-bushes, as isolated small shrubs on a lawn, is al-
most always a misplacement. There are a few sorts, especially
some of the wild bush-roses, which form fine compact bushes,
sufficiently well foliaged to be pleasing all the summer months
when not in bloom ; but the greater part of the finest roses, par-
ticularly the perpetuals which make a straggling and unequal
growth, produce a far finer effect when planted fretty snugly in
masses. A practice of planting each root of a sort by itself, like
so many hills of potatoes, is quite necessary in commercial
gardens where they are grown for sale, and each of a hundred
varieties must be kept distinct from every other, so that it may be
distinguished readily, and removed for sale without injury to the
others ; but this is market-gardening, not decorative, and the least
interesting of all modes of cultivating the rose. Decidedly, the
prettier way in small collections is to learn first what is the com-
parative strength of growth and height of the several plants which
AND, THETR SHITTING S. 263
are to make up one’s collection, and then to distribute the smaller
sorts around the larger, so that all may be seen to advantage, and
made to appear like a single bush, or symmetric group. As it is
desirable to know each sort when out of flower and leaf, labels,
fastened with copper wire, can remain attached to the stems near
the base as well when in groups as when separate.
It must not be understood that we favor great formality of out-
lines in a group, or what is called a lumpish mass, but only that
the general outline of bush or group shall be symmetrical, and that
it shall contain a sufficient mass of foliage in itself to allow the
straggling spray, which gives spirit to its outline, to be relieved
against a good body of foliage. However formally a rose-bed is
laid out, the free rambling growth of the plants will always give a
sprightly irregularity of outline sufficient to relieve it from all ap-
pearance of primness. It is as unnatural to force the rose into
formal outlines as to suppress the frolicksomeness of children ; but
in both cases the freedom natural to each may be directed, and
made to conform, to the proprieties of place and occasion. Allu-
sion has previously been made to the bad taste of conspicuous
pieces of white-painted carpentry very generally used as supports
for running roses. The simpler and more inconspicuous such
supports are made, provided they are substantial, the better.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEEP DRAINAGE AND CULTIVATION IN THEIR
RELATION TO THE GROWTH OF TREES, AND THE SUCCESSFUL CUL-
TURE OF THOSE WHICH ARE HALF-HARDY; TOGETHER WITH SUGGES-
TIONS FOR PROTECTING YOUNG TREES IN WINTER AND SUMMER.
LARGE portion of the gross weight of all soils is water.
If we dry any soil perfectly, the residuum of weight will
bear avery small proportion to the average weight of
the soil in its natural condition. Water, therefore, occu-
pies a large part of the texture of what we call solid earth. When
we draw the water from any soil by drains, the space occupied by
the water in the earth is supplied by air. Thorough draining,
therefore, airs the soil to whatever depth it drains off the water.
The air transmits heat and cold less rapidly than water by direct
conduction, so that, if air occupies the place of water in the inter-
stices of the soil, the latter will feel all changes of temperature
more slowly. Deep drainage, therefore, tends to equalize the tem-
peraturerof the earth’s surface, and to neutralize the effect of great
and sudden changes in the air above. It is impossible to drain a
subsoil too thoroughly from beneath, because the capillary attrac-
tion of the earth is always sufficient to draw up from below all the
moisture that is essential to most forms of vegetable life ; and in
addition to the moisture thus drawn from below, the earth, when
the air can circulate freely in it, has the power when dry to absorb
a vast amount of moisture from the air, as well as to yield it up to
the air by evaporation when it holds an excess. To all general
observations like these, the reader’s intelligence will of course
suggest exceptions ; as of trees and plants which thrive best where
their roots are immersed in water, and which make water their
element rather than earth ; but the fact holds good as to the great
PALE OS OP HY OK DE HP Dh ATTN AGE. 265
mass of beautiful trees, shrubs, and plants—that they will thrive
best, and bear the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat and drought
with least injury, in the most deeply drained soils. If this is true
as a general rule, it is plain that for trees which are peculiarly
sensitive to either extreme, there is greater need of deep drainage
than for any other.
The airing of the soil, which deep draining secures, acts in two
ways for the benefit of all vegetation: first, by equalizing the tem-
perature of the soil in consequence of the non-conducting power of
air ; secondly, by exposing the deeper soil to the contact of air, it
becomes changed in character, and undergoes a constant process of
fertilization by the action of air upon it. It is being oxygenized.
Any one familiar with farming operations in new countries, knows
that when virgin soils are first turned over, there are, usually, only
a few inches of dark soil on the surface. If the plow turns a
furrow five or six inches deep, it will generally show a much lighter
color than the surface which is turned under ; but in a few years of
continued culture this lighter-colored soil becomes as dark as the
original surface. By the combined action of the sun and air it has
all become equally oxygenized. If such ground were repeatedly
plowed without growing a crop from-it, and so as to permit no
growth of vegetation to be turned under, it would still, for a time,
gain rapidly in fertility, by the mere chemical changes produced by
the sun and air. What plowing effects quickly by the direct ex-
posure of the upper soil to these elements, deep draining and the
consequent airing of the soil effects slowly, and less thoroughly, in
subsoils through which the air is induced to permeate. Jifer-
ceptibly, but surely, the earth beneath our fect is being warmed and
Sertilized by the action of the air upon it, whenever we invite the air in,
by drawing the water out. This increased warmth and richness of
the subsoil invites the roots of trees deeper and deeper in pro-
portion as it approximates in character to the warmth and oxygena-
tion of the surface-soil. To have a deeply aired soil, therefore, is
to encourage trees to root farther down, and away from the trying
changes of winter and spring temperature that weaken or kill semi-
tropical trees and shrubs, and often impair the vitality of young
trees of hardy species.
266 EARTH HEAT.
Next in importance to deep drainage, therefore, is deep tillage.
It supplements drainage by often repeated exposure of a certain
depth of soil to the action of the air and sun, by which its oxygena-
tion is carried on more rapidly than it can possibly be when not so
exposed.
EartH Heat.—The earth grows warmer as we go down. If its
temperature were tested in winter, we should find an increasing
warmth with each foot of depth below the frost. The more porous
and dry the soil, the less depth it will freeze, and the more rapid
the increase of temperature below the frost line. This explains why
gravelly subsoils make warm soils, and suggests that deep drain-
age is the most efficient means of providing for trees an equable
“bottom heat.”
In the northern States the range of earth-freezing is from one
to three feet deep. It is not always deepest where the cold is
greatest ; for where a considerable altitude makes the winters more
severe, the greater snow-falls are likely to husband the earth’s
warmth as with a feathery blanket, so that the soil may be frozen
no deeper at Utica than at Philadelphia. But when the surface
protection is the same, altitude and latitude tell quickly on the
climate in its effect on trees.
Roots at the surface of the ground are either torpid in their icy
encasement, or alternately thawed-out or frozen-in during four or
five months. Those a foot below the surface are ice-bound not
much more than half this time ; those two feet below, a third ; and
those three feet below, not at all. All the roots which are just
under the frost-line during any part of the winter, are in no colder
soil than the winter surface-soil of the Gulf States. Whether six
inches or three feet under the surface, where the ground is not
frozen, the roots maintain some action.
The younger and smaller a tree or shrub, the nearer its roots
are to the surface, and all its fluctuations and severities of tem-
perature ; and therefore the greater need of guarding against them.
The analogy between animals and plants is greater than most per-
sons suppose. “Keep your feet warm and dry, and you will not
be likely to take cold,” is a trite piece of advice, because it is so
ROOTS AS CONDUCTORS OF HEAT. 267
true and so useful. Now if we can keep the plants’ feet warm and
dry, or at least save them from the greatest extremes of cold and
wet, we do them the same kindness that we do the children by
wrapping their feet in wool and leather protections.
The roots of trees and shrubs during the first five years of their
growth are mostly in that part of the soil which is frozen in the
northern States from one to three feet deep every winter. Some
rapid-growing trees, as the yellow locust and the silver poplar,
send down their roots to a great depth very soon after planting.
We have seen roots of the locust that had penetrated a marly clay
and were as large as pipe-stems at a depth of six feet below the
surface, from trees only three years planted. This power of quick
and deep rooting in the subsoil is probably the reason why the
locust tree, with its tropical luxuriance and extreme delicacy of
foliage. is able to endure a degree of cold that many less succulent
and hardier looking trees cannot bear.
Deep Roots as Conpuctors oF HrEaT TO THE ToPs OF
TreEs.—The deep roots have an influence in maintaining an
equilibrium of temperature in the tree that is little understood.
They are direct conductors from the even warmth of the unfrozen
subsoil, to the trunk and branches which are battling with frigid
air, and winds that strive to rob them of their vital heat. All
winter long this current of heat is conducted by the deep roots to
the exposed top. The greater the cold, the greater the call on
these roots to maintain the equilibrium ; and consequently their
usefulness in this respect is in proportion to the extremes of tem-
perature above ground which the tree may be required to resist,
and the proportion of roots which are below the frost-line. Surface
roots are the summer-feeding roots—multiplying their myriads of
fibres, each one a greedy mouth, when spring opens and the leaves
need them ;—and there is always a perfect proportion between their
abundance and vigor, and the luxuriance of the foliage above them.
Surface manuring promotes a rank growth of these roots, and of
the foliage ; and should only be used for young trees and shrubs
which are unquestionably hardy, or for the less hardy which are
already deeply rooted ; but not for young trees of doubtful hardi-
268 EFFECT ON SEMI-TROPICAL TREES.
ness. These must first be provided with the bottom heat that
deep drainage and a well-aired subsoil provides, until they are
deeply rooted.
As newly planted trees have not the means of keeping them-
selves warm in winter by means of their deep roots, it follows that
they must be nursed in some way so that they will maintain a
vigorous life until they are thus provided.
Trees or shrubs of half-tropical habit, by which we mean those
that flourish in our southern States without protection, and which
may be so carefully managed as to develop their beauties healthily
in the northern States, of course need this careful nursing more
than any other; and not only to guard them against winter’s ex-
cesses, but to give them the most equable ground temperature at
all seasons. Most trees in their native localities grow in deep
shades, and the soil over their roots is rarely heated by the direct
rays of the sun, however powerful its heat upon their tops. ‘The
very luxuriance of vegetation forms a bower of shade for the
soil ; so that in forests the roots of trees are in a soil that is com-
paratively equable in temperature and moisture. When trees from
such localities are grown on open lawns, they are naturally dis-
posed to branch low, in order to cover their roots from the heat of
the summer sun by the shade of their own boughs. The mag-
nolias and rhododendrons are marked examples of trees and
shrubs which are cultivated most successfully in deeply drained
soils, but at the same time are ill-at-ease in ground where the soil
over their roots is bared to the scorching summer heat. In the
case of evergreen trees, their low-branching keeps the ground under
them cool and shady in summer, and also protects the roots in
winter—acting as a blanket to hold the radiation of the earth’s
heat, and to hold the snow which makes another blanket for the
same purpose. A well-cut lawn is some protection to the roots of
trees, but it interferes with that active oxygenation of the soil which
deep culture produces ; and while it acts as a shield against the
scorching effect of the summer sun on bare earth, and as a mulch to
counteract, in a slight degree, the rapid changes of temperature on
the surface-roots, it at the same time reduces the vitality and power
of resistance to cold in the tree, by preventing the deep soil from
RESULTS OF CULTIVATION. 269
becoming well aired and oxygenized, as it is under high culture.
Under the sod of a lawn, therefore, the roots of trees will be
nearer the surface than in ground under cultivation, and will have
less power to resist cold, so far as deep roots enable them to re-
sist it.
If a tree is planted in a thoroughly drained soil which is to be
cultivated, instead of one which is to be covered with lawn, it may
be set several inches deeper, so that the main roots need not be
injured by the spade, while they will be kept in warm soil by the
occasional turning under of the surface which has been under the
direct action of the sun’s rays. The roots at the depth of ten
inches, in a soil which is spaded annually, and well cultivated, will
be as well aired, and have as warm feeding ground, as in a similar
soil two inches below an old sod. ‘This cultivation, therefore, gains
for the tree a summer and winter mulching of eight inches in depth
above its rootlets; a great gain in winter, and equal to several
degrees of more southern latitude.
Half-hardy trees should therefore not only be planted in ground
drained most deeply and thoroughly, but also where the ground
may be deeply cultivated until they are rooted in a warm subsoil
below the action of frosts—say ten years. Trees which even-
tually grow to considerable size may, when young, be centres or
parts of groups of shrubs that also require high culture ; and when
the tree begins to over-top the shrubs, the latter should be gradu-
ally removed. But it must be constantly borne in mind that all
trees, and especially those of doubtful hardiness, need a full de-
velopment of low side-branches when young, and no shrubbery
should remain near enough to them to check this side-growth.
When all the excess of shrubbery around the tree is removed, and
the latter is supposed to have become sufficiently established to be
able to dispense with deep culture, and have the ground under its
branches converted into lawn, then two or three inches in depth
of fresh soil should be added all around the tree, as far as the
roots extend ; and for half-hardy trees, an autumn mulching with
leaves or evergreen boughs should never be omitted at any age
of the tree. The subject of mulching will be treated again in this
chapter.
270 PROTECTION FROM WINDS.
PROTECTION FROM WinpDs.—The effect of protection from the
winds 1s nearly the same for delicate trees as for delicate human
beings. “Keep out of a strong draught of air”? is a common
admonition given to those who are healthy, as well as to invalids ;
and this, too, when only the pleasant breath of summer is to be
guarded against. Now when we reflect that trees have not the
power of warming themselves by exercise, but must stand with suf
fering patience the coldest blasts of winter, with no more covering
on body and limbs than sufficed them in genial summer air, how
thoughtless and heartless of us to expect any of them, least of all
the denizens of semi-tropical forests, to laugh with blossoms, and
grow fat with leaves, after being exposed to all the rigors of a
northern winter. Ought we not to be most thankful that even the
hardened species of northern zones can bear the vicissitudes of our
climate? And if semi-tropical trees can also be made to thrive by
kindly protection, should we grudge them the care which their deli-
cacy demands?
Much as our horticultural writers have endeavored to impress
the importance of protection from winds, by means of walls of
hardy evergreen trees, few persons have had the opportunity of
observing how great the benefits of such protection. Houses, out-
buildings, and high fences may generally be so connected by such
hedges and screens as to form warm bays and sheltered nooks
where many trees and shrubs of novel beauty may be grown, which,
in exposed situations, would either die outright or eke out a dis-
eased and stunted existence. This remark applies with most force
to the smaller trees and shrubs for which constructive protections
against winds may be erected with no great expense ; or verdant
walls may be grown within a few years. Yet larger trees like the
Magnolia machrophylla and the Bhotan pine (P. exce/sa) may be so
protected in their early growth that the health and vigor acquired
during the first ten years of careful attention to their needs will
enable them to resist vicissitudes of climate which trees of the same
species, less judiciously reared, would die under. Vigor of con-
stitution in animals is not alone a matter of race and family, but
also to a considerable degree the result of education and training.
Delicate youths who nurse their strength, and battle with their own*
PROTECTION FROM WINDS. 271
weakness by obeying the laws of health that intelligence teaches
them, often become stronger at middle age than those of robust
organization who early waste their vigor by careless disregard of
those laws. By studying the nature of trees we may effect similar
results with similar care.
Winter protection from winds must be effected principally by
hardy evergreens. Of these the Norway spruce is one of the most
rapid in its growth. In itself a beautiful object, it may be massed
in pleasing groups, or compact belts, or close cut colossal hedges.
The white pine in sandy soils has a still more rapid growth, and
is, therefore, suited to form the highest screens. The American
and the Siberian arbor-vites are naturally so hedge-like in form
that the sight of them at once suggests their usefulness; while the
rambling and graceful young hemlock is readily trained into ver-
dant screens of exquisite beauty.
The relative growth of these trees is about in the following
order: The white pine planted from the nursery should attain the
height of twenty feet in ten years, and forty feet in twenty years.
The Norway spruce grows with about the same rapidity, but its
growth being relatively less in breadth at the top, its summit gives
less check to winds. The hemlock may attain about two-thirds the
size of the pine in the same time ; while the arbor-vitees just named
may be relied on to make about a foot of growth per year. These
facts suggest to intelligent planters the service these trees may be
made to render in the capacity of protectors of the weaker species
of trees and shrubs.
The warming power of evergreen trees in winter is not fully
appreciated. ‘They are like living beings, breathing all the time,
and keep up, and give off their vital heat in the same manner. In
a dense forest the cold is never so intense as on an adjoining
prairie ; and the difference between the temperature of even a small
grove of evergreens, and open ground near by, is often great
enough to decide the life or death of sensitive shrubs and trees.
In our chapter on the Characteristics of Trees will be found some
interesting facts concerning this quality of trees and plants.
Deep drainage, deep culture, and protection from winds are the
three great means to give trees a healthy and rapid development,
272 PROTECTION BY MULCHING.
and to acclimatize those which are not quite hardy. It has also
been suggested that certain trees and shrubs need to be protected
from the sun, as well as from cold and wind. This fact will be
noted in the descriptions of them.
We now come to the sfecia/ treatment of newly planted trees,
premising that the general conditions just given have been com-
plied with.
Mutcuinc. — Mulch signifies any substance which may be
strewn upon the ground to retain its moisture for the benefit of
the roots which it covers, or to Serve as a non-conductor of the
coldness or the heat of the air, and to retain the natural warmth of
the earth beneath. Mulching may be done in a great variety of
ways, and for different purposes. Summer mulching is intended
to protect the soil from too rapid drying under the direct rays of
the sun. Winter mulching is designed to prevent the sudden and
excessive freezing of the earth.
Leaves are the natural mulch for forest trees. At the approach
of winter, observe how all the trees disrobe their branches to drop
a cover of leaves upon their roots. The winds blow them away
from the great trunks which are deep rooted and need them least,
to lodge among the stems and roots of the underbrush which need
them most. Leaves being the most natural cover for roots are the
best. But they cannot be used to advantage in summer in well-
kept grounds because of the difficulty of retaining them in place,
and their unsightly effect when blown about on a lawn. In
autumn, however, they should be gathered, when most abundant,
for a winter mulch; and can be retained in place by heavy twigs
over them. ‘The twigs and leaves together catch the blowing snow
and thus make a warm snow blanket in addition to their own pro-
tection. For summer mulching, saw-dust (not too fresh) and
“chip-dirt,” are good and tidy protections. Old straw is excellent,
but is unsightly and too disorderly when blown by winds to be
satisfactory in neatly kept places; and when used too freely
harbors mice. Tan-bark is a favorite summer mulch, and very
good if not put on too thick. Evergreen leaves and twigs are
admirable for either summer or winter mulching, but especially for
PROTHCTION BY BUNDLING. 273
winter, on account of the snow that accumulates in them. Massed
to the depth of a foot, the ground beneath them will hardly feel the
frosts. Trees or shrubs which are hardy enough to be forced into
a rank growth without making their new wood too succulent and
tender to bear the following winter, may be mulched with short
manure, but trees of doubtful hardiness must not be thus stimu-
lated. If used at all it should be in autumn, for winter service,
and raked off in spring, to be replaced by cooler materials during
the growing season.
In addition to the mulching required over the roots of young
trees and shrubs in winter, it is necessary to cover the trunk, and
sometimes the entire tops of those which are half-hardy with some
protection. The stems of young trees may be covered with straw
bound around them, or with matting, or strong brown paper. Small
tree-tops and spreading shrubs may be carefully drawn together
with straw cords, and bound up as completely in straw and matting
as bundles of trees sent out from a nursery. As such masses are
likely to catch the snow, and offer considerable resistance to the
wind, it is absolutely necessary in all cases after a subject has been
thus bound, that strong gtakes be driven near by, and the bound-up
branches securely fastened to them until the binding is taken off in
the spring. The following cuts, illustrating a mode of protecting
peach trees, to secure their fruit-buds from injury in winter, also
illustrates the mode of protecting the tops for other purposes. In
the case of the peach tree a strong cedar post is supposed to be
Fic. 54.
deeply set for 4 permanent fixture at the same time the tree is
planted, and that the latter grows up around it as shown by Fig. 53.
