TRANSACTIUNS OF GALESBLRG IIORTICULTL UAL SOCIETY. 305 



their formation. Wine must have age. It is only the flimsy, the evan- 

 escent and the short-lived that is the product of haste. The cottonwood 

 grows very fast, has a better form and a richer leaf than the soft maple, 

 and yet who would think of planting more than one or two as samples, 

 and to give variety in a park? Among the trees that should find a place 

 in a park in our \z.X.\\.nde., provided t/w grounds are sufficiently extensive, are 

 the hard maple, the ash, the linn, the horse and common chestnut, box 

 elder, sycamore, red oak, pecan, birches, beeciies, aspens, catalpa, tulip, 

 buckeye and magnolia, besides the great variety of evergreens. The num- 

 ber, including the different varieties, is legion. To these, of course, is to 

 be added the many varieties of shrubbery. But our grounds are limited. 

 If we had four or five hundred acres, instead of six or eight, we might indulge 

 our tastes and preferences in the number and variety of the trees. As it is, 

 only a very few can have place on the grounds, if we are to have any lawn, 

 flower beds and shrubbery; in other words, if we are to have z. park. 



In view, then, of the limited space, and, consequently, the limited 

 number of trees that can be planted, what folly to plant anything but the 

 best ; and what supreme folly to permit trees to remain in the park that 

 tnust ultimately be removed to give place to the permanent denizens, and 

 thereby indefinitely postpone the very beginning of a park — the planting 

 of trees ! 



I confess to a liking for the linn or basswood. True, we sometimes 

 use the word "basswood" as a term of reproach, or of contempt, or to 

 belittle the object to which it is applied. We have "basswood cheese," 

 and "basswood men," but the tree suffers more than the cheese or the 

 men by the comparison. The term seems to signify something too yield- 

 ing, soft, or tasteless; something "stale, flat and unprofitable," and is 

 nearly the opposite of the expressions, "hearts of oak," "old hickory," 

 "rock-ribbed" and "ironsides." But while the wood of the linn is soft 

 and pliant, it is at the same time tough, and, above all, the tree, when 

 permitted to grow at its own sweet will, is beautiful in form, rich in foli- 

 age, and its blossoms are exceedingly fragrant. It should be kept in mind 

 that, in the choice of trees for a park, beauty is the leading object. Of 

 course, durability, neatness, health, and freedom from insects, are impor- 

 tant qualities not to be overlooked. 



The flower bed is an essential element in the make-up of the park ; 

 it is the rose upon the cheek ; and yet it should bear but a small propor- 

 tion to the green lawn, the emerald setting, that surmounts it. A rose 

 bush is far more beautiful with a wealth of rich green leaves and a few 

 choice flowers than when covered over with blooms. All sweet surfeits. 

 The green leaf serves as a foil, and, by contrast, renders the flower more 

 beautiful ; as the fashionable dames, of our grandmothers' time, wore 

 black patches on their faces to enhance their beauty. Upon this principle, 

 it might do to retain one or two soft maples as patches on the face of the 

 park ; but let it be remembered that no face, however beautiful, could 

 stand more than one patch. 



One word in behalf of the hard maple and horse chestnut, the most 

 beautiful of trees grown in this climate, but, alas : the slowest in growth. 



