EDITORIAL 



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Any of our readers happening to have a few hours to 

 spare in Chicago, will find the time well spent in a visit to the 

 conservatories in Garfield Park. It will be a surprise to many 

 to know that these conservatories are the largest in America 

 and only excelled in the Old World by the glass houses at 

 Kew. Having seen the conservatories at New York, Boston, 

 Washington and other large cities we are satisfied that they 

 are not to be mentioned in the same breath with the Garfield 

 Park houses in point of size and arrangement. This being 

 only the second season for the conservatories there is much 

 still to be desired as regards the size of specimens but this de- 

 fect will be remedied by time. One feature that we do not 

 recall seeing elsewhere, is a cool house devoted entirely to 

 coniferous trees arranged in a very attractive way. The fern 

 house is the gem of the entire collection. Here fern-clad cliffs 

 surround a small lake fed by springs and filled with lilies and 

 other aquatics. The glass houses in Lincoln Park have long 

 been famous but must now take second place. 



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When Dr. E. F. Bigelow recently took the presidency 

 of the Agassiz Association everybody felt that the develop- 

 ment of that institution would not proceed along conventional 

 lines and they have not been mistaken. Dr. Bigelow bristles 

 with unique ideas that are likely to make people interested in 

 naure-study sit up and take notice. His latest venture is "Ar- 

 cadia" a collection of portable buildings in Stamford, Conn, 

 in which he purposes carrying on various experiments con- 

 nected with the work of the Agassiz Association. The funds 

 for this purpose have been furnished by a philanthropist too 



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