At the approach of winter the branches which can be most con-
veniently bound together are prepared like nursery bundles as
18
274 PROTECTION BY BUNDLING.
shown by Fig. 54; and when done are secured by cords to the
central post as shown by Fig. 55. In addition to this straw bind-
ing, earth from beyond the branches is banked up around the stem,
as shown in the same cuts. ‘This mode of protection is especially
adapted to the fruit-yard.. It would not be admissible to have
permanent posts or stakes in the embellished parts of grounds ;
but a similar mode of protection can be employed by the use of
strong stakes to be driven when wanted, and removed in the
spring.
Tender vines, and pliable-wooded bushes, may be turned down
on the approach of winter, and laid flat upon the ground or lawn,
where there is room. If in cultivated ground, there is no better
protection than a covering of several inches of earth. If standing
upon a lawn they may be either covered with earth in the same
way, if itcan be brought from a convenient distance, or may be
pinned down and covered from four to twelve inches deep with
evergreen boughs or twigs.
Very tender plants must of course be covered more deeply than
hardier ones, and the cover should be removed gradually in the
spring. It is advisable to mark the exact place where each vine or
branch is laid, so that in uncovering, in the spring, it may not be
injured by the spade.
PrA Rede so Ld.
‘TREES, SHRUBS, AND VINES. —
Sines Wee
d *
49) shoe res -
>.
f\07 ahs Vat
eno ioe ile: Be
CHARICE R 7b.
A COMPARISON OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES.
“T care not how men trace their ancestry,
To Ape or Adam; let them please their whim ;
But I in June am midway to believe
A Tree among my far progenitors ;
Such sympathy is mine with all the race,
Such mutual recognition vaguely sweet
There is between us. Surely there are times
When they consent to own me of their kin,
And condescend to me, and call me cousin,
Murmuring faint lullabies of eldest time
Forgotten, and yet dumbly felt with thrills
Moving the lips, though fruitless of the words.”
LowELt.
HEN one reflects that among all the millions of
human beings that have existed no two have been
alike, and that all their illimitable varieties of ex-
pression are produced by the varied combinations of
only half a dozen features, within a space of six inches by eight, it
ought not to be difficult to conceive the endless diversity of char-
acter that may be exhibited among trees, with their multitude of
features and forms, their oddities of bark, limb, and twig, their
infinitude of leaves and blossoms of all sizes, forms, and shades of
color, their towering sky outlines, and their ever-varying lights and
shadows. There are subtle expressions in trees, as in the human
face, that it is difficult to analyze or account for. A face, no one
feature of which is pleasing, often charms us by the expression of
an inward spirit which lights it. May we not claim for all living
nature, as our great poet Bryant suggests in the following lines, a
278 A COMPARISON OF THE
degree of soul, and for all trees that are loveable at sight a
sympathy of soul with the observer which constitutes their pleas-
i Sri eae
ing expression !
“Nay, doubt we not that under the rough rind,
In the green veins of these fair growths of Earth,
There dwells a nature that receives delight
From all the gentle processes of life,
And shrinks from loss of being. Dim and faint
May be the sense of pleasure and of pain,
As in our dreams; but haply, real still.’
Sunny cheerfulness, gayety, gloom, sprightliness, rudeness,
sweetness, gracefulness, awkwardness, ugliness, and eccentricities,
are all attributes of trees as well as of human beings. How do trees
convey these impressions without suggesting those attributes which
we call soul? Some trees look sulky, and repel sympathy—the
black oak or an old balsam fir, for instance. People never become
greatly attached to such trees. Others are warm, and sunny, and
deep bosomed, like the sugar maple; or voluptuous like magnolias, -
or wide-winged like the oak and the apple tree—bending down to
shade and cover, as mother-birds their nests ;—conveying at once
a sense of domestic protection. ‘These are the trees we love. The
children will not cry when an old Lombardy poplar or balsam fir is
cut down ; but cut away an old apple tree, or oak, or hickory, that
they have played under, and their hearts will be quick to feel the
difference between trees. Some trees look really motherly in their
domestic expression. A large old apple tree,
Fig. 56, is a type of such trees. All trees that
spread broadly, and grow low, convey this
expression. ‘The white birch is a type, on
the other hand, of delicate elegance, and is
styled by one of our poets
Fie. 56.
wt
“% * * the dady of the woods.”
There are trees (like those women, who, though brilliant in
drawing-rooms, are never less than ladies when busy in domestic
labors) which are useful and profitable in orchard and forest, but
are doubly beautiful in robes of greater luxuriance upon the carpet
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 279
of a rich lawn. There are others which no care in culture will
make ornaments 1n “ the best society.”
Whoever studies the varied beauties of trees will find that
they possess almost a human interest, and their features will
reveal varieties of expression, and charms of character, that dull
observers cannot imagine.
**The poplars shiver, the pine trees moan.’
The differences between a Lombardy poplar, an oak, and a
weeping willow are so striking that the most careless eye cannot
mistake one for the other. The poplar, tall, slender, rigid, is a
type of formality ; the oak, broad, massy, rugged-limbed, has ever
been a symbol of strength, majesty, and protection ; and the willow,
also broad and massy, but so fringed all over with pensile-spray
that its majesty is forgotten in the exquisite grace of its movement,
is, to the oak, as the fullness and grace of a noble woman to the
robust strength of man.
The more obvious peculiarities and diversities of trees we shall
endeavor to present from an esthetic, rather than a’ botanist’s
point of view ; not in the interest of science, or of pecuniary utili-
tarianism, but so as to aid the student of nature to appreciate their
beauties ; appealing simply to that love of the beautiful in nature
which hungers in the eyes of all good people. The delightful
science of botany is not likely to be over-estimated, but its study
is no more necessary to the appreciation of trees than the study
of the chemistry of the air, or the anatomy of the ear, to the lover
of music.
What are the essential beauties of trees?
We shall name first that most essential quality of all beauty—
THE Beauty oF HrEALtH.—No tree has the highest beauty of
its type without the appearance, in its whole bearing, of robust
vigor. ‘There may be peculiar charms in the decay of an old trunk,
or the eccentric habit of some stunted specimen, which ministers to
a love of the picturesque ; but true beauty and health are as in-
separable in trees, as in men and women. Luxuriant vigor is, then,
the essential condition of all beautiful trees. Thriftiness cannot
280 A COMPARISON OF THE
make an elm look like an oak, but rather brings into higher relief
the distinguishing marks of each, making the elm more graceful,
‘and the oak more majestic. Yet uncommon thriftiness changes
the forms of some trees so much that specimens growing in the
shade of the forest, stinted by want of sunlight, and crowded by
roots of rival trees, are tall, lank, and straggling in limb, with scanty
foliage ; while the same species grown in rich open ground becomes
glorious with its breadth and weighty masses of foliaged boughs.
Who would know the common chestnut in the forest by its form, as
the same tree that spreads its arms in the open field with all the
majesty of the-oak? Or the “mast-timber” branchless white pine
of a Maine forest as the same tree that forms in open ground a
broad-based pyramid of evergreen foliage, and broods with its vast
branches like a broad-winged bird upon a meadow-nest? The crooked
sassafras of the woods, Fig. 57, running up as if
uncertain what point in the heavens to aim at,
and at what height to put out its arms, seems as
unhappy there as a cultured citizen forced to
spend his life among the Camanches. But the
same tree, in rich soil in the open sun, expands
naturally, as in Fig. 58, into one of the most
beautiful heads of foliage among small trees.
Few trees attain a full measure of thrift that are
not fully exposed east, south, and west to the sun. We do not
mean to assert that trees will not be beautiful without such com-
plete exposure, but that, to realize the highest
Fic. 58. beauty of which any one specimen is capable, it
BIGh Sis
must be so exposed. A greater variety of beauty
is obtained from a group made up of more than
one species of tree, thus contrasting several sorts
of foliage and form, than from a single tree which
might have grown to cover the same space; and
we therefore sacrifice the highest type of indi-
vidual perfection to produce more striking effects with several
trees. But the same fact must be observed with reference to the
group ;—its full beauty can only be realized by having the trees
in luxuriant growth ; and open, collectively, on all sides to the sun.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 281
BEauTy OF Form.—Next to the beauty that comes from vigor
of growth, or the glow of high health, is beauty of form. On this
matter tastes differ widely. ‘To artists it seems a vulgar unculti-
vated taste to prefer a solid pumpkin-headed tree, to one of more
irregular outline ; but preference is so often expressed for trees of
such forms that it may be imprudent to speak disrespectfully of it.
Such trees certainly possess the first element of beauty of form,
viz., symmetry ; but it is symmetry without variety. They may also’
have the beauty of thrift and good color. An
apple tree from fifteen to twenty years old has
this quality of head as shown in Fig. 59. As it
grows old, however, its form changes materially,
so that its outline is quite irregular and spirited
—broader, nobler, and more domestic in expres-
sion—as will be seen by comparing Fig. 56 with
Fig. 59. Young sugar maples have similar forms slightly elon-
gated, as shown by Fig. 60, though with age they break into out-
lines less monotonous, as shown by Fig. 61, and
their shadows have more character. " The same
may be said of the horse-chestnuts. The hicko-
ries and the white oak, assume more varied
outlines while young, without losing that balance
of parts which constitutes symmetry. Sugar
maples are always symmetric in every stage of
their growth ; but their early symmetry is insipid, like that of the
human face when unexceptionable in features, but devoid of ex-
pression ; or rather like that of the doll-face,
which can hardly be said to have either features
or expression, but only beauty of color, the
semblance of health, and features faintly sug-
gested. The change in forms of many trees
which are excessively smooth in their early out-
lines is towards more and more variety of con-
tour and depth of shadow as they approach
maturity, and occasionally in old age they de-
velop into grandly picturesque trees ; as in the
case of the white oak and the chestnut among deciduous trees, and
the cedar of Lebanon among evergreens.
Fic. 60.
s
Fic. 61.
282 A COMPARISON OF THE
To what extent a tendency to pictur-
esqueness may go, without loss of symmetry,
it is not easy to say. Fig. 62 is a well-pro-
portioned tree of picturesque outline, and
symmetrical as to the balance of its parts,
but not in the similitude of its opposite
halves. It is a form often seen in our native
locusts and the Scotch elm. Figs. 63 and
64 are both symmetrical, strikingly pictur-
esque in outline, and yet totally unlike each other. The first is a
form quite common to young weeping elms ; but with age, unlike
most trees, they become more symmetrical
and smoothly rounded. A full-grown weep-
ing elm is the most perfect example of the
union of symmetry, grace, and picturesque-
ness, among all the trees of the temperate
zone.
Tree outlines may be divided into two
great classes of forms, which merge into each
other in every variety of combination. These
are round-headed trees, and conical, or pyra-
midal trees.
Fig. 64 is a form characteristic of rapidly grown scarlet oaks or
ginkgo trees.
The contrast between this form and that of the young elm
above, is very marked; yet in outline they are almost equally
spirited, and in the balance of their oppo-
site parts are alike perfect. The elm, how-
ever, has the higher type of beauty, by
reason of the less mechanical distribution of
its weight, and the bolder projection of its
branches. All such spirited forms suggest
an inherent life and will in the tree, a kind
of playful disregard of set forms, a youthful
daring and defiance of the laws of gravita-
tion that is apt to please persons of imag-
inative minds. They are always favorites with artists ; while trees
of more compact and methodical arrangement are preferred by
Fic. 64.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES.
persons with whose characters these traits har-
monize. ‘These observations refer to outlines
only ; the expressions of trees produced by other
traits often modify our preferences for trees of
favorite forms, by presenting combinations of
other kinds of beauty in trees of less interest-
ing outlines.
RouND-HEADED TREES.—By round-headed is
meant simply a general effect of roundness, or of
smoothness of outline in the several masses that
compose the head of a tree. The young apple
tree, Fig. 65, is a perfect type of this form, and
may more specifically be called a globular tree,
to distinguish the complete roundness of its
form from those other round-headed trees which
are more nearly hemispherical.
Among round-headed trees the different forms
of roundness are distinguished by more specific
names. The sugar maple usually takes the form
of an egg with the small end up, as shown in
Fig. 66, and is therefore termed ovate. ‘The
hickory, Fig. 67, more nearly fills the geometric
figure that we call oval. The elm, Fig. 68, fills
one-half a semicircle or more, with its head, and
is of a class of trees appropriately called wm-
brella-topped ;—technically they are called od/a¢e,
or flattened-oval. An old apple tree, Fig. 69,
is a good example of this form, and Fig. 58,
page 280, of a well grown sassafras, is another.
The white oak, Fig. 70, the native chestnut
(castanea), and the hickories, all have outlines
much broken, but the general effect is that of
rounded forms.
Many of the pines when grown to ma-
turity become round-headed trees, though pyra-
midal when young.
283
284 A COMPARISON OF THE
Fic. 70. BIGa 70.
ConicaL TREES.—This term is sufficiently explicit, and includes
all those trees of flatly conical form which are usually called
pyramidal. ‘The latter term refers to those members of the conical
class which have a breadth about equal to their height. The pear
tree, Fig. 71, among deciduous trees, is a type of the pyramidal
form.
The Norway spruce and hemlocks, Fig. 72, are types of conical
forms. Most species of poplar (the Lombardy poplar being an
exception) have the pyramidal-conical form while young, but with
age they round out into trees of the first class. The Balm of
Gilead poplar, and the cucumber tree, are good examples of com-
pact deciduous trees of this class when young, but they all become
round-headed trees at maturity.
Nearly all evergreens are conical when young, and very many
of deciduous trees also. Few of the latter, however, retain this
character after they are full grown. The white pine when quite
young is an open-limbed conical tree ; but when twenty years old,
if it has grown in congenial soil, and an open exposure, it
assumes an ovate-pyramidal form, with the rounded masses of
foliage that characterize round-headed trees, but retains otherwise
the general outlines of the conical class in its after growth. The
yellow or northern pitch pine (P. xigida) changes from a straggling
conical form when young, to an irregularly branched oblate-headed
tree in age. The Scotch pine, which is of a rounded conical form
when young, becomes, with age, as picturesquely rounded as the
oak. The scarlet oak, Fig. 64, is a good example of a straggling
conical form when young, though it becomes a loose round-headed
tree at maturity.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 285
The balsam fir, the Norway spruce, and Fic. 74.
the hemlock are conical from first to last,
swelling out, however, at maturity, into the
ovate-conical form, of which the Swiss or
stone pine (P. cembra), Fig. 73, is a type in
every stage of its growth. The cedar of
Lebanon is a distinctly pyramidal-conical
tree when young, but widens out as it ma-
tures, and finally spreads into an immense
oblate head. The junipers embrace species which are the most
slenderly conical of evergreens ; the Irish juniper, Fig. 74, having
rather the form of a slender club than of a cone. Some varieties
of the Norway spruce, and the European silver-fir, are now being
propagated, which have branches so pendulous that they are nearly
as slenderly conical as these junipers.
Among deciduous trees the Lombardy poplar, Fig. 75, Fis. 75.
is the type of what are called fastgiate trees; 7. ¢., trees ;
of upright and compact growth, being distinguished from
other conical trees by a tendency to vertical parallelism
of the branches. The balsam fir and the Norway spruce
are both conical trees, but having nearly horizontal
branches, are not fastigiate ; while the Irish juniper, the
arbor-vites, and the Lombardy poplar, are all fastigiate.
It needs to be impressed on novices in the study of
trees that all these various types of trees vary greatly
among themselves, so that specimens of any species are
often seen quite different from the usual type of that spe-
cies. These variations are called varieties, and when very
marked in their character are named, propagated from, and be-
come the curiosities of arboriculture.
PENDULOUS OR WEEPING Forms.—Of late years, such num-
bers of new varieties of pendulous trees have been introduced,
that they might perhaps be considered as a class,; but in a simple
classification of trees by their outlines alone, they will be found to
group easily with one or another of the classes already described.
Pendulous varieties have been found among nearly every species
y
286 A COMPARISON OF THE
of our hardy trees, both deciduous and evergreen. Many of them
are most interesting, curious, and picturesque decorations of small
lawns. They include every variety of outline, from the columnar
poplar, the slender junipers, and the majestic weeping willow, down
to the sorts that creep along the ground. ‘The weeping junipers
and arbor-vites (Z/uja) are pensile only at the extremities of their
limbs ; the new pendulous firs (Adzes excelsa pendula and Picea pee-
tinata pendula) are slenderly conical, but with branches drooping
directly and compactly downwards around a central stem. The
hemlock and Norway spruce firs belong partly to the class of
weeping trees on account of their pendant plumy spray, and the
droop of their branches as they grow old, although both are rigidly
conical trees in their general outlines. The weeping white birches
have upright branches and pendulous spray when young, but as
they increase in size the larger branches bend with rambling grace
in harmony with their spray, and form picturesquely symmetrical
spreading trees ; while the weeping beech, assuming every uncouth
contortion when young, becomes a tree of noble proportions, mag-
nificently picturesque with age, trailing its slender crooked limbs,
covered with a drapery of dark glossy foliage from its summit to
the ground. See illustration under head of “The Beech.”
Fic. 76.
PICTURESQUE Forms.—There are
trees which cannot easily be classified—
trees of straggling or eccentric growth,
like the weeping elm, Fig. 76, the honey
locust, Fig. 77, and the weeping
beech, Fig. 104; diffuse and rambling
trees like young scarlet oaks, old
larches and pines, and most of the
birch family. These highly picturesque
forms are exceptional among park-grown trees,
and are charming because they are exceptional.
Some of the preceding illustrations show how
trees may at the same time be symmetrical and
picturesque ; and we ask the reader to observe how much more
interesting a tree is which combines both beauties than the
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 287
lumpish globular types which are commonly admired. But there
are trees which lose, or never have, symmetry of form, and, like
some of our other acquaintances, are interesting for their oddi-
ties. Look, for instance, at the accompanying cut of the strag-
gling elm, which is a portrait from nature, and the portrait of
Parson’s weeping beech, on page 328. ‘The latter is a luxuriant
mass of pendant branches and foliage, erratic in all directions, and
yet one of the most interesting of young trees. It is bizarre,
like the expressions of a wit. Its unlikeness to other trees is
its superiority; but the exuberant vigor that clothes it with such
masses of glossy foliage, adds to picturesqueness the constant
loveableness of beautiful health. Of the trees which by nature
grow irregularly, the native larch, or hacmatack, is a familiar ex-
ample, its head generally shooting off to one side after it attains a
certain height. The osage orange is so rambling that it suggests
a comparison with those eccentric geniuses who, having decided
talents in many different directions, attempt to follow them all, and
whose successes or failures are equally interesting to observers.
Many specimens of the weeping elm, while young, like the wild
and not unusual form shown by Fig. 76, are
fine examples of erratic luxuriance, but they
usually fill up, with age, and finally become
models of symmetry. Trees are often made
picturesque by accidents, as the breaking of
trunks or important branches by summer tor-
nados, or the falling of other trees upon them.
Fig. 78 is an example from nature of a white
oak upwards of three feet in diameter, which,
when young, was bent by the fall of some great tree that rested
upon it, until all the fibres of its wood had conformed to the forced
position. Fig. 79 is another sketch from nature of an oak that
has been robbed of a part of its main trunk, and is picturesque
in consequence of it. Advantage should always be taken of the
striking effect of such trees by placing gate-ways or conducting
walks under them, if practicable; or, if not, then to make them
parts of groups in such a way that their picturesqueness may be
brought into high relief.
Fic: 77.
288 A COMPARISON OF THE
The mere weight, breadth, and height of the trunk and branches
of a tree, without reference to its
outlines or foliage, are the principal
sources of mayesty in trees ; and it
is when majesty and picturesqueness
are combined that we realize our
higher ideals of grandeur. A tree
with massive horizontal branches in-
voluntarily impresses us with a sense
of the immense inherent strength
that can sustain so great a weight in a position that most squarely
defies the mechanical force of gravity ; and therefore conveys the
impression of majesty, though it has no extraordinary height or
dimensions. On the other hand, the tulip-tree, or the cottonwood,
with a straight and lofty stem from three to six feet in diameter,
is a grand object by virtue of its weight, and loftiness, and the
power that its dimensions express, though its head may not be
proportionally large, nor its bark or branches massive, rough, and
angular, or its outline irregular enough
to be picturesque. ‘The sycamore, or
buttonball, is a familiar example of a
swelling trunk of majestic size. Its
bark is as smooth in age as in youth;
but it has a certain picturesqueness
from the contrasts of color caused by
shedding its thin bark laminz in scales ;
and majesty by its size, and the bold-
ness of its divergent branches.
