THE 



GARDEI^ §yi© 



r^^^ 



NoVKMnEl!, 1861. 



EEES in cities are once more the subject of discussion 

 among the advocates of sanitary improvement and the 

 promoters of horticultural science. While the Gar- 

 (leners Chronicle is recording improvements in the 

 public gardens of Paris, and indicating the mistakes 

 of Prussian horticulteurs, the City Press is endeavouring to 

 )/«- j'f persuade the churchwardens, and other local authorities, to 



W' ^ ^ plant the ancient graveyards of London with suitable trees, 

 ) shrubs, and flowers. The subject is one of immense importance 



to the gardening community at large, because so large a propor- 

 tion are located in and about the great towns, and those inhabitants of 

 mural districts, who are not immediately interested in practical horticul- 

 ture, need to be frequently reminded, that gardens in cities are eminently 

 promotive of the public health, and may be made immensely beneficial as 

 means of recreation and instruction. 



Perhaps about one-half of our readers are more or less habitual 

 breathers of coal smoke, and properly anxious to see every plot of 

 available ground, in the midst of houses, decently preserved, and made ver- 

 durous for the public good. There are two primary questions raised, 

 irrespective of the minor ones which may be started. The first is, Tvhether 

 trees and shrubs are desirable as objects of utility in towns, irrespective 

 altogether of what may be called the " sentimental" part of the subject; 

 as, for instance, the inducement which public gardens ofifer to the inhabi- 

 tants of towns to take healthy recreation in the open air, in preference 

 to other pleasures injurious to health, and morally objectionable. The 

 other question is, whether trees, and what trees, will thrive in cities, 

 where the soil is so excessively drained, that it is scarcely capable of 

 affording nutriment to species that require a deep, moist soil, and where 

 the atmosphere is usually so loaded with soot, that the stomates of the 

 leaves get choked, and the affair becomes a pursuit of vegetation under 

 difficulties. 



In Paris, public gardens are acquiring importance, not as accidents, 

 but as integral parts of the plan of improvement which t1ie Emperor has 

 long been engaged in. The gardens of the great squares arc adrairablj'- 



VOL. lY. NO. XI. M 



