TRANSACTIONS OF GALESBURG HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 303 



infested by wild beasts, as many of our citizens have learned to their 

 sorrow. The above definition is too ancient by half. In more modern 

 times, the word park conveys a very different idea to the mind. It is 

 perhaps easier to tell what a park is not, than what it is. It is not a forest, 

 nor a meadow, nor a hill, valley or running stream. It is a perfect land- 

 scape on a limited scale. It is a combination of beauties, and the greater 

 the number and variety of these, within certain limits, the more perfect 

 is the park. Hills and valleys, running brooks, waterfalls — not those 

 worn on the head — trees, shrubbery, flower beds, fountains, statuary, and,, 

 above all, smooth green lawns, are each and all elements that go to make 

 up the perfect park. The "human fece divine," to be beautiful, must 

 have variet). Rosy cheeks are beautiful; but who can admire a face "all 

 rose." There needs to be the sparkling eye, the arched eyebrow, the 

 prominent nose, the pearly teeth, the dimpled chin, the cherry-red lips,, 

 and the " wealth of hair," to make up the head of beauty. 



The leading idea of a park is beauty, not utility. Of course, in 

 large and densely populated cities, like New York, Boston or London, the 

 idea of utility, in the form of health giving, enters largely into consider- 

 ation ; but in our Western world, where room is abundant and cheap, 

 where our cities are made up of magnificent distances, people do not 

 have to resort to the, park to get a breath of pure air. We have this 

 richest of Heaven's blessings all around us, and sometimes imagine we 

 could get along with a little less than the supply on hand. Hence, with 

 us, the leading tliought in the make-up of the park is beauty ; beauty to 

 please the eye, and cultivate the taste. " A thing of beauty is a joy for- 

 ever." Beauty, then, being the leading object, none but beautiful objects, 

 or objects which by their variety or position go to make up the beautiful, 

 should be ])ermitted a place in our parks. If trees as trees are employed, 

 they should be symmetrical in form, neat, and rich in foliage. If they 

 are used to form clumps, beauty of form is not so essential, and yet it is 

 not every variety of tree that can add beauty to a clump. Utility is not 

 to be discarded, if it is accompanied by the essential requisite — beauty \ 

 hence, a tree that is both beautiful and shady, is sometimes, not always, to 

 be preferred. 



The word shade reminds me that, to use a medical expression, there 

 are two things in this connection that are incompatible — shade and lawn. 

 They cannot exist together — a fact too often overlooked by those who are 

 attempting to ornament their grounds. 



Several of the important elements that go to make up the perfect 

 park we cannot have, such as hills, valleys, waterfalls and running brooks ; 

 hence the necessity of greater care in selecting the objects within our 

 reach. 



The first of all requisites is a smooth, green, velvety lawn. In 

 more senses than one, it is the foundation of a park. When the eye 

 wearies of its pleasant labor of taking in the other objects, it rests with 

 pleasure upon the green lawn. But the lawn is but one of the many 

 elements of a perfect park. The next object, and that which is scarcely 

 second in importance to the lawn, is the tree, with its varied form and 