Mere size of trunk, and weight of branches, affect us so
powerfully, that when we have lived near a fine old tree, it is not
so much the beauty of its foliage, or the pleasures of its shade, that
produce the reverent love we have for it, but the unconscious
presence of the majesty of Nature impressing us like
“* * * an emanation from the indwelling spirit of the Deity.”
By referring to the vignette of the oak at the head of page 302,
the effect produced by mere breadth and weight in producing
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 289
majesty, Will be readily appreciated. There is neither symmetry
nor thrift in its rough trunk and huge gnarled branches; but
there is a power and strength there, which represents the history of
centuries of growth and battle with the elements. It is a scarred
old veteran, a forest Jupiter, “a brave old oak.”
Bryant thus apostrophizes one’ of these old monarchs :
“Ye have no history. I cannot know
Who, when the hill-side trees were hewn away,
Haply two centuries since, bade spare this oak
Leaning to shade with his irregular arms,
Low-bent and long, the fount that from his roots
Slips through a bed of cresses toward the bay.
I know not who, but thank him that he left
The tree to flourish where the acorn fell,
And join these later days to that far time
While yet the Indian hunter drew the bow
In the dim woods, and the white woodman first
Opened these fields to sunshine, turned the soil
And strewed the wheat. An unremembered Past
Broods like a presence, ’mid the long gray boughs
Of this old tree, which has outlived so long
The flitting generations of mankind.”
The imagination is stirred to an indescribable affection or
reverence for such ancient trunks that it is difficult to account
for ;—a something allied to the love or awe with which we regard
the Deity.
Among the sources of picturesque effect in old trees are the
sharp lights and shades caused by the deep furrows and breaks in
their bark,* the abrupt angles of their great limbs, and the broad
openings through the masses of their foliage that allow the sun to
fleck with bright lights parts of the tree which are surrounded with
deep shadows ;—causing what artists call bold effects. These are
always inferior in young trees, though there is a vast difference in
different species of trees of similar age and size in their tendency
to produce these effects.
* At Montgomery Place, near Barrytown, on the Hudson, are some old locust trees with bark
so deeply furrowed as to make their trunks picturesque to an extraordinary degree, so that this
character is a sufficient offset to the meagreness of their stunted tops to save them from destruc-
tion. A city visitor there once asked the proprietor why she did not have the bark cuc off—‘‘it
! ”
19
looks so very rough
290 A COMPARISON OF THE
LiGHts AND SHADOws.—The quality of trees, which is least
observed except by painters, and yet one which has much to do
with their expression, and our preferences for one or another sort,
is their manner of reflecting the light in masses, so that it is
brought into high relief by the dark shade of openings in the
foliage, against which the lights are contrasted. If the reader will
study trees, he will see that the lines of light and shade in the
Lombardy poplar, Fig. 80, are nearly vertical, and in narrow strips,
Fic. 80. in harmony with the outlines of the tree, while in the
balsam fir and the beech, Fig. 81, they are in nearly hori-
zontal layers, and looking as though the tree had been
so compact that their shadows, seen at a little distance,
are much like those of solid bodies, the openings in their
spray being so small, that their surfaces are little broken
by shadows. Young apple, maple, and chestnut trees,
present, when young, such unbroken surfaces of leaves,
that it is proper to say of them, then, that they have in-
sipid or unformed characters. Compare the cut of the
young apple, Fig. 82, with an old tree, Fig. 83, or the
young maple, Fig. 84, with the mature one, Fig. 85; and
it will be seen that not merely their outlines have changed with
age, but that there are bolder shadows, and consequently more
Rien. striking lights in the masses of their foliage.
The native chestnut (Castanea vesca) ex-
hibits a much more radical change from
youth to age in its shadows. When young
it resembles in form the young apple tree ;
but when middle-aged, it breaks up into
broader masses than any other native tree,
except the white oak, which in age it most
resembles. Fig. 105 shows its characteristic
break of light and shadow. It will be seen
that it is neither in vertical nor horizontal lines, but quite irregular,
and in large, instead of small masses. Herein consists one of the
characteristics that distinguish majestic, or grand, from simply beau-
tiful trees. The sugar maple, as shown in Fig. 85, is broken into
built up in stratas. Most of the arbor-vita family grow _~
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 291
clearly-defined masses of light and shade, but
the masses are small—too narrow and too nu-
merous to produce the grand effects of the
larger openings in the oak and chestnut, though
our cut shows larger lights and shadows than
are usual in the maple. The ‘brighter green
and more abundant foliage of the maple make
amends for this inferiority, but it is none the less an inferiority.
An examination of the structure of these trees in winter will show
why the oak and the chestnut mass their foliage Fic. 83.
more nobly. It is because they have fewer and
larger branches, not radiating like those of the
maple with uniform divergence, but breaking
out here and there at right angles with the part
from which they issue. The consequence is,
that when they are in leaf, the projecting leaf surfaces and the
shadow openings are larger and nobler in expression. The hick-
ories are all observable for the massiveness of their lights and
shadows, and, unlike the chestnut, they assume
this character while yet young. By the shadows
alone it would not be easy to distinguish a
hickory from an oak or chestnut, though they
are readily distinguishable at sight by difference
of contour—the hickory being proportionally
taller and squarer than the others. There is,
however, a difference in the shadows that close observers will mark:
the wood being more elastic, the branches of old trees bend to
form curved lines, which give the shadows a similar general di-
rection, as will be seen on Fig. 86. This effect
may be seen in many other trees, and is more
noticeable in the lower than the upper part of
the tree. There are many species which can be
distinguished readily by this peculiarity in their
shadows in connection with their contours. The
sassafras, Fig. 87, naturally takes an umbrella
form of head, and its foliage divides into cur-
vilinear strata, or rather appears so as seen
292 A COMPARISON OF THE
from the ground. The linden tree when old, and the common
dog-wood (Cornus florida), have similar lines of shadows.
If we classify trees by their surface lights and shadows alone,
they will divide into three classes, viz: first,
those whose lights and shadows fall in lines
approaching the vertical; second, those which
divide into strata horizontally ; third, those
: which break into irregular masses. - The Lom-
bardy poplar will be the type of the former ; the
common beech, Fig, 88, of the second ; and the
white oak of the latter. Most evergreen trees
belong to the second group. The first class
comprises a comparatively small number of
trees, but many which belong to one of the last two groups at
maturity, are members of the first when young.
The cedar of Lebanon is the most remarkable of trees in the
second class. It is the embodiment of majesty
in its class, as the oak of the third class. Of our
native trees, the white pine is the grandest type
among evergreens east of the Rocky Mountains,
of trees with stratified shadows, as the beech is
among deciduous trees. The pin oak is a fa-
miliar example of stratified foliage. Its foliage
layers are as distinctly marked as those of the
beech, but its branches droop more ; and are so twiggy, thorny, and
inter-tangled, that its expression is ruder and its shadows less noble
than those of the pine or beech. The Nor-
way spruce and the hemlock, though the
small spray falls with plume-like grace, and
the branches droop from the trunk, divide
into masses of light and shadow in nearly
horizontal lines. All the trees which main-
tain this stratified character of shadows
have more sameness of outline and monot-
ony of expression than those which break
into larger and irregular masses. The
weeping willow, when full grown, with all its delicacy of foliage and
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 293
softness of outline, becomes majestic and noble by the massive
irregularity of its shadows; while the Lombardy poplars, Fig.
89, stratified vertically by shadows as of long bundles
of foliaged faggots, convey an impression of having all
been cast in a common mould. The same effect is
produced by the upright junipers, the arbor-vitas, and
Fic. 89.
other trees of conical outlines and fastigiate shadow
lines. Such repetitions of the same formal outlines, how-
ever, tend to make them appropriate connecting links
between the regularity and symmetry of street improve-
ments, of which they form a part, and the wild graces of
nature which are in contrast with the repetitions and
parallelisms of architectural art. Such trees are, there-
fore, used with happy effect in connection with garden
walks and terraces, and near buildings. But they must
never be seen in numbers together, or they produce the °
effect of a superfluity of exclamation points in composition. Trees
like the Norway spruce, though less formal in outline and shadows
than those just named, have still so much of this same uniformity
and even rigidity of expression, that they need to be introduced
much more sparingly among other trees, near to architecture of any
kind, than those of more diversified forms and shadows.. One
spiry-top tree will serve to give spirit to a whole group of round-
headed trees or shrubs, while a group of spiry-top trees with one
round-headed tree in it, at once conveys the impression of incon-
gruity. Spiry-top trees should be considered as condiments in the
landscape—never as main features. Trees and shrubs of formal
outlines are the natural adjuncts of grounds arranged on a geometric
plan, while those of freer growth are most becoming where geo-
metric lines are avoided. In speaking of the “wild graces of nature”
as in contrast with architectural art, we do not mean to convey the
impression that such a contrast is undesirable. On the contrary, the
most perfect works of art in landscape gardening are those in which
the free graces of nature are so arranged, that the architectural
features of the place will look as 7f they had been made for just such
a setting. Contrast does not imply want of harmony ; it is a part of
harmony ; it is rest from monotony ; it is as light to shadow.
294 A COMPARISON OF THE
EVERGREEN AND Decrpuous TREES AND SHRUBS CoM-
PARED.—It is a common complaint among tree-growers that ever-
greens are neglected more than other trees, considering their
peculiar merits in giving winter as well as summer verdure. We
do not agree with this view. The whole coniferze or evergreen
tribe were, according to the records of geology, an earlier and (if
the harmony of progress in the development of both the vegetable
and animal worlds is believed) necessarily an inferior order of vege-
tation to the later forms of deciduous trees. And we think that
those lovers of trees who study them in middle age and maturity,
rather than in their nursery growth and infantile graces, will rank
very few of the evergreens as peers in richness and cheerfulness
of verdure, or grace and variety of expression, with the finest spe-
cimens of deciduous trees. During the first twenty years of their
growth, however, their most beautiful characteristics are so con-
spicuous, and afford to the novice in the study of trees so many
novel graces of form, color and growth—their little pyramids of
verdure gleaming brightly through snows in winter, or resting
lovingly on the lawn and perfuming the air with their balsamic
breath in summer—that they seem to us more like our own chil-
dren, than those more aspiring trees of deciduous breeds which
stretch away upwards with rambling vigor while young, and whose
beauties begin to multiply only after their branches sway in the
air far over our heads. The very peculiarity which, in youth,
makes the evergreens, as a class, more charming than deciduous
trees, viz: feathery gracefulness of their foliage and outlines, is
reversed at maturity, when most of them become more rigid and
monotonous in outline, and less cheerful in expression, than the
average of deciduous trees. There is a comparative sameness of
form and manner of branching among evergreens, in marked con-
trast with the infinite variety among deciduous trees.
But though the conifers may not take equal rank with deciduous
trees in the variety of their forms or expressions at maturity, they
certainly offer the most pleasing studies for. the beginner in gar-
denesque planting. Many new species of a semi-dwarf character
have been introduced within a few years, and it has also been
found that many of the larger species may, by good trimming, be
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 295
kept within a size suited to the limited spaces of suburban lots,
either as single specimens, or as hedge screens. For the latter
purpose, where it is desirable to break the force of winds, or hide
unsightly objects, they may be grown and cut to almost any height
and form necessary for the purpose. While deciduous trees and
shrubs, which in summer form massy walls of verdure, are all dis-
robed, and suffer the wintry winds to whistle freely through their
bare branches, the evergreen screen is still a thick wall of protec-
tion to whatever of less height is under its lee.
One of the most striking beauties or evergreens is the manner
in which their branches bear great burdens of snow, and bend un-
der them. The softly-rounded drooping masses of light on the
outer boughs, relieved by dark recesses in the foliage, make every
tree, at such times, a study for a picture.
The winter color of evergreens is much more affected by the
temperature than most persons suppose. In extremely cold weather
most evergreens become dull in color, and resume their brightness
only with returning warmth. This is always observed in the red
cedar, and some of the arbor-vites ; the former turning to a dingy
brown in cold weather ; and the latter, though less discolored, are
much duller in tone during severe weather ; but with the return of
the warm days of spring both resume their normal brightness and
purity of color. Even the foliage of the white pine shows a very
marked change from the effect of cold; often turning to a dull
grayish green when the cold is greatest, though with the return of
warmth the same leaves regain their warm green color. These
facts illustrate that even evergreens are most beautiful in summer,
except so far as their masses of foliage afford a resting-place in
winter for the snow, and thus create beautiful effects peculiar to
themselves which deciduous trees cannot rival.
The beauty of trees, whether deciduous or evergreen, depends
very much upon the character of light in the atmosphere. The
most beautiful foliage of a deciduous tree, under the leaden sky of
a winter day, would be most gloomy and unattractive compared
with its expression when bathed in the bright light of a June day,
or in the golden air of an August sunset. The summer light with
its golden shimmer is essential to the highest charm of trees ; and it
296 A COMPARISON OF THE
will be found quite impossible to produce with evergreens, in winter,
any of that glow of beauty which makes the heart throb with silent
love for verdant nature in summer.
But in the warm days of April and May, when the evergreens
have resumed their true colors, and seem by the sudden change
from their wintry dullness to fairly smile a welcome to spring, their
superiority to deciduous trees is most apparent. Their beauty is
then ripe, and grounds that are stocked (not too densely) with
them—especially the smaller species and varieties—have a finish
that nothing else, at that season, can give. In June and July also,
their long plumes and tufts of leaves open and droop with a grace
of which there is no counterpart among deciduous trees or shrub-
bery, superior as the latter are in amplitude of foliage and splendor
of blossoms. Evergreens, especially the firs, with age are apt to
become gloomy and formal, while deciduous trees are generally
improved with age.
The valuable acquisitions from abroad of new species and varie-
ties of evergreens adapted to the embellishment of suburban lots,
is very great ; and the number growing within the limits of our own
country, and still almost unknown except by a few horticultural
pioneers, is astonishing. The new varieties of old species, which,
by the propagating arts of the nurserymen are multiplied for the
public benefit, are also numerous ; and the homely adage still holds
good when we are searching for novelties among trees that are not
natives of our own country, that “we may go further and fare
worse.” The grandest and most beautiful evergreen that grows in
our climate is the white pine ; which, to our shame be it said, is
little known or appreciated except for its value to cut down, and
saw into the lumber used in our houses. ‘The native hemlock,
when young, is still the most picturesque in its outline, and deli-
cately graceful in foliage, of all hardy evergreens. The Norway
spruce, which is probably the most valuable tree of its type, is not
a native ; and is largely indebted to its foreign name for its great
popularity and universal cultivation ; while our native black spruce,
very similar, and scarcely inferior to it, is little known.
For elegant smad/ pleasure-grounds, however, the newly intro-
duced dwarf varieties and the curious sports from old species, are
CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 297%
novelties which deserve to be studied and planted more than the
larger and nobler evergreens.
In conclusion, we hope that in canvassing a few of the qualities
of evergreens as compared with deciduous trees and shrubs, we
have called attention to the best qualities of both, rather than
prejudiced any mind against either.
WARMTH OF TREES IN WINTER AND COOLNESS IN SUMMER.—
Our clear-headed horticulturist, Thomas Meehan, of Germantown,
Pa., has treated this subject so well that we take the liberty of
adopting his language.
“We all know that a stove throws out heat by reason of the fuel
it consumes, and that in a like manner the food taken by an animal
is, as so much fuel to a stove, the source from whence animal heat
is derived, and which is given off to the surrounding atmosphere,
precisely as heat is given off from the stove ; but it is not so well
known that trees give off heat in the same way. ‘They feed ; their
food is decomposed ; and during decomposition heat is generated,
and the surplus given off to the atmosphere.
“If any one will examine a tree a few hours after the cessation
of a snow storm, he will find that the snow for perhaps a quarter
of an inch from the stem of the tree, has been thawed away, more
or less according to the severity of the cold. This is owing to the
waste heat from the tree. If he plants a hyacinth four inches or
more under the surface of the earth in November, and it becomes
immediately frozen in, and stays frozen solid till March, yet, when
it shall then be examined, it will be found that by the aid of its
internal heat, the bud has thawed itself through the frozen soil to the
surface of the ground.
“These facts show the immense power in plants to generate
heat, and the more trees there are on a property the warmer a
locality becomes.
“Evergreens, besides possessing this heat-dispensing property,
have the additional merit of keeping in check cold winds from
other quarters, thus filling, as it were, the twofold office of stove
and blanket.”’*
* Am, Hort. Annual, 1867.
298 CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES.
The simple facts, as stated by Mr. Meehan, have so great sig-
nificance that no intelligent man who thinks of them can fail to
appreciate the immense influence of trees on climates ; and every
suburban home may be made to feel in some degree their ameliora-
ting effect.
In riding to a suburban home from business in a city, we
have felt the effect of mere grass alone, without trees, in cooling
the air in hot summer days. Narrow streets, with high houses, are
much cooler at such times than broad streets and open unshaded
ground; and the first feeling in leaving a city office and riding
across the bare suburbs that usually intervene between the busi-
ness part of a city and its pleasant tree-embowered residences,
is, that the city street is the most comfortable place. But when
we reach a grass-covered field a trifle less dryness in the air is per-
ceptible ; and when the shadows of trees are reached, there will be
a difference of several degrees between the air under them and
that in the open highway; and not merely a difference of tem-
perature as indicated by the thermometer, but also an increased
moisture that gives the sensation of a greater difference than the
thermometer measures.
CHAP FER MT.
DESCRIPTIONS AND ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT.
N the following descriptions little attention will be paid to the
uses of trees in the arts, except only their pleasant usefulness
as food for eyes that hunger for all forms of natural beauty.
Enjoyment of trees, like enjoyment of sunlight, moonlight,
and flowers, is not to be measured by money values, nor to be
jostled by statistics of the worth of timber to the artisan, or of
shade for the farmer’s stock. Yet whoever loves trees will find
language inadequate to describe their expressions, or even some of
their most common peculiarities, though they be ever so obvious to
the admiring eye. We would gladly be able to furnish engravings
of every tree and shrub described ; but to do this requires the com-
mand of artists whose work would involve the expenditure of a
small fortune. Few persons are aware of the skill and care required
to make a finished drawing on wood of even a single shrub or tree.
We do not mean by a shrub or tree such a generic shrub or tree as
any good sketcher may easily represent, but @ speaking portrait of
some beautiful specimen, with its animated form, its sunny expres-
sion, and its shadowy dimples ; with its drapery of peculiar leaves,
and all its airy graces. Artists who can thus faithfully portray
them are not easily found, or, if found, are usually engaged in
larger and more profitable fields of art.
In reading descriptions of trees and shrubs, the reader must bear
in mind the great variety of wants and tastes to be provided for.
Persons who are enthusiasts for novelties desire to learn as much
as possible of the appearance and habits of the latest acquisitions ;
while a larger class of persons, who need no great number or
variety of shrubs or trees, are not less exigent to have pretty full
information of just those things which they do happen to grow or to
want. It is therefore necessary to give as full descriptions of new
things as of old ones of greater value; and to mention, at least,
many trees and shrubs which are neither rare nor very valuable, but
300 DESCRIPTIONS AND
are often seen and therefore referred to. In the beginning of the
chapter on Shrubs, pages 455 to 459, are some remarks on the con-
siderations which influence a choice of shrubs (some of which apply
equally to trees), to which the reader’s attention is invited.
ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT.—It is extremely difficult to follow
any system for the classification of trees and shrubs that will
greatly facilitate the reader in finding readily what he wishes to
read of, or that will save him constant references to an index.
Botanical classifications, when thoroughly made, require quite too
much familiarity with botany to give them any value to the mass
of readers who know only the a, b, c’s of the science; yet they
must, after all, be the ground-work of the most convenient arrange-
ment for descriptions. ‘Though the same botanical family—often
the same species—has plants of every variety of size, from ground-
lings to lofty trees, which differ from each other in their larger
characteristics as much as from some members of other families
with which they have little botanical connection, yet, zz general,
it will be found that grouping by botanical relationship brings together
those which resemble each other in the greatest number of particulars.
