1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST 



281 



intended to develop. Some of the commissioners 

 were gentlemen of taste and culture, and emi- 

 nent in many walks of life, but with very few 

 exceptions were not distinguished for any gar- 

 dening knowledge, and these few were so sur- 

 rounded b}' difficulties and opposed by obstruc- 

 tions that those who knew of these troubles had 

 little hope of the Park ever coming to anything 

 of great credit, as a real instructive park for the 

 people. Those who knew nothing of these diffi- 

 culties would visit the Park and wonder natu- 

 rally at the costly absurdities. But very little 

 help has been given to the better portion of the 

 commission and of city councils, who, against 

 all sorts of discouraging difficulties, have held on 

 courageously in the determination to do what 

 they could for the best, though they could do but 

 little they desired. The writer of this happens 

 to know of the immense services to the citizens 

 of Philadelphia and those of other places who 

 visited this beautiful Park made by the late 

 James H. Castle and by Ex-Mayor McMichael , 

 Hon. John Welsh, and Hon. Eli K. Price, the 

 president of the Select Council, George A. Smith, 

 and of Common Council, Joseph L. Caven, in- 

 telligent gentlemen, and also of the Commission 

 by virtue of their offices, have all done good 

 service. Xo doubt others of the Commission 

 have done as faithful service, but the writer is 

 referring to only what has been a matter of per- 

 sonal observation. 



As we have noted, very few persons have an 

 idea how tremendous are the obstacles in the 

 way of superior management in a place like 

 Fairmount Park. There are about one hundred 

 and fifty members of councils, a large number 

 of prominent city officers, and an immense num- 

 ber of powerful citizens, who know and feel that 

 they have " rights" in the management besides 

 those who are nominally responsible, and having 

 rights they dare maintain them. It is impossi- 

 ble for those working out the Park problem to 

 ignore these various powers ; it would be stupid, 

 nay, absurd to do it. The only thing to be 

 done is the best they can. Instead of complain- 

 ing at what has not been done, or badly done, 

 it is to us a matter of surprise that so much is so 

 well done, and the present condition of the Park 

 must be very gratifying to those who have 

 " lived and hoped " so long. 



"Without exjiressing any opinion on the earlier 

 management, it is evident that the appointment 

 of Mr, Russell Thayer to the position of chief 

 superintendent was a good starting point. "With 



excellent practical judgment and good sense,, 

 his ambition is to excel in his own special de- 

 partment. Another excellent stroke of policy 

 was the appointment of Mr. Charles H. Miller- 

 as consulting landscape gardener. Few persons 

 in the horticultural community unite practical 

 knowledge of details with a cultivated taste in 

 art better than he. Then the inauguration of 

 the Park lectures on botany and arboriculture 

 by the trustees of the Michaux Fund, by Pro- 

 fessor J. T. Rothrock, of the Pennsylvania Uni- 

 versity, was another capital move in the right 

 direction, and as all these gentlemen seem to have 

 the happy faculty of pleasing their many hun- 

 dreds of " masters," and of working harmoni- 

 ously among themselves, there is a hope that in 

 Fairmount Park'we may not only have a garden 

 of which the humblest and the wealthiest in 

 Philadelphia may be proud, but one which in 

 the long run may have some such national repu- 

 tation as Kew has acquired for England. Of 

 course one city can hardly be expected to do what 

 a powerful nation has done, but if there is a rea- 

 sonable surety that something near what donors, 

 might wish would lie carried out, private mer- 

 chant princes might do what hereditary ones; 

 have done. 



Turning to this report one cannot but feel that 

 in spite of all the natural difficulties of the situ- 

 ation, things are working tolerably well, and we 

 have more encouragement than ever before that 

 Fairmount Park will be something more than an 

 expensive toy. 



Typographicai, Errors. — A critical cotem- 

 porary, which goes on the bank rule of "no 

 errors corrected at this counter," but loves to 

 amuse itself with the errors of others, tells its 

 readers that one lately deceased was "widely 

 known, and much repented." It is clear we can- 

 not all be perfect, indeed it is doubtful whether 

 the saving grace is very widely distributed.. 

 Noah's ark did not hold many, and evidently 

 our friend was not one of the party. 



Large Asparagus — Mr. Robinson will no> 

 doubt be surprised to learn that somebody" 

 stretched out his prize Asparagus, page 239, 

 August number, from three to fifteen inches. 

 "We can beat Asparagus when it is but three 

 inches round, but fifteen is scarcely to be found 

 anywhere out of a printing office. 



A " Day " in California. — "We have before 

 us an account of a California invention, a trans- 

 planter " patent rights in every State for sale.."" 

 The inventor says :. 



