1879.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



253 



all things might be made so full of pleasure at 

 so small a cost, is the most expensive of waste- 

 ful expenditures, cannot be discussed in a letter 

 and here. I am only recording the experience 

 of a rapid ride. I breakfast in Boston before j 

 the sun has fairly risen, and it is^not long before 

 I see that though we laugh at Boston pride, and 

 Boston ways, there is much of which she may 

 well be proud. Instead of going through miles 

 of sun-broiled streets, one cannot go far without 

 coming under the liranches of a shade tree ; and 

 the suburbs, which in this cit}^ seem never but 

 a mile or two away, have all the streets beauti- 

 fully protected' by shade trees, some of the 

 trees being of great age. And in their old 

 trees Bostonians take great delight. Plere and 

 there w'e come on their remains, preserved by 

 an iron fence perchance, and telling us that 

 under it General Washington took command of 

 the American army, or in some other way let- 

 ting us know that the tree is associated with 

 the history of the place. I was at a loss to 

 know how Boston comes b}- its financial po^v«r. 

 Only think of a bankinij capital of about S27 

 per head for each one of its inhabitants, for the 

 city does not seem very large. From some of 

 its litile hills you can see all over it, and, as I 

 have said, you can get to its beautiful shaded 

 suburbs anywhere on short notice. But the 

 secret is soon found if you go to the depots in 

 the early morning. Horse cars and steam cars 

 go everywhere into the country, and the people 

 live there. Though this city can only boast of 

 being the third city in the Union in popuHtion, 

 taking it on the "where do you sleep?" princi- 

 ple, a credi!)le authority assured me that not 

 less than 5UU,000 persons had members of their 

 families employed in the city, adding to its 

 wealth, if not to its census. The absence of 

 any remarkable public gardens surprised me, 

 until I found myself in these suburbs. There 

 are squares, commons, and gardening art around 

 water reservoirs and public buildings, but not 

 Avhat we would expect from the gardening fame 

 of Boston ; but I now saw that the suburbs 

 themselves form one vast garden, and little 

 more is required. It is a stony country, and 

 Massachusetts is famous for its stones. But 

 they come useful for fences along the roadside. 

 Along the sides and out of the crevices of these 

 old stone fences grow berberries and roses, and 

 numerous other bushes, making the most in- 

 veterate Englishman never once sigh for his 

 famous Eglantines or Hawthorne hedges. In- 



deed when he rides over the smooth flinty roads,. 

 and looks over head at the English Elms, Eng~ 

 lish Ashes, English Horse Chestnuts, English 

 Maples, and at the broad drives over-arche(l 

 with trees often a hundred years old, as they 

 lead to famous old mansions grey with age, 

 and lovingly embowered with vines and 

 foliage, in the midst of broad and well-kept 

 lawns, he may well believe be is in Old Eng- 

 land still. The gardens are in strikinsr contrast 

 with the average of modern ones, as already 

 referred to. In no place in the United States, 

 have I seen so much good taste displayed. It 

 is evident that good landscape gardeners as well 

 as good architects have had employment here, 

 and that mere weed-pullers and tree-peddlers, 

 are at a discount so far as "laying out and plant- 

 ing grounds" are concerned. 



It is remarkable that with such an evident 

 taste for good gardening and tree planting about 

 this city both in the present and the past, there- 

 should be so few extensive nursery collections- 

 in the vicinity. The character of the trees 

 planted show that a large number of them 

 come direct from English nurseries, and there- 

 fore it is mostlj^ European trees that abound. 

 If Mr. Hovey had said in the English garden- 

 ing papers, that American trees were not popu- 

 lar with Boston planters he would have been 

 in the main cori-ect. His mistake was in con- 

 sidering Boston synonymous with the United 

 States. I have more yet to say of Boston gar- 

 dening, but the pressure on the Monthly '.s 

 space this month compels me to stop now. 



Post Office Law.s. — These have been again 

 tinkered. We have been trying to find out in 

 what way this affects Horticulturists, but cannot 

 succeed, for the Postmaster General has not 

 been able to fully advise as to how the law is to 

 work. There was some endeavor to allow 

 names and descriptions of plants, seeds and 

 similar matter to go with the ol)jects, but it was 

 worded that "written communications not of a 

 personal character, might go with third-class 

 matter at third-class rates." The Postmaster 

 General, up to latest advices had come to the 

 conclusion that each local Postmaster must de- 

 cide for himself what is, or is not a "personal 

 communication." 



A Grand Old Hokticitlturist. — We have 

 before us a letter from the Reverend Canon 

 Beadle, a well known English Horticulturist, as 

 well as an esteemed Clevgymiau of the English 



