364. TRANSACTIONS OP THE HORTICULTURAL 



Trees of a sweeping habit such as the weeping birch, elm, ash, 

 or some of the maple should be employed apart from groups as 

 single specimens; in open glades they are effective from any 

 point of view. 



In parks of large extent a portion may be set apart for natural 

 woodland scenery, seemingly unrelieved by art, wnere the grassy 

 glades and knolls are ignorant of the existence of a lawn mower, 

 but are cunningly planted with native flowers and shrubs, and 

 strewn with half concealed rocks and stumps covered with native 

 creeping vines. 



There the delighted botanist can ramble and feast on a col- 

 lection of native plants, seemingly natural to the situation, yet 

 carefully nurtured and their wants attended to although the evi- 

 dences of it are concealed. 



Where the true groups and masses are arranged in a pic- 

 turesque and irregular manner and a luxuriance of shrubs, 

 brambles, and undergrowth of native species abound, such an ar- 

 rangement can only be attempted in parks of large size, for 

 while a source of delight to the lover of nature, yet such are not 

 adapted for large congregations of people bent on pleasure, and 

 from such must be protected. Probably four-fifths of the park 

 visitors are pedestrians, therefore the matter of good walks and 

 their location is an important one. The designer must be a stu- 

 dent of practical utility as well as of natural beauty, he must go 

 •even further ; he must be prepared to do violence to his taste 

 sometimes for the sake of utility, and especially so in the laying 

 out of walks, for it is a lamentable fact that in a public park the 

 sovereign people are apt to be inappreciative of fine effects if it 

 interferes with their complete freedom and enjoyment. 



Nature, it is said, abhors a straight line, yet paths may not be 

 too much curved or winding, if trails through the grass are to be 

 avoided. Walks should be well drained, firm and dry, and should 

 be broad and hospitable, leading from the entrance, and carried 

 in the same spirit by convenient routes to the points of special in- 

 terest in the park, where large numbers are liable to congregate; 

 side paths may be branched from these (trunk) walks leading 

 through the park in graceful sweeps and curves. Shade on the 

 side paths is indispensable, therefore they should be carried where 

 shade can be found or if wanting, where it can be planted without 

 marring any intended effect. 



Floriculture at the present time occupies a conspicuous po- 

 sition in park mis-adornment. With questionable taste our parks 

 are filled with gymnastic caricatures of the art ; it is hard some- 

 times to tell where the menagerie ends and where the flower 

 garden begins. The Saviour said that Solomon in all his glory 

 was not arrayed like the flowers of the fields, yet to what a state 

 of degredation have they been subjected by some modern florists 

 in the prostitution of his art. He hesitates not to employ them 



