New-York tribune., 1901-12-15

that she seems so well able to write books
redolent of things our colonial ancestors knew
and did and loved. The author evidently never
has had 2 more congenial subject to handle
than the one she deals with and her labor
CT love has resulted in a volume that every one
who cares for flowers will wish not only to
read, but to have for his own. 1t WILL too give
the student Of history many valuable hints as
TO the physical conditions under which the
colonists lived. There are 2 few colonial gar
dens that generation after generation Of loving
hands have saved from the ruin in which Time
mas involved so many fair places. one of them
is the old Dutch garden at Van Cortlandt Manor.
at Croton-On- Hudson, New York The house it
self was built in 1851, and Mrs. Earle does not
doubt tat the garden was laid out in practical
ly Its present form at that time. The upper
garden is laid out in formal flower beds; the
lower border is rich in old vines and shrubs,
and all the beloved oldtime hardy plants There
is,' she says, in the manor house an ancient
portrait of the child Pierre Van Cortlandt, paint
ed about the ye&r 1872. He stands by a table
bearing a vase filed with old garden flowers
tulip. convovulus, harebell, rose peony, mar
cissus and Towering almond; and il is the pleas
ure of the present mistress OF the manor to see
that the garden still holds all the great-grand-
fathers flowers Another ancient Dutch gar
den is to be found the Bergen homestead, at
Bay Ridge, Long Island; and in Flushing is the
old Prince homestead. surrounded by its for
gotten garden. which the first commercial
nursery in this hemisphere Mrs. Earle makes
plea for its preservation, as the house and gar
den of John Bartram, the Philadelphia botanist,
have been preserved for his native city
Every New -Englander knows the old fashioned
New-Ensland country front yard, with its prim
flower garden and its air of never being used.
Mrs. Earle remembers it and has studied it, and
she tells what has grown in that garden ever
since there such a one, and where its
contents came from. and when. Take the tiger
lily. for example, which is commonly supposed
to be + great antiquity in this country Mrs.
Earle explodes this notion, declaring that it was
brought to England from Eastern Asia in l>u4
by Captain Kirkpatrick Of the East India Com
pany's service. So says our authority, in
stead Of being an oldtime flower or even an old
conner from the Orient, il is one OF the novelties
OF this century. How readily il has made itself
al home and even wandered wild down our
roaiside-'' such flowers the Ieony can es-
ta5lish their claims TO belong TO real cid
family None of our flowers are of greater an
tiquity. Says Mrs. Earle:
The Greeks believed it to be Of divine origin.
A green arbor Of the fourteenth century in Eng
land is described as set around with gllynoWer
tansy, cromwell and "pyonys powdered ay be-
twene."
Unquestionably. she knows those quaint, stiff,
reserved old from dooryards of New-England:
a vendue and a funeral were the only gather
ines in country communities when the entire
rejghborbood came freely a old homestead,
when all were a liberty to enter the front door
ward At the sad time when funeral TOOK
place in the house the front gate was fastened
widely open, and solemn men nelShpofS IN sun
lav garments stood rather unconiortaDlE anu
ay-bWar1ly around the front yard as the women
r,assed into the house OF mourning and were
seated within. When the sad services began
the men too entered. and stood stifiy by the
door Then through the front door, down the
,noSsv path of I, front yard, and through the
omen front gate. was borne the master, the
mistress and then their children, and chlldrens
children. All gone from our Slght, many
from our memory. and often, too, from our
ken while the lilacs and peonies and flowers de
lrre still blossom and flourish with perennial
youth and still claim rs as friends
Soma curious tales Of the influence Of various
flowers upon those whom they have surrounded
ara told Among them is a story Of a man whom
Ms Earle knew He travelled a thousand miles
:, renew acquaintance and propose marriage TO
-, old sweetheart whom he had not seen and
t,.5 scarcely thought Of for years. He was
,,,-,-ad 70 this acr wholly through memories OF
b. a,-alz lzencd by a chance stroll in an old box
t,saa7 Garden Ike the gardens Of his youth.
1--f,+,1ra+aly the romance went no further,
rr ,,-f,en the two met he vas disappointed, and
,.s ,,,o,7ci,t him duh and old. In the West
T,.5fesn SAYS Mrs Earle the lilac is a flower
f ,7,-eterfolIs power; its perfume keeps away
I,aOSheeS IL ii grows not in