246 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



least should be. Most of our knowledge consists of fragments of information 

 picked up here and there, and while everyone is interested in trees and shrubs 

 there is comparatively little popular information concerning them from the 

 lack of opportunity for picking up such knowledge. Only a botanist can 

 determine the name of an unknown tree or plant, and he only when it is in 

 flower; and no one without a special reason is going to take the needed 

 trouble. It is absolutely certain that a popular knowledge of our trees and 

 shrubs will not come by first teaching the people botany in the ordinary way. 

 The first thing a person wants to know on seeing a new plant is its name, and 

 if botanists have anything better than the common names they should put 

 them where the people can reach them. The very best place is on a plain 

 label connected with the plant itself, where one can learn it at the time he is 

 most interested. 



The discussion was continued in the reading of the following paper on 



THE PARK AS AN EDUCATOR. 



BY PROF. JAMES SATTERLEE, LANSING. 



The primary object of a park is to furnish a place for innocent recreation and 

 rest ; to provide the dwellers of cities with an open space in which to breathe the 

 pure air of heaven, and in which to enjoy the beauty and freedom of natural 

 scenery. With these objects in view, it should be located not too far from the center 

 of population in a city. It should be easily accessible to all classes, and should 

 contain plenty of room, room for the full development of the largest growing 

 trees of the forest, as well as for groups of common shrubs, room for the open 

 glade in the midst of forest trees, open fields for games and parades, open 

 glades extending away from the borders of such fields and terminating in great 

 groups or masses of shrubbery. Where possible, a rocky tract of laud with a 

 water fall, or a lake' with islands should be included. Few cities, of course, 

 have any available tract of land with all these possibilities. Nearly all, how- 

 ever, could reserve a suitable tract if impressed in time with the desirability of 

 such a reservation. Few cities realize the need of such a reservation until too 

 late to obtain it without great expense. A city of fifty thousand people should 

 have at least a hundred acres set apart for such a purpose, and larger cities 

 tracts in the same proportion. Nearly all our cities wait until all the available 

 land is occupied by dwellings or manufacturing establishments, aud then select 

 land too far away for the convenient use of the people who would not be bene- 

 fited by it A strip of land extending up or down a river from the thickly 

 settled part of town a distance of two or three miles, and back from the river 

 a quarter or a half a mile would generally be well adapted to the purpose of a 

 city park. The Capital City of our State has only reserved a single block for a 

 park, and that is as yet only ornamented by a pole at the center for an electric 

 light, and a few score of stiff balsams, Norway spruces and maples, trimmed as 

 high as a man can reach, Such a park is far better than none at all; but it 

 does not fulfill the requirements of a city park in any sense of the word. 



A secondary object of the city park is to be an educator of the people. There 

 is a wealth of beauty in the vegetable kingdom even in these northern climes. 

 Few people realize how great a wealth of beauty and variety can be displayed 

 by the careful selection and arrangement of the most common, hardy plants. 

 The superintendent of a park should be a close observer. He should be a 