To classify trees and shrubs by their sizes, would separate
family groups, and scatter them promiscuously among each other,
while in all respects but size, their similarity of traits make it most
easy to describe them by families. Take the oaks, for instance.
The different species are numbered by hundreds, all having some
marks of consanguinity in their general appearance, but quite
diverse in forms and sizes. The immense variety of species of the
first differ still more among themselves ;—varying in size from lofty
trees to pigmy shrubs. If we class them with evergreen trees
according to their varying sizes, they would become sadly mixed
among the pines, junipers, arbor-vitaes, yews, and a score of newer
evergreen families. If classified by forms alone, the same confusion
would arise. It is best therefore to keep botanical family groups
together. All oaks, for example, large and small, are described
consecutively under the head of THE Oak; and as most of them
are trees, they are described under the general head of DEcrpuous
TREEs ; though there are varieties which are really shrubs only.
ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT. 301
The lilac family, on the other hand, being 2” general of a shrubby
growth, that is, having several stems springing from the base of the
trunk to form a top, will all be described under the general head of
SHRuBS, although some of them assume a tree-like character.
Many of the smaller species of evergreens, like the arbor-vitexs,
tree-box, junipers, and yews, are of shrubby, rather than tree-like
appearance ; but as they finally tend to make a single stem, they
have by long custom been classed with trees, though some of their
smaller varieties are quite diminutive by the side of common garden
shrubs.
It will be seen by these examples that among descriptions of
trees are included many of the smallest materials that enter into the
composition of shrubberies ; and among the descriptions of shrubs
will be many quite tree-like species and varieties of abnormal vigor,
which, if classed by their own characteristics rather than of the
family to which they belong, would be described among trees. A
copious table of contents giving both the popular and the botanical
names for all trees and shrubs described, facilitates better than any
new classification, a reference to the subject sought. We shall,
however, in an appendix, give some tabular classifications on the
basis of sizes and forms, for the convenience of those desiring to
make selections, who can by this means compare them in abbre-
viation.
We shall begin our descriptions of deciduous trees with the oak,
and follow with other trees, somewhat in the order of their size and
importance in the common estimation, but do not desire the reader
to infer that those which happen to be described towards the last,
are therefore of less value for decorative purposes than those which
precede them.
The descriptions will be made in four classes, as follows:
Decipuous TREES.
DeEcIDUOUS SHRUBS.
EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS,
VINES AND CREEPERS.
Each of these classes will be the subject of a chapter.
CHAP DER kids
DECIDUOUS TREES.
—
pe ARLEY 20-
“A little of thy steadfastness,
Rounded with leafy gracefulness,
Old oak give me ;—
That the world’s blasts may round me blow,
And I yield gently to and fro,
While my stout-hearted trunk below,
And firm-set roots unshaken be.”
LowELL.
O convey by words alone an idea of the grand and
varied expressions of full-grown oaks would be a task
almost as difficult as to impart by description the
awful sense of sublimity inspired by rolling thunder.
In a country where the oak abounds in all the forests it might
seem that it would be sufficiently familiar to most persons ;
nevertheless, it is a fact hat not more than one American out of a
DECIDUOUS TREES. 303
thousand has ever seen the full expansion of a white oak grown to
maturity in open. ground! Downing’s excellent description of the
forest monarch is so apt that we here transcribe it ; premising that
such general remarks on the oak usually apply to the white oaks,
which at maturity are the noblest of all the species.
“As an ornamental object we consider the oak the most varied
in expression, the most beautiful, grand, majestic, and picturesque
of all deciduous trees. * * * When young its fine foliage
(singularly varied in many of our native species) and its thrifty
form render it a beautiful tree. But it is not till the oak has at-
tained considerable size that it displays its true character, and only
when at an age that would terminate the existence of most other
trees that it exhibits all its magnificence. Then its deeply-fur-
rowed trunk is covered with mosses; its huge branches, each a
tree, spreading horizontally from the trunk with great boldness, its
trunk of huge dimension, and ‘its high top bald with dry antiquity ’—
all these, its true characteristics, stamp the oak, as Virgil has ex-
pressed it in his Georgics—
* Jove’s own tree,
That holds the woods in awful sovereignty.’’
While oaks which have already attained great size are the
noblest environments of a home, yet for some reasons they are
less desirable to plant in small grounds than many other trees
which grow to noble size and beautiful proportions in less time,
though they may not finally develop so grandly. ‘The finest species
of the oak are late in leaf, and of slow growth; are addicted to
holding their dry dead leaves upon the branches through the win-
ter and early spring, and then dropping them week after week into
the fresh grass of spring lawns just when we want them brightest
and cleanest. And the younger and thriftier the tree the greater
its tenacity in holding the old leaves. This fault is principally
confined to the white and Turkey oaks.
It will surprise most Americans to know the great number of
species of oak that are indigenous in this country, and in their
own neighborhoods. Loudon in his Arboretum Brittanicum enu-
merates about two hundred species and varieties of oaks known
304 DECTD VOWS 2REEHS.
thirty years ago. Nearly one-half of these are natives of our con-
tinent. In the following descriptions of a part of them we shall
endeavor to name only those which are growing wild in most
neighborhoods, and are therefore likely to be objects of study to
those interested in trees ; and those foreign sorts which are intrin-
sically beautiful, and known to be hardy, or nearly so.
There being a great variety of oaks, we hope to facilitate a
reference to them by their classification into native and foreign
oaks, and subdividing the native oaks into groups, as follows :—
I. The White Oak Group ; embracing those trees having lobed
leaves with rounded edges and light-colored scaly bark. Leaves
dying an ashy or violet brown.
II. The Chestnut Oak Group ; leaves toothed, with rounded
edges, dying a dirty white or yellow color. Bark resembling that
of the chestnut tree.
III. The Red Oak group; having deeply-lobed and sharp-
pointed leaves, which turn to a deep red, scarlet or purple. Bark
smooth when young, and never deeply furrowed. Cup large in
proportion to the acorn.
IV. The Black Oak Group; leaves obtusely lobed, and gen-
erally with points. Bark quite dark, and generally much broken
by furrows.
V. Willow Oaks ; leaves entire, narrow and small. Sub-ever-
green. General appearance of trees when without leaves, like the
black oak.
THE WHITE Oak GROUP.
THe Wuite Oak (Quercus alba).—This is the grandest, the
most common, and the most useful of our northern oaks. Al-
though indigenous, it is almost identical with the British oak
Q. pedunculata and Q. sessifiora. Though we have no such aged
and immense trees as can be found of those varieties in Britain,
our white oaks may in time become such trees. The great speci-
mens which may have been found growing in open ground in the
early settlement of the country while the settlers were compara-
DECIDUOUS TREES. 305
THE VALLEY-ROAD OAK OF ORANGE, N. J.
tively poor, were sadly valuable for ship-timber, and therefore
sacrificed on the altars of profit and utility. Trees grown to great
size in the forest cannot be preserved when their supporting trees
are cut from around them, and we must therefore leave to future
centuries to record to what size the trees now growing in open
ground may eventually attain. The Wadsworth oak, near Gen-
esee, N. Y., the valley-road oak of Orange, N. J., of which the
above engraving is a portrait, and a few others scattered at rare
intervals over the country, are trees of great size, large enough to
show that age only is wanting to give them the colossal dimen-
sions of trunk and branches that British oaks have attained, and,
compared with which, our largest are mostly but moderate-sized
trees. The Wadsworth oak probably comes nearer to the great
English exemplars than any other, having a trunk thirty-six feet in
circumference. The valley-road oak, just mentioned, has an unusually
20
306 DECIDUOUS TREES.
small trunk (about five feet in diameter) for so great a ramification
of branches, which cover a space upwards of ninety feet in breadth ;
but there is a majestic solidity in the first divergence of the great
branches which promises in time to make this an oak of the first
magnitude, though it is too rotund to be one of great picturesque-
ness. Its height is about eighty feet. There are some superb
specimens in a pasture field near the grounds of Robert Buist, Esq.,
south of Philadelphia, which measure nearly one hundred feet
across the spread of their branches, with trunks about fifteen feet
in circumference, exhibiting all the grand characteristics of full
grown oaks. Yet these dimensions are not great compared with
those of living British and German oaks, some of which range from
forty to sixty feet-in circumference of trunk; others from one
hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty feet across the
greatest extension of their branches, and from ninety to one hun-
dred and forty feet in height! One shades an area large enough
for two thousand four hundred men to stand in comfortably, and
another drips over an area of three thousand square yards, “ and
would have afforded shelter to a regiment of nearly one thousand
horse!” The trunk of the Cowthorpe oak, which is said to have
been the prototype of the Eddystone light-house, exceeds in size,
where it meets the earth, the base of that wonderful structure.
Many halls in England, of considerable size, are floored with single
plank from trees grown on the estates where used. Even as
timber trees, our greatest forest-grown oaks are not equal to their
venerable European relatives. ‘The author has had a
forest oak cut from which ten cords of wood were cut,
which is about two-thirds the cubic contents of the largest
British trees. This is not an unusual size in our forests ;
but, alas, very unusual in trees that are rooted, and low-
spreading enough to resist the gales on open ground.
Probably the best exemplars of the oak family in our
country are the live oaks of the Gulf States ; some of
which have been preserved, and rival in the horizontal
extension of their branches, the greatest oaks of
England.
The accompanying cut, Fig. 92, shows the form of
DECIDUOUS TREES. 307
the leaf of the white oak, and the characteristic form of the tree
when quite young—say from five to ten years after planting from
the nursery. In rich and cultivated soil the growth of young white
oaks is about two feet a year, but in ordinary soils is not much
more than half this. The depth and culture of the soil makes more
difference in the rate of growth of the white oak than of the sugar
maple or chestnut ; and adds to the beauty of its foliage in the same
proportion. The latter trees will often show luxuriant masses of
leaves in soils too poor to produce more than a meagre foliage on
the oak. When grown in soils that force a rapid growth, it de-
velops early those broad masses of light and shadow which, in its
later growth, in connection with the grand horizontal projection
and picturesque irregularity of its branches, makes it a favorite tree
of most landscape painters. The leaves change in autumn to a
dull brown or purple, and hang on thrifty trees till they are fairly
pushed off by the growth of new leaves the following May.
THE Swamp WHITE Oak. (Q. fomentosa.—This
common native oak, one of the most valuable for its
timber, is also one of the most beautiful ; and forms
a connecting link between the chestnut oaks and the
white oak. In form, when young, it closely resembles
the burr oak, as shown in Fig. 95; but its bark is
lighter colored, smoother, and more scaly. The
branches are more numerous than those of the white
oak, especially the smaller spray, and disposed to droop grace-
fully as the tree attains a large size. The leaves, the form of
which is shown by Fig. 93, are a shining green on the upper
surface and whitish on the under side ; occasional specimens dis-
playing leaves so white when turned by the wind, as to be
observed among the oaks for this peculiarity. Its growth is a
little more rapid than that of the white oak or burr oak, but less
rapid, when young, than the red and black oaks. At middle age,
however, say from twenty years old and upwards, no oak grows
more rapidly. Fig. 94 is a portrait of a beautiful specimen
growing on the grounds of T. Van Amringe, near Mamaroneck,
N. Y., in a meadow near the waters of Long Island Sound. The
308 DECIDUOUS TREES,
form is more elm-like than the
usual character of the tree, but
serves to illustrate one form of
this species. It becomes a tree of
the largest size, little inferior, in
rich cool soils, to the white oak.
Though named swamp white oak,
it is by no means a swamp tree,
but is generally found in such rich
moist soils as the whitewood and
the magnolias delight in. We think
it the best of all the first family of
oaks for decorative planting, be-
cause, in a proper soil, it will give the quickest return in beauty.
It is reputed the finest of all the northern oaks for straight ship
timber, and the most durable in the ground.
THE Burr OAK OR OVER-CuP WHITE Oak. Quer-
cus macrocarpa.—The accompanying sketch is char-
acteristic of the burr oak when young; with age it
assumes a spreading form, very similar to, but smaller,
than the white oak ; the bark is darker colored, and
rougher, and the branches have a corky and ragged
look. The leaf is the largest and most beautiful
attract attention, and is admirably adapted to use in
architectural designs. It has been used with beauti-
ful effect as the principal leaf in wrought-stone capi-
tals. The acorn in its cup is also a picturesque little
object, and has given the name of burr to the tree on
account of the cup being rough, shaggily fringed, and almost
enveloping the acorn like a burr. Grown in open rich ground it is
a decidedly handsome tree in summer, but rude in its winter ap-
pearance. The oak openings in some of the western States are
largely composed of this variety. Nearly every home in beautiful
Kalamazoo, Michigan, is surrounded by these trees “ to the manor
born.” When thus found wild, the tree needs much internal prun-
among oak leaves, and has a form so peculiar as to
DECIDUOUS TREES. 309
ing of dead branches and twigs, and rarely receives the thorough
draining and enrichment of the soil without which few oaks develop
a high order of foliage beauty. The rate of growth may be inferred
from the growth of one planted by Moses Brown, of Germantown,
Pa., a mere whip twenty years ago. It is now forty-five feet high,
thirty feet in diameter, and foliaged to the ground ; the form is
distinctly conical, but at the same time so irregular in outline as to
be quite picturesque.
THe Post Oak. Q. obtusiloban—A dark-leaved
spreading oak found generally near the sea. It is not
found much north of New York. Its leaf resembles
the black oak in color and texture, but the lobes are
rounded instead of pointed. The branching of the
tree is like that of a rugged white oak. There is a
superb specimen growing on the beach at Orienta, in
Mamaroneck, N. Y., near the residence of Thomas S. Shepherd,
Esq., which measures upwards of ninety feet across the spread of
its branches. Usual height and breadth about fifty feet.
THE WATER Oak, Q. aquatica, is a dwarf species, native of New
Jersey and Maryland, which, as far as we are aware, has not been
thought worthy of cultivation.
THE HOLLY-LEAVED OR BEAR Oak, Q. dlicfolia, is a native
dwarf, covering vast tracts of barren mountain slopes or table lands
where no other tree can resist the winds. In such situations it
grows from three to ten feet high. Probably of no value for home-
grounds ; but one of those sorts that ought to be experimented with
to try the effect upon it of a lowland soil and climate.
THE WaTER WHITE Oak OF THE SOUTH, Q. Jyrata, is a
swamp variety, with leaves resembling the burr oak, but smaller
and less curiously lobed. It grows principally in the southern
States, and there attains a height of eighty feet. Michaux states
that plants of it grow finely in a dry soil in the north of
France.
310 DECIDUOUS TREES.
THE OLIve-ACORN OR Mossy-cup Oak. Q. oliveifornus.—This
variety is known by some under the name of mossy-cup oak. As
the burr oak has a still mossier cup, it seems to us that the botan-
cal name which Loudon has anglicized, and which is given above,
is more appropriate. Its acorn is long, like the olive, and nearly
covered by its cup, but not so completely as that of the burr oak.
The leaf of this variety is like a white oak leaf, elongated, and more
deeply lobed. Its bark is like that of the white oak, but the growth
is more slender, and the branches tend to droop gracefully. A
native of the northern States.
THE CHESTNUT Oak GROUP.
THE CHESTNUT OAK. Quercus prinus palustris.—
A lofty tree found principally below the latitude of
42°. It is disposed to form a straight trunk, with-
out branches to a considerable height, and then to
spread into a broad tufted head. Fig. 97 shows its
form of leaf. We have not had the good fortune to
see any trees of this variety grown fo maturity m
open ground, and cannot, therefore, speak of its usual
character as an ornamental tree; but our impression is that for
massy and glossy foliage, and rapidity of growth, it is surpassed
by few of the oaks. When young its growth is long-limbed like the
red oaks. At all times a cleanly-looking tree.
THE Rock CHEsTNUT Oak. Q. prinus monticola.—Down-
ing considers this one of the finest of northern oaks, and states that
it grows on the most barren and rocky soils; thus showing its
affinity to its namesake and prototype, the chestnut tree. “In open
elevated situations it spreads widely, and forms a head like that of
an apple tree.” The leaves are broader proportionally, and less
acutely pointed than those of the preceding variety, by which, and
its lower and broader form, it can be recognized. We consider
this the finest of the chestnut oak family, and for small grounds the
most desirable oak to plant, being more opulent in leaves than
any other.
DECTDUOUS TRE ES. Slut:
THE YELLOW CHESTNUT OAK. Q. f. accuminata.—This variety
differs little from the Q. primus. The leaves are more pointed,
and their petioles are longer. This is not the yellow oak of western
woodsmen, which is a variety of the red oak, Q. rudra.
THe Dwarr CHESTNUT Oak OR CHINQUAPIN. Q. prinus
pumila.—* A low tree twenty to thirty feet high. Highly orna-
mental when in full bloom, and most prolific in acorns when but
three or four feet high” (Loudon). We have not seen it in rich
open ground.
THE RED Oak GROUP.
These are all distinguished by a more upright
growth of their branches when young than the white
oaks , resembling in this quality the chestnut oaks.
The branches generally form an acute angle with the
main stem, and grow most from their points, so that
they are straighter and longer in one direction than
those of the white oak group, and consequently form
trees more open and straggling. The bark is quite
smooth and lighter colored till the tree attains con-
siderable size, and even on full grown trees is never
deeply furrowed. Their growth is more rapid than
any of the white oak group, and about the same
as that of the chestnut oaks. The above cut gives
the characteristic form of young trees, and the usual form of the
leaf.
THE Rep Oak. Quercus rubra.—A large rapid-growing tree
common in all parts of the northern States and Canada. Its early
growth is upright but rather straggling. The bark is smooth until
the tree is about twenty years old, when it becomes somewhat
furrowed, but not deeply, like that of the black oak. The branches
are not numerous, but straight and smooth, set at an angle of about
45° with the stem; the foliage tending to their extremities. In
color the foliage varies considerably. Qn the coast of Maine we
312 DECIDUOUS. TRE ES.
observed this tree growing in open fields, with a broad flat head,
and a golden green tone when the sunlight was upon it that con-
trasted beautifully with the darker evergreen foliage of that region.
But in the neighborhood of the Hudson, and at the west, this fine
tone is not common on the red oak, nor is the peculiarly flat top so
often seen. It is barely possible that the tree we have seen on the
coast of Maine is the gray oak, Q. ambigua, of Michaux, which is
a northern oak partaking of the character of both the red and the
scarlet oaks. But we have had no means of ascertaining the cor-
rectness of this surmise. The most marked trait of the red oak as
an ornamental tree is the dull crimson or purplish red color of its
leaves in the fall; but as it is much less brilliant than the follow-
ing, and in no respect a finer tree, the scarlet oak will be preferred.
THE ScarRLeT Oak. Q. coccinea.—This differs from the pre-
ceding but little except in its leaves, which are more deeply lobed,
more sharply pointed, and have longer petioles. ‘They are smooth
and shining on both sides. Their autumn color is a bright scarlet
or yellowish red, of uncommon intensity, and at that season it
has no superior among trees. It is rather an elegant tree at all
times, and one of the cleanest limbed of the oaks in winter. The
tendency of its foliage to the extremities of the branches often
gives the head too open and straggling an appearance, but this
defect can be obviated with good effect on trees from twenty to
forty feet high by cutting back the long branches a few times. It
flourishes in any good soil, moist or dry.
THE BLack Oak GROUP.
THE BLAck Oak, Quercus tinctoria, becomes a tree of the largest
size, but of little value in ornamental grounds. The foliage is very
dark, and though glossy, is apt to be scattered about on the long
limbs, forming neither rich masses nor picturesque outlines. The
whole aspect of the tree, with or without its leaves, is sombre. The
foliage comes out late, and falls early. It grows naturally on dry
sandy soils.
DECIDUOUS TREES. 313
THE SPANISH Oak, Q. falcata, is a southern oak resembling the
black oak in its bark, and with leaves somewhat like those of the
pin oak and scarlet oak.
THE BLAcK Jack Oak, Q. nigra, is a dwarf species of no value
for decorative planting.
