the beauty of the grounds, and the benefit of the boys of Girard College, that we 

 n'ji)ic.'C to have the opportuuity of presenting the following remarks from an author- 

 itative source to our roadors: 



To THK Editor of the Horticulturist, — Dear Sir : — Soon after the Girard 

 ' College was organized, and put in operation, I ventured to urge a favorite idea upon 

 tlio Managers of the Institution, respecting the iniprovcuient of the grounds thereto 

 belonging. This was done in a letter to the accomplished architect of the building, 

 who was then a member of the Board having the premises in charge. I know not 

 whether the suggestion has been acted upon; but if nof, I presume to think it is 

 still worthy of attention, and trust it may be still practicable. Under this impres- 

 sion, I beg leave to invite your attention to the subject; believing that if presented 

 as you can present it, in the pages of the Borticidturist, to the consideration of an 

 appreciating community, the good work inay yet be performed. As my views were 

 explicitly, though hastily, presented in the aforesaid letter, I take the liberty of 

 submitting to you a copy of the same, — in the hope of reviving the still cherished 

 project, and enlisting the effective co-operation of your valuable journal in its behalf. 

 I would here respectfully add, that if the proper authorities can be prevailed with to 

 carry out the plan, it is important that every tree, so introduced, should be allowed 

 ample room for its complete development. The almost universal mistake, in the 

 Arhorctums of this country, is in crowding the trees so that they injure each other 

 before they are fully grown. The noble giants of our forests — such as the Cypress, 

 as seen in the Bartram Garden ; the Mountain Magnolia, in the old garden of 

 Humphrey Marshall, and the Vegetable Mammoths of California — should all have 

 space sufficient to display their branches in perfect symmetr}-, until they attain to 

 their utmost dimensions. 



Trusting that you, and all those more immediately concerned, will excuse this 

 seeming officiousncss in an outsider, I am, &c., W. D. 



West Chester, July 11, 1855. 



to THOMAS U. WALTER, ESQ., PHILADELPHIA. 



West Chester, March 2, 1848. 

 Dear Sir : — I am not sure that the subject on which I am about to trouble you, 

 has not been already presented to your notice ; indeed, I have a faint impression on 

 my mind, that I have seen or heard something to the same effect. But, as a repeti- 

 tion can do no harm, I beg leave to suggest to you, — and through you to your col- 

 leagues of the Board of Trustees of the Girard College, — that the said Board have 

 now an opportunity (and such a one as can rarely occur), to do a beautiful thing for 

 their own credit, and a valuable thing for the future pupils of that institution. I 

 allude to the planting of the grounds belonging to the College, with one or more 

 specimens of every kind of Forest tree in our land, which will grow in that soil, 

 or live in this latitude. By adopting early measures, and employing a competent 

 person, you may soon behold on the college grounds a national Arhorctuni, which 

 will be an ornament to the establishment — a perfect treasury of educational means 

 occupants — and a monument to the good taste of its Managers, almost 

 ig as the magnificent fabric committed to their charge: a classical Sijl 



