'J^ublic Grounds A.dajited to Culture of Suhfropical CPlants, etc. 11 



flowers with soldiers and cricket balls. But any city or town which has but one such 

 jiiece of ground ought, as soon as possible, have another, either large enough for all 

 the purposes for which such grounds are useful, specially devoted to floriculture. 

 Some thoughtful persons believe that the French example has injured even the 

 English practice. Paris, re-made, is full of squares and small parks, which are 

 devoted ver}- much more to floral and shrubby display than to the other public uses, 

 and boys and girls can demurely trundle their hoops, or play at marbles, and well- 

 dressed men and women may stroll leisurely about. In such grounds the boisterous 

 games of children are impossible, and there is no good place for parades of troops, 

 firemen, and other public bodies who are driven into the streets or suburbs. Some 

 of the great English parks in London, where, for years, oaks, beeches and elms have 

 stood on wide lawns, dotted over beautiful meadows, or shading pretty streams and 

 sheets of water, have been aifected by the French example, are said to have given 

 too much of their open lawns and meadows to subtropical plants, which require a 

 host of gardeners and a corresponding cost, without a proportionate return in beauty 

 or pleasure. If this is true, it is a pity ; but we need not follow a bad example. 

 Let us take as an illustration a square of four or six acres like so many of the squares 

 in Philadelphia, now laid out with a circle round a central flag staff"; walks radiat- 

 ing from the center to each corner, or else to the middle of the sides ; the radiating 

 paths connected at their extremities, within a few feet of the fence by a broad walk, 

 which is parallel to the boundary all the way round. The sides of all these paths, 

 planted with trees, whether good or bad varieties, is no matter, all is made rec- 

 tangular, formal, unintei-esting, dreary, in summer very shady, almost damp, cheer- 

 less in winter, totally devoid of any kind of variety, unless a chance snow or ice 

 storm loads the branches with fleecy beauty for a few hours. This is, in a general 

 way, a description of all the public grounds in America — I mean the small city and 

 town areas. If the space under the trees, and between the walks is wide enough ; if 

 the city gardener will permit his perquisite of grass to be trodden down, boys may 

 play on the turf, or troops parade there, but there is no more freedom in such 

 squares than in a school-room. In such a place, shrubs and flowers would be a 

 nuisance, and, indeed, could not live if planted, but the system is entirely wrong. 

 Supposing such a square to be laid out, with strict regard for all public uses, a large 

 unshaded area by itself for a play and parade ground, several smaller spaces for 

 lawns, the trees gathered in the corners into groups, that with shrubs may partly 

 conceal the play grounds, and fringe the lawn, and fill the bends in the paths. In 

 the quieter parts of the square, there might be groups of subtropical or foliage 

 plants, which should come in between the shrubs and the lawn and flower beds. 

 Laid out in this way, all the economical and social necessities of the square would 

 be met, and everyone find there the pleasure best suited to his tastes. We need not 

 discuss the advantage or pleasures of flower culture, nor dwell on the humanizino- 

 eff"ect on man in all social condition of floral or other beauty ; it is admitted, and the 

 only question is : can the pleasure of flowers and decorative plants be enjoyed by 

 the public economically and safely ? The safety from plunder and destruction is 

 assured by the experience of European cities, and of New York and Boston. The 

 Central Park has no particular floral treatment, but there are blossoming shrubs in 