THE MarsH or Pin Oaxk. Q. fadustris.—It has been prettily
remarked of this tree that it is @ graceful savage. A
thorny, scraggy tree, armed like a hedge-hog against
approach, when growing wild in wet ground, but full
of grace with its delicate light foliage when in full leaf
in open ground. A multitude of small branches, of
great hardness of fibre, radiate at right angles from
the main stem, and with their numerous angular
branchlets and thorn-like spurs, give the tree the ap-
pearance, when bare of leaves, of a prodigious natural
: “a hedge-plant. The bark is extremely hard, and darker
: _- colored than that of the red oak, but smooth when
young. The leaves, the form of which is shown by
Fig. 99, are smaller and lighter colored than most
oaks. When grown in open ground the lower branches droop to
the ground, and the light-green of its fine-cut foliage, the sharpness
of its stratified lights and shadows, and the general downward
sweep of its branches, altogether make it a pleasing tree ; and, in
Loudon’s opinion, “ the most graceful of the oaks.” ‘This, however,
is no great compliment, remembering that grace is not a character-
istic of the oak family. Our cut gives the usual form of a young
pin oak, but does not indicate sufficiently the drooping habit of
the lower branches.
Fic. 99.
WILLOW Oak GROUP.
WiLLow Oaks. Quercus Phellos—These are seldom seen north
of Philadelphia. There, and southward, they become large trees,
whose dark bark and foliage give them a sombre appearance.
Leaves very small, lanceolate, smooth edged, and willow-like.
314 DECIDUOUS TREES.
THE LAUREL-LEAVED OAK, Q. 2. /aurifolia, is similar to the
foregoing, but with larger leaves. Found principally in the
southern States.
THe SHINGLE Oak, Q. imbricaria, is a species with smooth-
edged, elliptic, pointed, glossy leaves, similar in form to the leaf of
the chionanthus. It is a native of the middle States, especially the
neighborhood of the Alleghanies, and becomes a tree forty to fifty
feet in height. From Michaux’ description we infer that it would
be a desirable oak to introduce in small grounds.
Tue Live Oak. @Q. virens.—Unfortunately this magnificent
evergreen of our southern coast is too tender to flourish far north
of the Gulf of Mexico. It is a tree of medium height only, but of
immense and grand expansion of trunk and branches. A writer
in Lippincott’s Magazine mentions a specimen on the Habershaw
plantation near Savannah, Georgia, which has an extension of one
-hundred and fifty feet between the extremities of its branches! A
traveller mentions one at Goose Creek, near Charleston, S.,C., the
trunk of which measures forty-five feet in circumference close to the
ground, eighteen and a half feet in its smallest part, with a dranch
which measured twelve and a half feet in girt! It is one of the
grandest trees of the continent, as well as the most valuable of all
for ship-timber.
FOREIGN OAKS.
THE BritisH Oak. Q. pedunculata and Q. sessiflora—These
varieties of the white oak group are so nearly the same as our
white oak, that it is not necessary to describe them separately. But
some odd varieties have come into existence, among which are the
following :
THE Moccas Oak, Q. p. pendula, is a variety of the British oak,
as pendulous as the weeping willow ; and of course a great curiosity.
It is said there are none of this sort in this country. An extraor-
DECIDUOUS TREES. 315
dinary fact, considering that full grown trees of it seventy-five feet
high exist in England, and that, according to Loudon, it generally
comes true from seed. If grafts can be procured, they may be put
into the tops of our common white oaks.
THE Upricut Oak. Q. f. fastigiata.—A tree of extremely
fastigiate habit, the most so of any of the oaks, but much less
slender than the Lombardy poplar, with which it is sometimes com-
pared. Though a native of the Pyrenees, it is hardy at Rochester,
N. Y., and makes about the same annual growth as our white oak.
The leaves and branches are small and numerous.
THE Mossy-cupPED TuRKEY Oaks. (2. cerris—The variety of
what are called Turkey oaks in England is large, and
some of the most beautiful specimens of oaks grown = Fic. roo,
during this century are of one or another variety of
this species. Fig. roo illustrates the common form of
the young tree, and the leaf. It is distinguished from
the British oak (which it resembles more than any
other) by longer, straighter, and more upright branches,
and more rapid growth. Judging by the specimens to
be seen in this country, we do not perceive any strik-
ing peculiarity or beauty that should cause them to
be preferred, in pleasure-grounds, to many of our
native oaks.
There is an English variety, the Q. ¢ pendula, the branches of
which “not only droop to the ground, but, after touching it, creep
along the surface to some distance like those of the sophora japonica
pendula” (Loudon). It grows to thirty or forty feet in height.
There are also variegated-leaved varieties, but of little value.
THE JAPAN Purple Oak. Q. alba atro-purpurea japonica.—Our
attention has recently been called to this new tree from Japan. It
promises to be the most brilliant member of the oak family. In
the nursery of Parsons & Co., at Flushing, L. I., the little trees had
as bright and clear a purple tint in September (1867), as the purple
beech shows in May and June. It was considered quite hardy.
316 DECIDUOUS \#?R HD8.
Such trees as this purple oak, the Moccas oak, and the weeping
Turkey oak, can readily be grafted on our white oaks, so that per-
sons having young and thrifty trees may, with care and persistency
through a term of years, secure samples of these curious oaks, and
produce novel effects of foliage and form on the same tree. The
work must, however, be done year by year, so as not to give the
stock a maimed expression, or injure its health.
Tue Hotty Oaks. Quercus virens—These are mostly ever-
greens, natives of Southern Europe and Asia, near the sea. They
will not bear our winters, though they can with care be grown in
some parts of England.
(Mek JW (CYS
The Elm family embraces many species, mostly large trees.
Our indigenous weeping elm, U/mus americana, 1s, however, so much
better known in this country than any other, and has so long borne,
and deserved, the crown and title of “queen of American trees,”
that it is always the species uppermost in the mind when Americans
speak of the elm. Yet in England and Continental Europe the
Dutch, English, and Scotch elms have not been supplanted by it.
THE AMERICAN WEEPING OR WHITE ELM. Ulmus americana.—
A full grown luxuriant weeping elm is certainly the queen, as the
oak is the king, among deciduous trees. Its grace is feminine. Its
outstretching arms droop with motherly grace to shelter and caress
with their mantle of verdure the human broods that nestle under
them. It is also a grand tree, well characterized by Dr. Holmes as
“A forest waving on a single stem.”
Few trees are more lofty in their native woods, and none spread
with more luxuriant amplitude in rich alluvial fields. The roots
around the base of the trunk rise from the ground with peculiar
picturesqueness to brace it against the winds. Its long branches,
curving symmetrically upwards and outwards, describe the segment
DECTDUOUS TREES. et ky
of a circle till they bend at maturity almost to the earth with their
verdant tips.
That master of happy characterization, the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher, in “ Norwood,” makes the following beautiful allusions to
the weeping elm :—“ No town can fail of beauty, though its walks
were gutters, and its houses hovels, if venerable trees make mag-
nificent colonnades along its streets. Of all trees, no other unites,
in the same degree, majesty and beauty, grace and grandeur, as the
American elm. Known from north to south, through a range of
twelve hundred miles, and from the Atlantic to the head-waters
which flow into the western side of the Mississippi, yet, in New
England the elm is found in its greatest size and beauty, fully justi-
fying Michaux’ commendation of it to European cultivators, as ‘the
most magnificent vegetable of the temperate zone.’” * * *
“Their towering trunks, whose massiveness well symbolizes Puri-
tan inflexibility; their overarching tops, facile, wind-borne and
elastic, hint the endless plasticity and adaptableness of this people ;
and both united, form a type of all true manhood, broad at the
root, firm in the trunk, and yielding at the top, yet returning again
after every impulse into position and symmetry. What if they
were sheered away from village and farm-house? Who would
know the land? Farm-houses that now stop the tourist and the
artist, would stand forth bare and homely; and villages that
coquette with beauty through green leaves, would shine white and
ghastly as sepulchres. Let any one imagine Conway or Lancaster
without elms! Or Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, or Springfield !
New Haven without elms would be like Jupiter without a beard, or
a lion shaved of his mane!”
The weeping elm grows with great rapidity, and where uninjured
by insects, or lack of moisture in the soil, is picturesque and beau-
tiful in every stage of its growth. No other tree, when young,
throws out its arms so free and wild, and assumes so great a variety
of forms. Figs. 63 and 76 are two sketches from nature of
young weeping elms, illustrative of this characteristic. Very fine
specimens of this elm may be seen at the west, which have attained
a majestic height in the forest, and then had their environing trees
gradually cut from around them. At first they are little more than
318 DECIDUOUS TREES.
columnar stems, with a parasol-like tuft of foliage at the top; but
-as they are gradually exposed on all sides to the sun the head
widens rapidly, the tall trunk covers itself from root to branch with
a picturesque small spray peculiar to this elm, the outer branches
of the top begin to droop and fall like spray from a fountain, until
the whole tree assumes a loftier grace than belongs to its lower
and broader-crowned sisters of the eastern valleys. Fig. ror is a
sketch of a young forest elm that is beginning to develop the
changes just described. Unfortunately, however, such forest-
grown trees, if more than forty or fifty
years old, usually fall victims of the first
summer tornado that finds them in its
track.
For the formation of wide avenues the
elm, in congenial soil, has no equal among
trees. But it should never be planted in
narrow streets, nor nearer than forty feet
asunder in wide ones. Its great size and
breadth of head should also cause it to be
sparingly planted in or near small grounds,
if a variety of shrubs or small trees are
desired.
The roots of the white elm feed quite
near the surface, so that surface manuring
in autumn is a wonderful stimulant to its
growth. Large street trees are often se-
riously injured in old villages by the gradual accumulation of gravel
and broken stone incident to annual road improvements, until the
feeding roots are so covered that they cease to have any rich
surface to feed in. In other places noble old trees are being
literally starved to death, while the good people who walk under
them are wondering why their elms do not look as well as for-
merly. Streets much travelled are continually enriched by drop-
pings, and where the soil is not covered by water-proof pavements,
there is little danger of trees in such streets suffering from this
cause. But many instances have come under our observation of
elms in villages and cities that languish for want of fresh food and
DECIDUOUS TREES: 319
good soil. Half the diseases that now attack old elm trees are the
result of the weakened vigor caused by lack of good fresh soil or
manure on their roots, which should be put on over the whole area
that is covered by the branches. 5] }
CLEMATIS, OR VIRGIN’S Bower. Clematis.—The species are
very numerous ; some natives of Europe, and others of our own
country. All are twining, of slender, irregular growth, delicate
foliage, and marked fragrance of blossoms. ‘They require artificial
support, and are adapted to cover arbors, bowers, and low trees, or
to be trained on verandas, but not to creep on tree-trunks, or to
decorate walls. The petioles of the leaves serve as tendrils.
There are many charming varieties in the south, not hardy at the
north, and scores of hybrids and varieties have been originated.
THE EUROPEAN SWEET-SCENTED CLEMATIS, C. flamula, has
compound leaves, with very narrow leaflets. The flowers are quite
small, white, borne from July to October, and exceedingly fragrant.
Extent of mature vines from fifteen to thirty feet.
THE WHITE-VINE CLEMATIS, C. vifalba, is a stronger-wooded
vine than the preceding, with broader leaves, greenish white, incon-
spicuous flowers, and the distinguishing peculiarity of seeds around
which grow long silky tufts or tassels of a greenish white color,
forming a feathery mass of beautiful effect in August and Septem-
ber, when covering roofs, low trees, or arbors. These tufts have
given the names of “old man’s beard” to this species. The vine
596 VINES AND CREEPERS.
quickly grows bare of foliage towards the bottom, and displays all
its beauty late in the season, and at the summit, where the fresh
growth rests in masses. A useful vine to cover unsightly roofs.
THE AMERICAN WHITE CLEMATIS. C. virginica.—Similar in
appearance to the preceding, but with more profuse and conspicu-
ous white flowers, in August, and less showy seed plumes.
THE VINE-BOWER CLEMATIS. C. viticella—This is a more
showy species, bearing much larger flowers than the preceding
sorts, of various colors, blooming from June or July to October,
and two inches or more in diameter. Varieties.—The C. viticella
venosa has rich purple-colored flowers, touched with crimson, and
blooms profusely from June to October: considered the best. The
C. v. flora plena has double flowers of the same color. The C. v.
cerulea has blue flowers, quite large.
THE SHOWY-FLOWERED CLEmaTIs. C. /Vorida.—A Japanese
species, with flowers white, blue, and purple, two to three inches in
diameter, from June to September. Growth slender, and not quite
hardy.
THE LarcE AZURE-FLOWERED, C. azurea grandifiora, is a
Chinese species, not long introduced, with flowers larger than the
native or European sorts. The C. cerudea, of the same species,
bears the finest blue flower. Both are hardy, and pretty, woody
vines.
The C. Sophia, a Japanese variety with very large lilac blos-
soms ; and the C. Hedena, another with very large white blossoms,
are both elegant vines, but require protection in winter.
HoneEysucKLeES. Lonicera.—These most cherished vines have
been gathered from all parts of the world, and the species hybrid-
ized and improved until their beautiful varieties are so numerous,
that, like the roses, they are almost innumerable, and a description
of them would fill a small volume. The best varieties are the most
suitable of all vine decorations for verandas and porches. We
shall merely mention a few sorts.
THE WoopBINE HoNEysuUCKLE. JL. periclymenum.—A_ native
of Europe. One of the most showy in its flowers, which are red
outside and buff within ; June and July ; berries deep red.
VINES AND CREEPERS. 597
Tue Late Rep HONEYSUCKLE, JL. /. serotinum, is simply a late
variety with darker flowers, and very showy during its blooming.
THE DutcH HONEysUCKLE, ZL. p. belgicum, differs from the
first only in being more shrubby.
THE YELLOW-FLOWERED HONEYSUCKLE, 7. flava, is a native
of our States, half hardy, with large ovate leaves nearly joined at
the base, and bright yellow flowers in June and July.
THE TRUMPET HONEYSUCKLES. JL. sempervirens.—Indigenous,
and sub-evergreen at the south. Flowers scarlet, and borne
throughout the summer season after May. The . s. superba and
Hf. s. Brownti are superior varieties.
THE CHINESE OR JAPAN MONTHLY HoNEYSUCKLES. JL. sapfon-
ica.—Sub-evergreen, and not quite hardy; but of robust growth,
densely clothed with leaves, constantly in bloom and deliciously
fragrant, and of course universally popular. Protection is so easily
given them that their slight unhardiness is a small objection to their
use. The varieties are very numerous. Among them is the GoLp-
VEINED-LEAVED sort, L. 7. folies aurea reticulata, the leaves of which
are exquisitely veined with gold lines, each leaf as pretty as a
blossom, making it one of the most interesting to plant in porches
or verandas among the darker leaved sorts. A moderate grower.
THE EVERGREEN Ivy. edera.
“Creeping where no light is seen,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.”
“The common evergreen ivy is a rooting climber; but when
these roots are opposed by a hard substance which they cannot
penetrate, they dilate and attach themselves to it, by close pres-
sure on the rough particles of its surface.” Unless, however,
the surface presents some crevices into which roots can penetrate
a little, the plant cannot sustain itself on a wall by the mere
adhesion of its root-mouths against it; in other words, it cannot
sustain itself on a Aard and smooth stone surface. In this respect
it is neither stronger nor weaker than our Virginia creeper. The
evergreen ivy can hardly be said to have become domesticated
in this country. Our summers are too hot and dry, and our
winters too cold for it; and it rarely clothes lofty walls with
y,
598 VINES AND CREEPERS.
such masses of verdure as in the British islands. In cities, on
north walls, and sheltered corners of church towers and buttresses,
it occasionally mounts and covers them, suggesting the beauty for
which it is renowned in the moist mild climate of England; but
these instances are exceptional in the northern States.
It is believed that all the varieties of the ivy may be grown as
shrubs, and become quite valuable on account of the unusual
purity of color of their evergreen foliage throughout the year. By
planting an elm-post, say four feet above the surface of the ground,
and ivies at the foot of it, they will cling to the post, and can be
protected upon it for a few years in winter with straw. After they
are well rooted, and form a mass several feet in thickness around
the post, they will not need further protection in most parts of the
northern States. No vine we have is so well adapted to cover the
trunks of old dead trees which have had their tops cut off.
The varieties do not vary widely. THE ENGLIsH Ivy is known
as H. vulgaris. The IrisH Ivy, HZ. canarienses, has a leaf a little
larger. This is the variety most planted in this country, and usually
considered the hardiest. Then there are the GoLp-sTRIPED, 7.
foleis aureis, the SILVER-STRIPED, #7. foleis argenteis, the GIANT-
LEAVED, HZ. ragneriana, and numerous others with some mark of
difference from the normal form.
TueE Porson Ivy, Rus toxicodendron, is also a beautiful native
creeping shrub with fine glossy leaves, but the plant is a fearful
poison to some persons, and should not be allowed to grow in
settled neighborhoods. It may be readily distinguished from the
Virginia creeper when in leaf by its three instead of five leaflets,
and by their smooth edges; the Virginia creeper having strongly
serrate leaves. Its wood is somewhat stronger and more stubby
than that of the latter, and when the vine is attached to trees it
sends out stiff shoots like branches, which do not fall gracefully
like those of the Virginia creeper.
THE GRAPE-VINE. Vitis.—No intelligent person needs to be
reminded that grape-vines are among the most beautiful as well as
raluable of climbers. ‘There is much difference in the habitual
VINES AND CREEPERS. 599
healthiness of different varieties which bear good fruit. The
Clinton and the Concord are probably the most healthy and pro-
ductive vines in the northern States when left to grow naturally ;
and their fruit, though not of the best for table use, makes a fine
wine when carefully made and kept long enough. The Isabella,
Catawba, Diana, Delaware, and a host of newer sorts, all do well
in the middle States, but require more care than the two first
named. In the southern States other varieties are more esteemed.
We believe that all our native vines are usually trimmed too much,
and their healthfulness impaired by it; and that if their roots have
a deep dry soil their tops may be allowed to cover a great space.
Tue Perrpioca. eriploca greca.—A shrub from France, also
known as the Virginia silk-vine, which is a vigorous twining vine,
with large clean-cut, gloss, wavy leaves. The flowers are small,
of a rich velvety brown; in July and August. Their odor is said
to be unwholesome to those long exposed to it, and the vine should
not therefore be planted on porches or near to windows.
CiimsBiInGc RosEs.—See roses in Chapter V, Part IT.
THE PERIWINKLE, OR RuNNING MyrtLe. Vinca.—A trailing
evergreen that covers the ground rapidly, and is adapted to make a
deep mat of verdure in shady places under trees where grass will
not grow. It bears blue flowers which appear constantly from
March to September.
Tue Wistarta. Glycine. Wistaria—Twining vines of great
vigor, indigenous in our country, and in Asia; with compound
pinnate leaves, and long racemes of blue or lilac flowers.
THE AMERICAN, OR SHRUBBY WISTARIA, W. (G.) frittescens.—
A free-grower, indigenous in the middle and southern States. Leaves
composed of nine to thirteen leaflets. Flowers bluish-purple in
shouldered racemes about six inches long, and borne from July to
September.
Tue CHINESE WistaRtaA. W. (G.) sinensis. — This most
vigorous of twining vines was introduced from China to England in
a
600 VINES AND CREEPERS.
1816, but was little known in this country until within thirty years.
There-is no twining vine that will mount so rapidly, or that will
cover so great a space. Planted at the foot of a lightning-rod it has
been seen to mount to the top of a five-story house within four
years after planting. Mr. Fortune, the great botanist, gives the
following account of a famous vine which he saw in a Japanese
city :—‘“ On our way (May z2oth) we called at Nanka Nobu to see
a large specimen of Glycine ( Wistaria) sinensis which was one of
the lions in this part of the country. It was evidently of great age.
It (the trunk) measured at three feet from the ground, seven feet in
circumference, and covered a space of trellis-work 60 x 102 feet.
