New-York tribune., 1902-05-17

ton OF heightened expectancy, but as in a fan
tasy. and with something Of the quick alterna-
tions OF dream He who would make such
garden may turn TO Seedlings practical sugges-
tions, TO his deeply interesting historical and
comparative sketch OF the English garden, and
10 his chapter Art in a garden. He had
small respect for the so-caIled landscape gar
dener," and deserts from that parsonage to revel
In the beautiful old fashioned garden. that
"place of boarded loveliness' that knew how 10
be formal without losing its poetry.
- sea Of wavering. shimmering gold-rippling
with the passing zephyr, flashing orange light
such as no beacon fire ever can" This is the
picture seen by one who at noon looks along the
fields of wild Golden Poppies that are the glory
and delight of rural California. Mr. Smiths
book is a celebration of the Eschschotza in all
its phases, a history and rapturous chant of
praise. And, truly. the radiant flower deserves
all that be said Of it-wo-ds can hardly do
justice TO its beauty when cleaning and nod
ding in the and the wind
II was poet who first revealed this flowers
charms TO the world-Adelbert Won Chamisso.
who is remembered not only for his lyrics and
ballads. but as the author of Peter SchlemihI"
and a more less competent botanist. AS
a botanist he accompanied. in 1915 the Russian
expedition sent, under command of Otto Won
kotzebue, TO seek a passage north Of America
connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic An
other member of this expedition was John Fred
erlck EschschoItz, surgeon and naturalist a
youth of twenty-five years. Reaching San Fran
cisco Bay, Won Chamisso and Eschscholtz landed
and explored the peninsula, and among the spec-
men plants which they secured and sent to
Europe was the splerdid Golden Poppy, thus first
made known TO the world. Lucky little German
70 baz ne cd ,1,c
loveliness! There is said to be an Indian ira
dition TO the effect that California gold was
formed from the fallen petals of the poppy the
Great Spirit flower sinking season after season
into the earth. This not unpoetic belief, if be-
lief it be, is pleasanter to record than the pro-
sale fact that the red men occasionally boil and
eat greens the young leaves of the plant.
Other members OF the poppy family of Cali
fOrnia described by Mr. Smith with careful
pride One Of them is the splendid yellow tree
poppy, which sometimes blossoms at a height
of seven feet; another is the Giant Poppy, a
wonderful crumpled flower of snowy white, with
golden heart. This blossom measures six to
nine inches across, and the plant is often fifteen
feet high. But neither of these beautiful wild
lings can vie with the royal Eschscholtzia, the
State flower, to whose perfections the California
author pays such lavish tribute
lne EngliSnnlan. tOrDeS watson, q brilliant
student, a successful surgeon and born natur-
alist and artist died thirty years ago after
life which, short though it was was full of
benehcence. His book, Flowers and Gardens"
was first published three years after his death;
ii has long been out of print. The new edition
is welcome, for. Canon Ellacombe truly says
1t is not book that should be buried or for
gotten Watson's studies of flower life have all
the truth of science, all the spiritual beauty of
a poetic and deeply religious nature. Concern
ing his chapters on gardening. the editor lets US
know that they the most important agents
IN the destruction Of the tyranny in England of
the horrible bedding out gardening" What
that tyranny was at the time the book was pub
hshed," he says. few nowadays realize; to
have hinted a doubt that bedding out gardening
was the perfection of artistic taste was to be
ranked as Philistine hereto and to have sug-
gested its destruction and the substitution of
any other style would have been considered only