The trellis was about eight feet in height, and many thousands of
the long racemes of glycine hung down nearly half way to the
ground. One of them which I measured was three feet six inches
in length! The thousands of long drooping lilac racemes had a
most extraordinary and brilliant appearance.” On page 244 some
wistaria vines, in Germantown, Pa., are mentioned, which have
covered the head of a lofty hemlock tree, and almost hid it from
sight under their own more luxuriant growth. If the vine has an
opportunity to keep on growing vertically, it soon loses its foliage
towards the bottom. It should therefore have a place for hori-
zontal expansion in order to exhibit its greatest beauty, unless
wanted to cover tree-tops. The foliage is composed of long pinnate
leaves of many leaflets. The flowers appear in May and June, and
again in August. They are borne in great abundance in long loose
pendulous racemes from eight inches to several feet in length, and
are mostly of a pale-blue or lilac color.
Tue CHINESE WHITE WistarRtiA, W. (G.) sinensis alba, is a re-
cently imported variety with white flowers ; otherwise resembling
the preceding.
The W. brachybotria is a variety with shorter racemes of more
fragrant light-blue flowers. The W. brachybotria rubra is a variety
with reddish-purple flowers. The W. magnifica is a new variety
with lilac blossoms, believed to be a cross between the Chinese
wistaria and the American species; the W. frutescens alba is
white-flowered seedling of the latter.
APP PND EX:
— o-—
Tue following tables are prepared merely to facilitate selections of trees and shrubs on the
basis of size and growth alone. Deciduous trees are arranged by classes in three tables, as follows;
First, DecipUOUS TREES OF THE LARGEST CLASs. Second, DecipuOUS OF SECONDARY SIZE,
Third, Decipuous TREES OF THE SMALLEST CLASS. The usual growth, under good culture,
at twelve years from the seed, is approximated; and the ordinary height and breadth the tree
attains at maturity, in the latitude of New-York City. Evergreen trees and shrubs are divided into
three similar classes, except that evergreen shrubs are included with the smallest evergreen trees.
Deciduous shrubs form a separate class, with their development indicated at szx years after plant-
ing such plants as are usually received from nurseries; and also at maturity, These estimates of
size are all based on a supposed good soil and culture ; and for specimens having an open exposure.
The trees are classed as of the first, second, or third class, in size, on the basis of their entire
weight.
is included in the age for which estimates of sizes at twelve years from Seed are given.
The Lombardy poplar, for instanc2, by height belongs to trees of the first class, but by
breadth ranks with the smallest; it is therefore put between the two extremes in the second class.
When trees are budded or grafted on other stocks, as many weeping trees are, the age of the stock
But as such
“worked” trees are grafted at quite different heights on stocks of the same age, it must be under-
stood that the estimates here given are for trees grafted in the manner most common in the great
nurseries. ‘'rees marked with a star * are those generally grafted on other stocks.
It must not b2 inferred that these tables embrace all the trees described in the preceding work.
Most of the leading species are represented by one or more out of many varieties.
bpecigs and varieties which are not included in the tables will be found at once by referring to the
NDEX.
DECIDUOUS TREES
OF THE LARGEST CLASS.
Usual Size 12
The
Usual Size at
Page. Popular Name. Botanical Name, Years from Seed. Maturity.
Height. |Breadth.\| Height. | Breadth
304) liThe White:@alk. <=. -isasem Quer CUS IB. . Hae nia war ale a 20 ft.| 12 ft || 80 ft.| 80 ft.
307| “ Swamp White Oak...... QO. tomentosd..... 522000 20 12 80 79°
O81 155. Dury Oakes. .-aepnt see Q. MACTOCAY PA... 0.00 e ene 20 12 7° 60
grote Chestnut @alece-...,~cte% QO. prinus palustris......+.. 25 15 80 60
310] ‘* Rock Chestnut Oak..... QO. p. monticola......+.. +++ 20 15 50 60
Ayes CSCAMEE OAK seis cio. 2 ONCOECTREG saraniaisla ot ater) st | 2S 15 70° 60
Bratt imiOalksy ars aise ots sae 0 Onn Palecstariswaaeiy. tacts) s ici! 20 15 70 60
Breil ee aourkey, Oakiert..s or. iecec DONCEL IIS ree eee 20 15 70 60
316| ‘© American White Elm... | U@mus americanua.......... 30 2 7° 80
Bron etetish. Bilin s...2s.cse.a/%)a/s (SEER HEA) RSE OCS OOO e 30 20 80 70
22ili GS SCOLCMMLIMN 3 twcetechepiaes LT. eon Aaah. cemi eels pr 25 20 70 7°
326| ‘© Amer'can White Beech . | Magus americana.......... 25 15 80 7o
331 | ‘‘ Anerican Red Beech ... | 7. ferrugined.......-.- es 20 15 60 7°
327| ‘“‘ Weeping Beech......... F. syivaticus pendula...... 25 15 7° 7°
332| ‘ American Chestnut...... Castanea americana..... Re 20 80 80
344| ‘* White or Silver Maple... | Acer eriocarpumt.........+. 30 25 7o 7o
347| ‘* Sycamore Maple........ Acer pseudo platanus...... 2 16 80 70
348 | ‘‘ Norway Maple.......... Acer platrnoides.......+++- 20 16 70 60
349! ‘‘ Great-leaved Maple..... Acer macrophylui......++ 30 25 70 7°
gsn| “° Black Walnut...:.<....%- FULIANS NIGIE. ce .eeeeeess 30 20 So 7°
354 | ‘* Shellbark Hickory...... COPGA ADU beste es ons wai of 25 16 80 60
BRO |beee 9 WYylltes pA Secret. octenciars FYAXINUS QINCYICANA.. 4.24 25 16 £0 60
360 | ‘* Cottonwood............ Populus canadensis.....++- 40 20 80 7o
362 | “* Silver-leaved Poplar..... Populus alba canescens..... 35 25 7O 7o
364 | “ Whitewood or Tulip-tree | Liviodendron tulipifera.... 30 16 80 7°
369! ‘* Cucumber Magnolia.... | AWfrenolia acuminata....... rae} 16 80 60
384), <1 SS¥campre! een casptrate cs Platanus occidentalis...... 35 oo 80 80
385 | ‘‘ Oriental Plane-tree ..... Platanus ortentalis........ 30 20 80 80
387 ** Weeping Willow........ | Salix dbabylonica.........+ 40 40 60 60
389 | “ Golden Willow....:.... Salix vitellina.... ahtsis 35 30 60 50
405 “ Ginkgo, or Salisburia.... | Salishuria adiantifolia..... 30 16 80 60
406 ‘ Jarge-leaved Salisburia.. | Sa/¢éshuria macrophylla... 30 16 80 60
406 ‘* Variegated Salisburia... | Sadishuria variegata....... ? ? ? ?
406 | as Scoteh Larchiscc... ons 02 Larix CUVOPAA ace. --- | 35 20 80 50
Co2 A P PUEVNGD TT XX.
/
DECIDUOUS TREES OF SECONDARY SIZE.
Page Popular Name. Botanical Name, sear renee vy ean :
i
Height. |Breadth,| Height. | Breadth.
314 lThe Shingle Oak..........- . | Quercus imbricaria........ 20 ft.| 10 ft.|! 40 ft.| 40 ft.
315| ‘“* Upright Oak...... Q. fastigiata........ ...... 20 10 7o 35
323| ‘ Weeping Scotch Eim: Utmus montana pendula... 20 20 60 60
324 | “= “SeanistoniElmicas... oe. U. m. glabra wii: 15 20 49 60
329| “* Purple-leaved Beech.... | Magus purpurea.... ....... | 20 15 60 60
330 | ‘¢ Copper-leaved Beech.... | Magus cuprea.............. 20 15 60 60
330| ‘‘ Fern leaved Beech...... Fagus heterophylla......... 20 15 50 50
337| “ Horsechestnut ......... “Esculus hippocastanum.. 20 15 60 50
339 | “ Double White-flowering. |. 4. flore plena.......... 20 12 60 4°
339| “ Red-flowering H.C. ... | 4.2. rubicunda.......... 16 12 5° 42
340 | “ Scarlet- flowering Hi G2. | AES coccznen soe ee. 16 12 50 49
340} “ Big Buckeye of ¢ Ohio.. . | 42. (pavia) flava...... = 16 12 40 4°
S4rie Long- fruited ti, eer. | 42 macrocarpa ( pavia m. ). 16 16 4° 4°
SAS) eee Sugar Maples tenccs | Acer saccharinumt ......... 20 12 60 50
344| “ Black or Rock Maple... | Acer nigram.............. 16 12 50 50
345) |< wearet Maple, Sees cre | ACEH rbbFU IIR. \.nise eee: 20 12 50 50
347| “ Purple-leaved Maple.... | Acer p. 2. purpured........ 20 16 60 60
“ 1 ] ao -
347.|:r0 Vyeted Nome ey sont: p. es siriatain ve |. 16, sleaze Fl Leggoteandh sees
“© Yellow variegated- | Acer p. p~. flava (aurea) }
348 leaved Maple BA eA } VArICLU oo. cer ceceeee 16 we 50? 50?
348 | ‘* Eagie’s-claw Maple..... Acer p. dacianatutt. 0.0... 16 12 50? 50?
348| “ Lobel’s Maple.......... Acer Pp. lobeliv 2 Se 16 12 42 40
348 | “* Shred-leaved Maple..... AIGEFIDISSEELUIIL DD. Moers 20 12 50? 50?
350| ** Round-leaved Maple.... | Acer circimatum........... 12 12 40? 40?
35r| of Butternutieceee ee cctebie Fuglans cinevead............ 20 16 42 4°
300! ‘© Weeping English Aspen. | Populus tremula pendula .*| 16 20 30 40°
360) “ Weeping Amer. Poplar.. | ?04., grandidenta pendula*| 16 20 30 4°
363 | *€ Lombardy Poplar....... Populus fastigiata......... 40 10°" |) 8a 20
370| ‘ Heart-leaved Magnolia.. | Magnolia cordata.......... 20 12 40 30
372| ** Great-leaved Magnolia... | Mlagnolia macro; phylla bende 20 12 30 30
“ ; 1
378 | Cabiaved Weeping Betula lacianata pendula... 30 20 60 5°
379; ** Od Weeping Birch..... Betula pendula ............ 30 20 69 5°
380 | * Paper or Canoe Birch... | Betezla papyracea.......... 30 20 60 4°
381) “*© Yellow inchieeces 1-0 Betunigec ae en ee 30 20 72 4°
382| ‘ American Linden....... Tillia americana........0.. 20 16 7° 5°
333| “ European Linden....... Die eur apanereere epee 20 16 60 5°
333 “ Broad-leaved Linden.... | 72ééa mac ‘rophylla. , ee ide 20 16 60 60
383] Grave-leaved Linden.... | 7 télia vitifolia ............ 20 16 ? Is
333 | ** Red barked Linden..... MILT ME Tika ae | i aA | 20 15 ? :
3383] ** White Weeping Linden. | 7vlia pendula............ *! 20 16 ? ?
399] ‘* Locust, Black or Yellow. | Rodinia pseud-acacia ...... 25 20 60 4°
303i 0: edapangsoplionakers | scr SY he TUpONIGR ste wee 20 16 43 4°
305) wEVireniin nna. > Nocatee Meygatia (tema seers 25 16 45 4°
397| ** Kentucky Coffee-tree.... | Gysnocladus canadensis... 25 20 59 4°
395'|| “A Ailantuse sees cee ames Ailantus ..... Weis kisi. U5 elee 25 25 49 50
399 | ‘* Liquidamber..........: Liguidamer oo .ccccececees 25 16 to 4°
gor) S60 Tapeloracssceses sis Mow | 2Vyssa: O2ara... :
Siberian Crab.........-+
Chinese Double-flower- }
itera hase apsoce
European Mountain As
kuropean Weeping i
Mountain Ash.....
Oak-leaved Moun. Ash }
Dwarf _profuse-flower- |
ing Mounrain Ash.'§
White-flowered Dozwood
Cornelian Cherry .......
Judas or Red-bud.......
Halesia or Silver-bell....
Thorn-trees ..... eoode
TPA WEAD ED, tote oils. a/aetetes
American Hornbeam....
Scotch Laburnum.......
Amelanchier..........--
‘Vamarisk -
Wych Hazes: «<3 Soar
Tree Andromeda......- 2
FPree SUmMaCliviwecasnceas
Purple Fringe-tree..... :
@hionantlwister-sss stees%
Hercules Club.
S.berian Pea-tree .
European Elder.........
Botanical Name.
Castanea pumila. ...2.+++++
AE, PAVIA TUB Mes ceceereces
AE, CALUOTNICH.. 6c e eevee
ACEr SLViAtUIIL. 0... ceaecees
Acer p. opultfolium.... +++
ACY SPICALUM. 6.0. aces ence
Acer campestris.....+++- ac
A cer tataricuin, ...veer eee
Fraxinus excelsior Lene
FYAQXINUS QUIEA... 16. ee
Fraxinus aurea pendula.
Negundo frax.nafolium..
Populus tremula trepida...
Magnolia tripetela.......-
WEN P AUCH rin Salata alesis sie 5 Ss
AM. Cconsp:cua
M. soulangeana.......++++-
Betula popultfolia......+++.
S caprea pendula ........ ~
Salix americana pendula.,
Robinia viscosa.
Sephora japonica “pendula.*
Cerasus Padus. ......++++0
Cerasus semperflorens. .
sees
Cerasus pumila pendula. .
Larix pendula ......+++ 1
Catalpa h.malayensis.....-
Catalpa kempferi.c...+.+++
| Laurus benzoin.......+++--
| Kelreuteria paniculata.....
Celtis occidentalis.......+++
Pyrus malus coronaria. ..
Pyrus matus pruniflia....
| Pyrus spectab.lis
Pyrus sorbus aucuparia....
Pyrus sorbus pendula..... *
Pyrus sorhus cat ne
(quercifolia). ;
Pyrus nana flor ee aeo5
| Cornus florida........++.++
COFRUSIRES. +. we cedcesn sue
Cercis canadensis.......+-.
Hlalesi2 tetraptera
Crategus..
Crategus oxycantha pmetar é
Carpinus americana.....
Cytissus alpina
Amelanchia vulgaris......
Tamarix.
Hlamanielis. cee csccsvccen
Andromeda arborea.....- >
Rhus ty pRin@. 0. woceseee
Rhus Covints......+0-00e aa
Chionanthus virginica.....
Aralia spinosa.......-+- Spec
Caragana arborescens..
we eeer cece tee eee
| Sambucus NIGVA....00eeees
Usual Size 12
Years from Seed.
10 ft,
12
12
20
12
12
15
15
15
20
15
15
25
20
10
15
15
20
8
10
16
12
15
Height. | Breadth.
10 ft.
10
12
16
10
10
12
10
15
12
15
12
16
16
10
10
15
10
10
10
16
10
12
10
* Trees marked with a star are usually grafted on other stocks.
Usnal Size at
Maturity.
Height. | Breadth.
25 ft.) 25 ft.
20 20
20 20
25 30
3° 3°
25 20
25 20
25 20
3° 3°
4° 30
3° 3°
20 20
4° 30
20 20
15 15
20 20
20 30
35 3°
10 15
12 20
20 20
20 20
25 25
15 15
8 8
20 30
12 16
10 14
16 16
20 40
25 25
15 20
15 20
20 30
25 25
15 20
3° 3°
12 12
16 30
14 16
20 30
20 30
16 2
20 25
30 20
16 16
25 20
18 8
25 20
30 30
16 16
20 20
20 12
16 16
18 12
15 20
604
APPEND X.
HARDY EVERGREEN TREES OF THE LARGEST SIZE,
Page Populur Name. Botanical Name. Usual Size 12 | eae
Height. Breadth. || Height. | Breadth.
5I5 The White Pines 3. .ns8& <0 Pinus strobus....ce..0. Seer 25 ft.| 16 ft. go ft.| 60 ft.
— 524 Jeffrey's Pines2.....6s.- tt) FEY VEVANE s cniosietee 25 16 100 60
B26) “"" Anistrianweine.msstea done S¢ austriaca ..... eb pies 25 16 80 60
527) fo SCOLEN eine ee clstinerad veo SO: A USYLUESLIES:. cine areteye se es 25 16 7° 60
we §3%| ME Pyreliean. ccc 8
a
°
“
hUPUMIN DAU DKW DHKHNNPE AWE DAAWMACNNANANN ADM
RAWNE ADS CNrnarnn ow
”
Rh ORUMNYIN OC DHMW ADAM
Size at
Maturity.
Height | Breadth.
ro fi. 7 ft.
10 10
12 20
6 10
10 12
8 12
? ?
15 10
10 8
8 10
8 10
6to10 |§tor2
12
10 15
6 6
? ?
10 15
10 15
10 15
7 10
10 15
8 10
8 10
5 8
10 8
4 4
7 10
7 7/
7 10
10 7
/) 10
7 10
7 10
4 5
10 15
10 15
10 10.
15 15
8 10
8 10
6 8
6 8
6 8
10 10
Fs 7
1to7 1 to7
3to10 |3to12
10 16
4 6
605
—
PAGE | PAGE
PAG LESe telehe re nisin ols stetelele)elaleleloistare(sieie > 538 | Besculses, h. flore plend ..cecceceveceeeess «+339
PIM ELL PAGS ROBO HOD GAO SOC OO T DEAE SD 533 Lei He TROL CIILAT wah ole one . 21382
thet 03-9 4 AEBS GS BE OCE ORC OTD Ae ane 53) LEE 5 WG COCCENER sian. ese Boa ee 340
AMO ya re ceric eerie: BERRIES 539 UP gs EIS ee ee 340
AITRILT EO PCNAMA a oni de presi ce= «r 540 SEE Me LOCINUTE AO Dosa eee eee 340
Ale CECOLSID Sarat eVelsiaratetrialal tel ticistey ear 540 AE. h. nana flore plen@......001.. +s 340
6 lew 35 J AI COB eIeT a asa a ocly SOReOeS 541 LEG PULL JUD Dire ars alae stae: stele ei 340
ARES PEL P ETP RTILEL CE rao ofa alsiorwinloyeins = athe 541 Pe Pali den tig So p57 Shoo Goan hos 341
A CNICLEAOKESSELLAMM: ce caiam nivel oo 541 LE: PO AISCOLEP -frockgras. gate eeenerr 341
WN 6 BT ERO T IANA) wrelecny electalaisisteietal 542 AG. BD) IRGEL OCA PA ros toi 341
rele Prada Gian) aneneesaa hoc 542 LEG. P MACHOSLACKIA 52 vominemtenseBiene 342
A. é. Comtpacta.:.. 3.5... rarelokeite oe 542 LAE. PN CALI OTHICE \y \wielecoietnle sine tet 342
Ae. tortuosa compacta... ......0--- 542 | Ailantus, A clantus...... Bodega et eats +o 6 398
PN MH et ee obey UCOSSA mieyeieite sae Ba2)| Airing thessoils 25-0) sce eee Pee oe cca. |
Ae! pendula Nose wcines aeShatae ase 543 | Akebia, Ahkebia quinata........+.++++++++s 594
Ae ED BY AIELAALA wa otcioinle\e\s haan eleral =) ols 544 | Alata Spruce Fir.... . ja) aj afarejune Ws toate 544
A eV RU ante eeeeel ia se Ala | Aer s (Al d7zth8 ea a eae peie oie nia;o sivyoisrevegengeteierers 424
Ale Ea D SIFU Satanic onieaeice tee cle nots 544 | Alder-leaved Clethra.............. sisicle sistas GQ
VA Ea TILED USELESS reiegaraielot ain)oisiniirie see Ad ||| ELIS « ioicinis w) «ES eae 424
CA OFPATENTLES IRE Ot elatelate\ainyai7 518 aictasiaisigie 544 Ae SLUETBOSO. ws -0/e'2.=s) 2 ale seeeee +425
PAREN SIES ia cee cmons cee vias /aTeuey nie 544 A LECIAIALE one Rocce oie ee 00425
A. smithiana (morinda), ..........- 545 Al. GlULIHOSOIBUTER. ani visiaisioinlstopeiuete 425
Pile (hui OSV 35 SB aS HOOS DON IIO AL AOU ce 540 Als COV AL OULE hata wleswla\siessseinte/clsiele erate 425
AS Lea PLP erste einin in sins eieininieie seis 547 | Alternate-leaved Dogwood....... <5, 35 435
Helis TOPTELTE NS SAAB SAO DOO O OM dna wOS 547 | Althea, A’zbiscus Syriacus........-0.+seeess 47
Pl AC LULLT KY aia GORI DOC COD OUCCOE 547 | Amelanchier, A mzte/anchier vulgaris aioe ate 449
EA eC ILOLT OPA lyeierceiglaeieinsiee chee 549 AA BOLT APIUTE an nisaia elon isiala a fe 4AQ
A.c. microphylla ( gracilis) Bees 549 A. florida.......++ Co jolate ale (orobe es baeets ote 45°
PEM DEES O LE a crmiccitori cine Neramitonts 54) | American Arbor Vite ........ sie sin sf aoa 564
ents (hau Ail enttae poOeUnGsee ne ne 54) | American Ceanothus........ Sisto aia staeatapaietd 479
CA CMESILO Tes siaeiet cleitis for c\epph ei iemia seleraters 550 | American Cembran Pines... 25 ..ceen se ecb 52
ARNE FLOW STLINE 5. « clave, orcis sce niet sibistareia 550 | American Chestnut, Caslanea americana... 332
A. canadensis taxtfolia .. ..cceceees §50) || American’ Crab-apple:..c: iia 350 Ah, BUAOV A x aioaciya dois an eegiaaeeue sen 473
AS CLL T SCHIP RE eaten clarcie! tes aenades 474. |i BOWeFSy VELGANts «ccc cle wneisiciees ie = 6 vo sininsie 121
PEAS FE UA Cor OUR IROR OOO COB CTOOCD BE /G fi) 1eiay al Oe (5 Preis nolenud boc dpe EOaenbasoe ace 358
Ae DYLOFE oe fainiain ee sae ee scope 475 |)BOxwood, B272Us on. 22 os ane nen oo nie 585
Aan ESCOSUTER Ne ae terion ele sai 473 | British Evergreen Cypress..............--- 569
AR TSPECLOSH Re SF eclelitaleleisieeis Anodaaes.ci 475 | British Oak... 026.022. -2 ssc esec ewer one: 314
A MRE OLESCERS Ad caren eseecies Cejen o ees 475 | Broad-fruited Ash. ............--9.------- 357
Broad-leaved Arbor Vit#..........---+.--- 568
BalfourssPimes 220 oclaccec beeen + 22 | Broad-!eaved Buckthorn...........0.-.--+: 444
Balmiof.Gilead! Poplars eo eee ee. 361 | Broad-leaved Euonymus..........--- Neeer Gs)
Balsam-kearing Poplar ............2....--- 362 | Broad-leaved Kalmia...........---+-++--- 589
BalsamMinect poeceeeene Haatincorn stats aBAeee 551 | Broad-leaved Linden..........---+-- +--+ 383
Bank's Pyne cee sateen. econ oncine seen 521 | Broussonetia ....---.++----++4 | oa pee 419
Bartram’s Magnolia...............-- selena BIB | BUCKEYE cle cle sieiere clea cle: @inys\nin\ginisseipib ioe’ fs 340
BSABSWOGG rel Zsa eto See ee eae eee 382 BRELIAG: Rhamnus catharticus.....+.++- 444
Bastard Indig Ose igeiey hae mer anions sie 472 Buddlea, Buddlea........s.0022-s008 eee 476
Beautilal Lilacs saneeee en cece 462 B. THAI ANG sv wen cene ese cree 476
Beauty of formiinitreesy.. sce cet ee eee. 281 PPE LOUOSTONE einls,'s's 215i 6.sjnin ars aN B mele, “ins 476
Beauty of health in trees................--- 279 | Building sites. Chap. v.......-- s+++e-+-s> 32
Bedding plants. chee DEVAL eset lettre 246 | Burning Bush..........--+ cee seeeceececes 443
Bedford Wil'ow. HEC ROPIOL IO ..389 | Burr Oak.. Bee aoe et entrar me wr ekatane 308
Beech, fagus......- Soooeue aiptetts teretatslare’e\s ie 325 | Business men; home grounds for.......-..- 20
Benjamin rey Steen ee ere as TQ GEMELEKNUL cere tele ele xiae elas 510 eo unieieie!elore s'alainian 351
Bentham’s! PinewRshovcesce cas hoe eae e es 522 | Buttonwood, Cephalanthus.....+++++++++++ 476
608 INDEX.
PAGE | PAGE
DRULUS tow etciee pists ioleitie nateraina/beatdiaicita ore -585 | Cerasus mehaleb .......00..0 PO me 404
WD SEI DET UITENS = aoieis cross oietsaanielt site 585 GC. semper florens ....er eee rae 404
BES HOPLCIIPE eee abcenciest as 586 C. pumila pendula ......... Beverce os 405
UB Se UTED oo iio ade Soe ae etdelsie clas 586 C. lusitanica........ secatote «s+2-405, 581
BN ST SUP MUMCOSE ne scale cei naistate Beadoct GC. lauracerasus o/c deh deedeuee Acie (2)
CxCarolinmnz, ...-qconstitee aera Os
Galabrian/ Pine? 2: 2222. coon sone cals 530) | Cerczs Camadens¢s’. ..eann Sdaderdslenfe coe 430
Walifornia’ Buckeye=s-. «on oss se eae. sesies 342 Ge SELQUESITF UM 540. denen 20002430
Californial Hemlocksssecsceie teeter a 0in5 50) || GEPRAIAAIAHS. = cs clues elle e ene wee47o
California Mountain Pine.................. 523 | , Cephalonian Bitstriskceechioe ol cien lee ataattene 553
GaliforniaPrivet's4.s022 cco assanceecmeaeee 44 | \Gephalotaxus.o.. 5.0 ate Aeoe 574 570
GalifomiatRedwood =a. seca kee el 580 C. drupac@....... a ilahelstata tes . 576
Calophaca, Calophaca............ She COS 478 Gu SOrtuntt MascHle. «4. duce code 576
Calycanthus, Calycanthus floridus......... 477 C.. f. fEMING 22555 Iu ed, oat ae 576
GCRELANCTS Tee eee caeeorieei 477 C. pedunculata.......ee+ AGHA sins -577
OUTS OUIUS To eee ere eer 477 C. umbraculiferaiicnscsav oes deudecks 577
Camperdown Rim: Sess oss e ee ee eee ee 325 | Characteristics of Trees............... aemeary
Canadian Amelanchier...............------ 449 Beauty of Health 2s) S2aeceseeceee 279
‘Canadianhliniper ¢fes.oc cae see eos 561 Beauty of Forme sc votes 281
Canadian Poplar'sss. 55 )s2seeen eee ee 360 round-headed trees.............. 283
Canada Rhodora, Rhodora canadensis..... 50) conical treasii ss. seeeeee cas 284
Canoe Bitch: fcr eee yee eee 380 pendulous forms.2... 22.2 52-2006 285
Caragana, Caragana...........--+ cappiseen 477 picturesque forms........ sian aoe 286
CU GTOOTESCENS (oo ance ceien mente 477 majesty of form...2..i< en eeeee 288
C. friutescens ..... Nopoddsaccosoauecds 478 Lights and’ shadows.....0;:\.000c « fon Poses eee a ee noe ea ola 402 C, tormentosa .... mialaleisiviay ataistays = 480
Gi SYLUESEFIS cow see cce ee cesace eens 402 Cx Acummetnalayecie Vaclcisea Samivistenle oa 5 4Oe
CLUUI PUT IS ee emetace ets cans ..402 | Cluster-flowered Yew..............2... Pract;
C. virginiana (serotina LW igeneciss 403. 4o4s||;Gockspur Thorne aiafeies = atadiclebtciematatere cite 439
Co PANS (ns eee eed dee ee 403 | Color of D vellings and Out- buildings. « 50
C. p. br ACtOOSA.. 0.0 ececceesseesee~ 404 | Colutea, Colutea arborescens..c...cece.sss. 48c
INDEX. 609
PAGE | PAGE
Colttede Criutentascecccccececsercerers: .---481 , Crataegus c. punctata AUTEd ....4108 2.00. 443
(Oe ARIS In od Jan onoe co OF oOaooE 431 (e ibead ead CLUSTAIE Ee alelsy.\ ° 443
Common Biack or Sweet Birch............- 183 Cxpy racaHinac. ten sauecnct : 443
Common Cotoneaster........+ conoid Sects PASS MECTEEDENS choca sce ce eietare einiatattiiniatel= s/he ctove' 592
Common Elder .... =. s«» WeeGawneke cel 4540) Creeping UnIper osc cece oate connie rte nares 562
Common Engiish Alder... sce Saertaseomine4g4ae Crenate= “léaved Deutzia..... .. seid ie yaelehs 47°
Common Jasmine ........+-2+. ++ Pelee AQT f CO PLOINENIG. LEPONICE shale vaicia siuicin bisleinsieieiets 564
Common Privet......e.escesseeescessceess 493 | CRALER ATS Ne nn eltelate s(ejetnle(ata mieie Bataieiaiete 564
Common: Syringar sso: a2: ccc - scine wielesenierersi-« 465 | | Cucumber Magnolialiciecdsniestisenteeiet: apis 369
Compact Norway Spruce Fir .........-...- Baile Gre ATES StSiso 7 a2 < ae ie =a oh ora sale sent sctawe 568
Compact Red Cedar......... ames Awcibee 559 CNSERDETUFENS 3 <\o wcleinsniaieeheeiney wie 569
Compact White Pine......-...-+-eeeee-e-s 519 (CSMCWSORUCIG vo waloig foie ove eia=i aera 57°
Conducting power of deep Roots ...........267 OTL TEL Re LOCC onan Ona Aan: 57°
Conical Norway Spruce Fir.........---++-. 542 CO ERACLIS sc xlere siaiceicn nineties stein 571
Continus-leaved Viburnum ...........+---- 467 (CAPO OLRGEISTS wiare x) ahafaliotatal siete ogists 7K
Contorted-branched Pine..........--.-+++++ 52 COLA OTLIES. 05:55 oes daeen etiam dnaeeee 571
Constantinople Hazel...........2+ e+--eee- 489 (QUT ATH gst ® Aaah SAO OO SC EDO Gabe. 571
Constructive Decorations .......- ++++-+-- 103 (Qa Sonon ososesopeneeoceo. 571
Copeland's “‘ Country Life”’........--....-- 12 | Chamacyparts........+..++. Slate eetsianl ictal 571
Copper-colored Beech... .... ++. -ee+-eeee- 30 | Cut-leaved Alder........ aise josie maeeie atin 425
Corean Podocarpus......-.-- Be eandececuo 57S) |Meut-leaved Beech. .-\<)c)c sa cles sisisieeeainioine 330
(Gorean Seacoast, Pines .t<<-cse- ee te -s cccnes RamiLCutleavedu Birch. <1 ccccpdancmer oe enacions 378
Cormeliani@herry.cceveni. sttesccalierinces cles. 434 | Cut-leaved Horse Chestnut...... ....... 340
OC Dena BROOD hdc nbeCno” JoncODpens 432 | Cut-leaved (Eagle’s Claw) Maple........... 348
Ciera wee enin bs seaatbdotisicee ee -433 poured Ash-leaved /NegundOser cic cic cone nie 359
GHATS aeons) ccdsececngahour sss ASANNGY dona © S.0 as aaaue cele Beataeee es Cepnen 495
C. alba (stolon ifera) Lesa Aaddosenhcr 434 GROMICALIS seven sie ieee ens oasis treks 495
C. sericea (.AnNUgINOSA).. 1206-020 eee 434 GRSTHEMSIS' Se nacsnuiees Ra eetehte:s .490
Cy PANICUIGIA 0005 cc eo e- eoer-edess 435 CoG RDONECR «Sin .ais.s acacia Hepa nes - 496
WGUIGEZ CIB ie ca se ealeieiaie ««-«.---435 | Cypress Family, G upressus, Taxadiune.
C. mascula vartegata .... 0. 000. - + 435 Gly pto-strobus, Retinispora.........+-+-. 568
C. aurea Variegata..... sseeees BeeA SS HLM LISSUS,) Cpe zSSZ6S) - ¢/<)are 424 | Flower-beds. Chap. xvil. ........2.00..---246
z | Fiowers and Bedding-plants. Chap. xvii ...246
agle’s-claw, Maple cin oeist-eisjemieisisis icone o's 348 , Flowery Amelanchier.............. icine 45°
iakth\c). s/ajreiate riba ne ben oe MOOb aes dec ea NUESs 72 \Roreten: OAKS. nmissis 76 ole lenis SRR E se)
Barth-heat ...cscentinc, , itu cislsiseritrastes paca 266 || Honms of lots... 02-52-2252 Brevi abahed deere 30
Bilder, Sie weOucwesS ys cies aims sos weiorl doch ek dee AS4 |\WBOLMS Of UGGS 1.5/0.4. 0.0 sje05 aden Sesion alee 283
DB SVint 67199257 8 sosz atole =rayeistous, 2\>io,s;0inyn eke hee RTT 316 | Forsythia, Forsythia viridissima.......++- 487
Bleagnus, Lea g719ts.creicc aie cictoiololais sielsteyeleisisis 486 | Fothergilla, Fotheryilla alnifolia........... 487
Py OVLEPISTS isl askin cinins «01 slosstoiiaiet daisies 486) || Bortune’s Cephalotaxus..<.-ce.sis tein lceineas 576
TEN OER EULED falas «sie, ciaerenoe ise OOM 486) | Bountain) Willow..,.<<jns, vie. 9 sikelele BS hey OSL 461 LO.) SAINOUCIOLUL seiste0 a 5si4cins/selo oe =e 358
Euonymus, 2 onyinus oo... cc ccc cece eeees 435 VM Pe LITE MADER ARORA Ae AE As 358
Ze MEY COME Fe atatee ans cmitale saints 485 LE PURO E ans a\ te ol o1ahs apa eletace BARRE 358
E. Atropurpureunt o.cesccevers bigots 486 F. salicrfolia variegatd ...6.... 0005. 358
E. CuvobQ@us o.....- Fewaerats bintoicle saree SO | Mura tame COLeUEAS ie ue rere alates oietel stain tia 480
E. latifolius......+ acchalapteta siento Aen sO Fragrant Cypress or Cedar .........---.--. 571
Ee TEAC TES ola ohn l=ainoistnn ab anise as ae 486 | Fraser’s Silver Fir........ spadinnge wuapaacinieeeee as 551
Earopean Bird Cherry. «. <0..0s.o.0wmbroadeskina 403 | Prizid ‘Cotoneaster. « ensgenceieeio mince ais
European Euvonymus.............--06. #450)|Ubremont’s Pine s.6 03 - anca nee eaetseiiee 523
Eoropean! Hallys cae nepssmey ene Smt 582 | Fuschia Gooseberry..... 5 3) 487
Fiawthorns. 2h 2os22s ceca We oeecn ce cece sain 442 | Japan Osage Orange ............. nen ALICE 422
Hazel. Corylus........++- Bese ie Ses Bit ASS y epapan OG OCAT PUSH eiaiew perv alleen es'clslcieleione aac 577
Heart-leaved Alder...... atateerafererttereisteereieys 425 | Japan Purple Oak ........%.0.......0----. 315
Heart-leaved Hydrangea................... 490 SJapan Quince aie te. doe sl v- ole ecm eee 490
Heart-leaved Magnolia...............-.... 370 1| AAP AN HOU VEIN IN s1o101so1staial a a Seleisre, nislolaiavale 556
Heath-like Cypress... : act pani Soplarady ns «so.s'v ead
succes. Ot Ae Go erate aed 359 | Liquidamber, Liguidamber...........6 0.
GRA aaa aaa tehed oig ts = 559 Liriodendron tulipifera....... ..
Mero ete. Lae ae 560 , Live Oak AREER FEE
e ORIOME DA pe GO anh POnee oe eagi Maple crena supa 2.0 Tae
a Le Sa EID eM AEUN perked poo ee a | Loblolly Bay ......--+-- BRAT 4A cee .
FZ. Re ea ae 560 | Loblolly Pine ......... ..--sase Pucci:
Y. canadensis i stu sckise kes she eer 561 j Locust... ..--.-- ---<- POA HI He Re eee
CAE i clon wie ae Be ae 561 Lombardy aS Paley SE Do 39°
Poe Dera susinaee 561 | Loneliness of Isolated Country pene 3 3 3
Lia ns apa octig mis Cages 561 | Long-fruited Horse Chestnut..........0+... :
gt pi apr ari my staaratays teloratels 361 | Long-leaved Yellow Pine....-....++.....-- 341
COE 5 dpa gba 3 ek EBL | EigHICeRe cel wasted eee oo 3 20
igen ss obibpaaaaibhage V9 bts A He 561 IB TIE TH aN 493,
. repens ET ee ae 561 Toe Oe ne
F. prostrata..... ope eee peace ee L. t. grandifolia Se ae ie ree
$2 FECUIABEHS Right tS is 2k tes 562 Vie Fragrantissima. oul ote e tees 4
RT a MR a uo > leet 562 | L. beralea. 2. ask, a oe hen
ie maaaee es laae 562 L.. periclymentina, ucusvnesoeee 404
Kalmia, Kalmia .......... | Zh. certian J wah 596
Kilgivola amen gid oop pas 589 | L. p. belgicum enna ae Ppa oe: 597
Rc GnBUstipolia an «deh eet te 2 | LE. AVE oma ee spRetkieinee nae!
Re ae age 589 7p 597
pene 2 Cardeps foe att Gast gee & HC ~ qe {apOnica..<-5.c0 11, ee oor
entuc Ni ER OTe rages | 0. foltis =» Rstete ete 0 elateaseers
Poke os bese: aoe Gymmnocladus cana- eee Cie tastes: 5 Lf Saeeeeye 507
K ia FIDO ee ce oe Trousans WOLKS. jc cnc cc ca. sk eRe oe a
} ii A SE. leh RNR Bin RA i 9: ovely Cileer Rigs ee ee DO
is dhs Fe dore Beene Aan sReibraieaered oo 492 Lovely Weicgi.. MUR Oe 556
Knee EROEK WillOW «2.05 sesesereneeees 390 Law's Silver Bites a.cscclece arent ie aura 409
Botan aa ease? se tneleseeeeeee B20); Paya aise Sawin Conoan saosaneas: sett
’ teria paniculata........ 422 tee =< ane eee ane cites 473
Laburnun, Cytissus...... 7 AU SS vin, agar aaa 451
Tuambert's Pine homeo ccuc kee ae 448 Teel minte Lo oa ae 473
PRE & EINE Cinse van nes -boreeevemeenes 524 ye SEAS EDT pe oF 473
Larch, Lari, «....-. Sn REE a 47 L. i Bictfolia 2. aiotadaeacts satsieae wee 4
SO een fC os arrearage arg ea Fe tae IS
Larze Ciethra ea se Clematis ey ee 596 fs ee Ou CE 473
arge-flowered Tru ecearemams oe oa ae | cet fareia FOUL sid ss sonor SOM
Large-leaved Henioes Greeperisit i... 594 PEEL UD Saks al RI Oa 473
Large-leaved Magnolia.....s + £99
Mossy-cup Oak ... 0.0.0. seer reese cesses 310 | Periwinkle, Vinca ....-++-++220e222000 599
Mossy-cupped Turkey Oak....--. Sher tocciec 315 | Persian Lilac ......-.++---e2eeseeee seers 462
Mountain Ash, Pyrus sorbus.....62 verses: 431 | Persian Scotch Pine.....----+++20ee05+- 0°: 539
Mountain Elder......-- Pe ce DOES 485 | Persian White Lilac......--.-+++++-++22- 0° 462
Mountain Maple........--- aesenceccceeess 347 | Persicd.eeerseceeceeereereestres ott -.444
Mountain Pine.....-..--+-ee eee eres Siaiete 530 | Persimmon, Dyospyrus Ur ZiNiAna ...+.++-- 424
Mounta'n scenery... .-+-eeeeerer cece er eeee 71 | Philadelphus ....-++-+++++++>+ neni one 464
Mugho Pine.....-.--+-- Bere BOCK DCOCIO 3m6 529 PB. Uttlgaris..c.ccecececvecescerr esse 465
Mulberry, Morus.....++.0+ see0eee2> pdague 415 P. flore plend....cseev veer creeeecees 465
Mulching P. ceyher i. .cccecicceeenenecese sees 465
Myrtle........- P. gor donit....ccsececcren cers ceee: 465
P. speciosa (grand iflora)....++++++++ 405
Narrow-leaved Kalmia.......--- Hew ce 222-589 Pl PEND eae sts ele eee ee .. 405
Neapolitan Maple......--+-++++ s++esee0+°- B5Ol|| Pbecas eile se cles sien reo ena: 550
Negundo.....----s:.-+2 22000 Spocmc code’ 358 P. balsamted.... cece cece ccccrccers 551
Negundo fraxinifoliumt...+++-++++++ eaeS5s P.SVASETE oo cece cece ence nee eees 551
: NV. Crispunt....-.00+ sees Jol nm DDOeOe 359 Po fitdsontC@. vec cave cv ccccceercceees 551
Neighboring improvements .....---+---+--- 60 ; P. fectinata ... vereceesesseverseees 552
Nepal Arbor Vitz.......---+-++++ Ris seicisis 568 Py py pendula... .ceeccenerrcrrer os 552
Nettle, Celtis ......---e22eece cer er erent 423 P. p. fastigiata (snetensis)...-.++++++ 552
New American Willow.....-------+++++++5> 39° P. p. pyraniidata,.. --0++ +2000 eee 553
New- Jersey Tea-plant, C Canolthus...-+-++++ 479 Py p. tOrtudsd....ssoevece ever ser eres 553
Noble Laurel ........---++> Eehearseuarenette . 580 2, p. compacta (nana #)...+ 022-0 553
Noble Silver Fir. ..--+++-+ seeeeeeeesrre: 554 P. p. cilicica (letoclada)....++++++ +++ 553
Nootka Sound Arbor Vite -. ..---+---++-> 565 P. p. ceophalonica.....+ veeveerrr eres 553
Nootka Sound Cypress. ....--++++2++++++95 571 P. novAManntan. vveevecevcreccecees 554
Nordmann’s Silver Fir....- witches Ranier) 504 P. nobilis... cececccccesee ee esee ces 554
Norway Maple......--- sessessereerteeee 348 P. ZrAUdis v0.02 000 eer ener settee: 555
Norway Spruce Fir... -- EE eieiais et acieie sisieoxs = 540 Pg. PAYSON». 00s eens wae een een 555
Nubigean Podocarpus.....---+++++-2s005 278 P. lowiana (lasciocarpa) ..++-++ +00 555
Nut Pine.....--..-2..-2s-2ee2 A OdOUSORa HES 524 P. amabilis....ccecveres Ba ctaiea delete are 550
NYSSA.. 200 sa noaces steiaee Se ivcrore oie a 401 P. PIChha ove ne cevecccrerecseesesees 556
| OS he ic ROO SOO OD 556
Oak-leaved Hydrangea. ..-- aie ae steerer -- 489 P, pinsapo. ..++++++ Pee eC eAr tric 557
Oak-leaved Mountain Ash .....--++++e++0+> 431 P. Pind r0W 2.0. cee ernscrer en ecreces 557
Oaks, Quercus... .-0sescerecceesees sae a RO2 P, webbiana.ccccsccesrcreeseceee oe 557
Oblate Dwarf Silver Fir...-.....+++++++ .++-553 | Pictures, how MAGE noc. «inn Wevaiaterete slvr eieve 19, 78
Oblong Weeping Juniper ....-.---- auis aos yove 560 , Picturesque forms... .-----++2e65 settee 286
Ohio Buckeye. ....------+--eeereeeseeeeee 340 | Pigmy Arbor Vitee...----0+--seererrert ee 568
Old fru t-trees.... 002. e ee eee eee eee cree ceee 239 | Pigmy Fir...-. pag nuia pa eives tees seitones ae 541
Old houses.. ccecscsvee-coceerssseeteceese 245 Pigmy Scotch Pine.....---++ s++--s2 0000" 529
614 EN DHX.
PAGE PAGE
Pigmy White Pines .4..:00.. 0s iavcesecee \-. 519 t Platting grounds!. 4.7% sletaleisidicleleelceee sleceie (OU
Pigenut Hickory. .tatcve ek ae eek more eiwins aleiele 355 | Pliant-branch Viburnum .......... = Saaens4o7.
Pince’s Mexican Willow Pine... .......... 525°, ‘Pium-fruited) Yew !.\c-5.6 47 wos eons eens 576
PINGS Pees. jerdarte Ss Shsrste aan Reino oe BIS yj LUM) LI UUS, S52 So eee eee eae 447
American, on Atlantic slope,....... .515 | Plum-tree-leaved Viburnum................ 407
American, on Pacific slope «....-.522 | Podocarpus Yews, Podocarpus ....... 574) 577
European and Asiatic..........+-- 526 Ps BTUPACE Sa dda ciaaie we FOO pe 576
Pink-flowering Double Deutzia..............470 PIF APORICD Sh esieniae ac arstatale HERING iopatets 577
Pink flowering Honeysuckle...............- 464 PB. F.-CLELAHLISSUHIA Jn. ce cts sicale pene 573
Bint Oak iecryetne cree Caneel Soir aise Pajets ae ck 313 PP CRIINEISES:coali leas eleld elit shee 573
Piston (Pines <2:2425%> aneaee ay daha ded aee -524 Ps horaiands § oi ite Seles 578
Pinnate-leaved Staphylia.......... . ....- 513 PS UUBIL ONG Ss accialncae Cees sles ae SS 578
Pinsapo: Firs 4ihn:.gseiaetdaesrer ties +557 NOR iL OURO neo ocdises sre 492
PRE US wrorasane et Yevekesaaiaiohet aaa aly cele lew ae RL SAA CO PELE. 0 e, areniai 2 sipietotelotoliclele beet BITS Vaeeecd 492
UPN SEF OBUS peice wns cod Acs CAV RGEC ie 515 Ps, moutan. Pele ducretate welbin east tole aa ora 492
Ps (Si MBNE 6 ib nciad sap HORE ESC EO ae 519 ORNS ot tak ce BRAC Opmooc ter 493
UE OIS AMATEUR oi nkareiete a Pere is eee 519 Py POPRUVCY ACED 5 Salta gialatsioeme oe, «lero 493
PES COMPAL Rea eee artes 519 | Pointed-!eaved Cotoneaster......... eS ortees 483
PERVED AI 52 eR Ren eee eo eet 519 | Poison Ivy, Rhus toxicodendron....... 452, 593
Px rigs (Ser Otte) arate cate ate nel ele are 519 | [PONS :. <2. sjainjeiesnin «ine = = cleiaminielesr ale Bsicieee 74
PB. rubra (resinosa) ...- 2a. esses se 520 | Pontic Rhododendron ........... solve -- 587
P. pungens ......-- veneuiere Brie1520)|SE Oplar,:OfuiIEs - -a.-)/-)= -leict-telele cme ee eee 359
PGI TShirt ics SADT eee aie ist aheate ee 520 P. tremula trepida....... eid hace 359
WPT AUSLT ELIS «32 sun Re corags ---520 Pi tremidliaess ih ucsis oe cen Bre ee)
PA 0 LCCUSE = cacieine taeinialo loge aval biats Mise 521 Pe hot PEMUUIE.winielninics teste Moto Sigua 360
Ps teedas ts sda. mith aero vier 521 P. grandidenta....-..+.+- beep 360 -
UPS AM OPS ao aaa A te Oe ae AcRieS G21 Beg Penthlaan ss pote saat eee 360
PF. bankstana s seera kine en te Beemer rete 521 PRCANBACUSIS~ -\c)- cjsicis mei ee 360
BP. Denthasittand.. - ..... OR: (Sa arene 531 | Pyramidal Magnolia...........- Serer cei 374
P. hispanica Pyramidal Silver Fir...... otter aetecs oaee 553
Po C2 CELSRnisisio'es sine SRO an ele» =» 532 | Pyramidal Spruce ‘Fir (2220.2 eae ee 544
PATO SNR w RSS Sales. c os « 530 | Pyrennean Pine....... caret ese Sate et 531
P: bl: COFAMGNICE 1 RR OS ACR SIGNS INS a coe Meee ee BONE gainer aboec 5225.3 429
P: 1. pygmea esaes See Deets ook Q hie yreusseales Oe see eke en cue Bape 426
| et Ee BPRS oils es)... 536 P25 IR ALETUE ieee Cer Oo scart 428
Ps PINASLEF GSB k POSTS Ciena 537 P.M. COFONATIA 0.02 eens Sy icetic Gae 423
LP. pine iFGe0 p PAS. Ses 8 2 837 P. m. pruntfolia..... coe ey aasee shee 429
WP UR LEARIS Sich siidios Ok oa ce bE wk S37, Fs MB SPELLADIUE Sele ain bate rietan eae 429
Ps ROVAICHSIS heir SoA BOOED Mis, 5 oie B37 GP PaSISOFDUS Gece ee heacicee SHeda Daas ations 43
Pitch’ or’ Pond: Pine #23 f00~ costes ots oe 519 PS GUCUPATIR. - Se eilaceesaisetiae ee 431
Plan before planting. Chap. ix. .......... 75 PP. GIEF CANA: Oeste dads sna 431
Plane-tree, Platanus.. 22394 ?. pendu'a RE pace cichs hoe -431
Plans of residences and ‘grounds. Chap. x xv 31 WPS PimalyjEa, Vas sei Seeackk alae 431
PLALTHUS OR seer wlerAreen See Se . 384 P. nana flor bunda..ceecccces cove 432
P, occident@lis a. Foon ieee [Rises 334
PS OF TEMLALIST S « oisiae ta crake owe SSC TES BES) MONEPTHS, coca wateaceleinacs'sm/caecieeee eter Law esO2
INDEX. 615
PAGE PAGE
OZOH SAAB ACBOOOOEEORER SO OOn Oc 304 | Rides SANGUIMCUIN 610. cvecvercvenccce 481
O} t0InENLOSA) See écken habe eee 307 Re SSOP A ONE Kan Us lode TAR ees 481
Q. macrocarpa....... Mag chncosat 308 R sanguinea flore plena ...........- 482
ON DOUESHGUM sete sete enn en aae eee == 309 Riu 8. QUUttnOSUumt. Fos. s veivads ces ess 482
Q. aguatica........ Hatt ic SRI GaIeC 205 REP SPEGLOSUUNIE rl HHS sho. 0l0' esi zaTaidte BU eS otase: 2 482
OV UMC OME Fra cdte ac ch ae cncte Son Ring! Wall owes Se SHIR Fe ves, cielo 389
(OS MATT ee BAe EG RISAE SSRIS Ae ACC 309 | Roads. Chap. Stat wisidec. tie :> 391
OME CCE LIET eat tatters sett ane eee grelRockiChestnut Oaks. cisrnjoas,sauaiaegle aeres 310
Ovtiictoriaiencesas! < sea bens oe eee oe SV2t | MRock Mia ple wiverererecicie wielejavai Na oa Sebeloe a oeinere 344
QUI GICAL woo tae eco see “Sea: ZIG WIROSCS OSES ss co sive. ejaie dint pew ete 2019 AOT,
(QIN FE A ike Nadebade Adan OOBSAOLE Soc 313) | Roses, | Hardys unc)» = joe somata ais 498
ORT ASERIS Ch coleteinstacke ne ae < aie si 313 Hybrid: Chinaws.. secu oaltes - 498
Ovphelloscn Wek ais biasacate ones Hees he: Hybrid. Provencensvaens. 3-08. 498
On f: laUr fOUd. 262. as-- cece Ab ach Hybrid Damask. ............... 498
OV PUOVIERT AY arsis)s san eaaaa}a she cies: 314 Hybrid: renely xicjace Sens 562
J tpi Al) LOB AR AAA SABIE ACO OOe 573 | Salisburia, Sadisburta adiantifolia . .. ....405
EN OULTSIU ya aeenieemineesisincssTeret 573 IS5 2. PHACTOPHY ME. 53. einen sivls Aes 406
R. pestfera aurea..... oobuponpaps gar 574 SE ee NUAUIER ELE de qeisix oa teelntiaia ta a =fe 406
Rhamnus catharticus.. eee aa ecies VE SLE a) Wsceccos jeldegeic oe Guoleielen seme dlaieees 38
PML OLS seeders sidecases wars as 444 S. babylonicad....22e.0reere cece eeeees 387
Rhododendrons, Rhododendron. .....+. ++. 586 ya ANNUIATIS vo 00 eee eee n ee eee eee 389
VOTE, SOA OS SIS ASCII 587 RON TH ELE GORE OAC. eee FOE TCO 389
Dis RE LIEILTE sola vie acracies ee eeielersis ier 587 Se AUDA. eee eet e een eee inet eee .389
RK. 11. fur fpureuitt .cs.ccrasee ARO 587 AS ruselliana ain ainda feietars Baer «'el~'mej=.5 «5 389
R. catawbhaensis...cc.e.0- Nees 587 S. Lucida... 1. ve ee ence eee eee eens 389
Ws PUNCLOLIOIE «Societies AlShbadane 587 Se COSCTAATIU OU. . scan sae e snes == 399
R. crysanthemutt..secceccee cvseree 587 S. COPTEA.. eee recs ene e eee e eee e ees 390
RR. CAUCASECUM wo cee eee Aqhedoaddgue sey / S. americana pendula. Bera: Serr 399
Rhodora canadensis ...0...+4+++ Pid ade 509 | Sambucus... vente reenceeeeens eS ee 484
PRIS 2 corse aac trey oe acmasa tea Ascmusticeayca 451 Green de r8 iS 465
T. occidentalis Aurea. .c.cccccseceves 565 V. awefuki (japonicum) ... 2.2... 406
MRE LOD OSC wet ayalats,<) tevelsianaiere Bava ss. 566 Vi iStHE SIS: 2 a\seicie.nince ee eda 466
T. minima (?)......+ Seafaraleharaerataliors a's 566 Vie OPULUS. .. a vein Ree aes 406
Dr PLICHUG jainiaicialalals eeiciclelavoreriatalel sis eit 500 Vi 0. foltts Variegatd..crcwwscccos 406
PEE IPIPLE Oa clnlele\alate ciel etuletatale\al eleleletetes 566 AON Lila Pe HCO D OREO OE: o. Bernie 2)
Lise POM Ul M@isi)api sick © focal NAS ROE 567 Vi 0 ORD csi SR TT NE 466
pABELES fapsrayigafarciora|cisvehuisVelaye(ieciaieis's Shien podhoun, 7% E05, LY ZUMA. oh aiacls oun eae 466
MABEL ERS 5 Sonsstardiaaieats wle\sieressrtie Boiele ate eer siete stots 382 Vin. 0: (OLY COCCUS.. rca aiels ots etme 466
Ls ACPIET-ICIUILIE IO sin o)x/atn)al ai eve teierata hee 382 Vi, Lamlanaidesses «ais o(tietajcite olalsteiictetalels 407
TIS FACTORY LL aiainisinis alane ein kabel oaks 383 UPR TRIL IATL YF OC OR ROO e ono OAC cee 467
TRCUTAD GAS - CORDHA OO COR. do ob aU oo 383 VA SARI ORG aoe rae Bao asc as 467
AN MICE) OLE CEistatalstete|alatats elcteietateestsiealstaket 383 V. macrophyllum, .occcceesees - 467
Y (A ATOR es SBD OOOO. nant CciCaaAiiC 383 VE OCET UO 4g He Tats elataelo ata el eels dls oletele 467
Le AUTO. nis oo ateie kis Ripe ae e eIAS 383 Rttemte g.0)sa-2csacl-)iemieis ircsieees ass 467
IRE TUT ROE CORI OE COTO CROC CA LCONe 383 Ze APT UP I CLUE viz wins san atol IO clare (cron 467
DE, pendula «.. ceases mietaraieis staves cere 383 ARE EAYOLE RAMON AC SOLOS OCC e 467
Tee COLWILL s,s Betatarn etaitals Peps aerate ee 384 Vis Lent lars. aileis cteeaee Satels oieie ololelor 467
Xom-Thomb: Arbor Witz! ..2- 04 o-aesee- ee 566 Vx PUDESCENS a i micrcicecaie fied telsieie Metered 468
Wooth-leayed Vaburmuin, cz-|..-/ FPA EG aa 2ee 20 RUD OOORROR DOO OTSe [05cm hours one 599
Torreyanu Yews, Tor7veya...ecsssceeess 574: (ah78i|| WADES «415 <\crsielea ais) sics sweaters 73, 242, 244, 592
De AGEL OVLE. soiaianicioxe sistafolatreistelsiere SeeriS7s |) WIne-DOwer) Clematis. ..-cyeict -tnteleleine < aeols 59)
Tortuous Compact Spruce Fir......... ..-. 542| Virgilia, Virgilia lutea... .~.+ 10.2. eeeeees 395
MortUous: Silver Hansel) «le ciets,s -tVelelsle sete vic 01 553 | Virginia Creeper, A s2felopsis virginiana. ..593
Treatment of half-hardy trees....... «.......264 | Virginia Fringe-Tree, Chionanthus......... 453
UNS eromcnb moor eee ecemenoncs Go aenee 277i) MAGEAMIA SO LUALLLA) ctevaiets\aieye ial aatslsisi aa, one pene 304, 313
Wreigela,,. Wezzela..... sa pistesiess) ojarecfoletqeisnicte. = 468 | Winter Flower, Chzzzonanthus fragrans...478
VIE, POSE a. io) (on alniciotelsie.s Ga latetateraneerens 468 | Wistaria, Glycine, Wistaria............+-. 599
BZ LesbOiSitb em ovispicteloiiateteneiscieasiers 469 WEN G7 ULESEE NS) Saige» btu, oes leiden sae 599
MMM HIT AO OR ROO sor been Ce 469 WEACGE). SUMENSTS: («can sae 599
W, hOrtenstS NIVEBs « «0 cain dese ce o-ais «2 469 Ss (GDS = ELIE, 26515: say nt aatercpeele eee 600
W. variegata......+5 +200 Pe as 469 W (G.) brachybotria....... 0.02.00 600
Wel e tone chain las rae sejesiemie Mckeerad a 579 WG. UG) Bs Tbr oekete ., wv nerse 600
Western (Nettle iccnt-taehiseseiaetelciens aaa 423 W. (GA) GABA ZEGs tants te ate .600
WihitewAshoecne s..ctte cia oe Serco conics erere tae 356 W.(G-.) frutescens alba... cece... 600
White Beam-leaved Spirza..........- ++++-5r1 | Woodbine Honeysuckle......,............% 596
Wihite Beech mcciea.n.m.\.= soene Siafesiaehiaicde sre 326 | Wych Hazel, Hamamelis........0.+4+200+- 450
White-berried Waxberry...............000. 513} Wych Eim, Smooth-leaved..... spiniajcistersia aie] 324
Wil teg Bo chats frets, ateiaes cvorats siatoneveriae aeteetcs oe 381 Wych (Scotch) Elim’ soi. ecerscreciens 322
pWihhite: Cedars 35 sim sictoeer italia nae ine a 559
White: Cedar! Gypresss.....5 scaawndelswi ote a. Sg1ellow Birch) cg... cee « fare decine see aoe
pWihite) Gy tisSusi 3 ei ;) oss. meters is slate ce 482 | Vellow Chestnut Oak. 2. .sphe ee e bee me 311
Wihite Bimini. Saas usc caterers eee 316 | Yellow-flowered Honeysuckle ..-...-......-597
White-flowering Dogwood ......... . ..... 433 | Yellow flowered Trumpet-creeper....... Hpaeiels
White-flowering Horse Chestnut........... 337 | Yellow Horse Chestnut..........-. Bates isiste 34¢
White-flowered Weigela 2.0. .cc5ccc.00.0% 469:1\ Yellow bocusts.., .,....ic «seine
a4 ~
anes Seca ees
=o
oe =
se
ty ee ih
we nee aa rege ah ait)
. : ae rt it Ae bie
gig Bits ‘ Htod .
ab i
ASD ra iH
iat eH i at
“ an!
nf Bi ,