42 



HORTICULTURE 



July 10, 190y 



replant the avenue In a manner to 

 secuie healthy and long-lived trees, 

 and at the same time to preserve for 

 several years enough of the older trees 

 (o give the appearance of a planted 

 avenue until the younger trees had at- 

 tained sufficient size to produce this 

 effect. For this reason I recommended 

 ihe commission to change gradually 

 fiom the four-row plan into a two-row 

 plan. 



Prom the plan prepared in 1880 by 

 Messrs. Olmsted and Sargent the plan 

 recommended by me to the commis- 

 sion seven years ago differs only in 

 one particular. Instead of setting the 

 trees ten feet from the street, as rec- 

 ommended in 1880, the trees were 

 planted in the middle of the loam 

 space, because it was possible in this 

 v/ay to preserve for some years a larger 

 number of the trees in the outer rows 

 than it would have been possible to 

 save had the new trees been planted 

 nearer the roadways. 



There is no question that four rows 

 of trees in Commonwealth avenue 

 would produce a better effect than the 

 two rows, and that by the four-row 

 plan the central walk and the two 

 roadways would be more quickly shad- 

 ed than by the trees in two rows. It 

 is probable, moreover, that eight rows 

 of trees would produce a better effect 

 than four rows, but, unfortunately, 

 certain conditions are fixed in the ave- 

 nue. The planting space in Common- 

 wealth avenue is one hundred feet 

 wide. The growth of the English 

 Field Elm in this neighborhood shows 

 that in a space one bundled feet wide 

 it is not possible to keep in good con- 

 dition more than two rows of these 

 trees for a period long enough to en- 

 able them to reach a height and size 

 commensurate with the width and dig- 

 nity of the avenue, and that the trees 

 even in two rows must become cramped 

 and injured by the trees opposite them 

 long before they can attain half their 

 size. 



Some idea of the probable growth of 

 the young trees now planted on the 

 avenue can he formed by an examina- 

 tion of the row of Elm trees planted 

 in 1876 by the Water Department of 

 the city on Beacon street near the 

 Pumping Station of the Chestnut Hill 

 Reservoir. These are grafted trees of 

 the same variety and character as 

 those planted in 1904 on Common- 

 wealth avenue. They have received no 

 especial care. The ground on which 

 they stand has not been cultivated for 

 many years and has not been enriched, 

 and the trees have not been pruned for 

 a long time. These trees cannot be 

 considered to have made an imusual 

 or remarkable growth; and they have 

 not reached more than a quarter of 

 their full size, ilany of these trees 

 now have a spread of branches of 48 

 feet, and the smallest spread of 

 branches of any of them does not ap- 

 pear to be less than 45 feet. If the 

 trees on Commonwealth avenue grow 

 no better than these reservoir trees, 

 fhey should, in 1934, extend their 

 branches ihree feet over the central 

 walk and over the roadways; and nine 

 or ten years later the branches of the 

 trees in the two rows should interlock 

 over the central walk. At this time 

 the trees would not be over one-third 

 of their full size. Trees of this va- 

 riety of Elm from fifty to sixty years 



old in the neighborhood of the city 



have a spread of branches varying 

 t.om 50 to 70 feet. 



The ciiticism that the two rows of 

 tiees west of Dartmouth street will not 

 harmonize with the four-iow plan east 

 of Dai tmouth street does not need dis- 

 cussion, for the four rows can hardly 

 be said to exist. Many of the trees 

 planted in the four rows have died; 

 otheis had become so unhealthy and 

 deformed that their removal has been 

 necessary. Of the one hundred and 

 eighty-two trees originally planted in 

 18fi0-62 between Arlingtryi and Dart- 

 mouth streets only eighty-five are now- 

 standing. Ninety-seven of these treco 

 have gone, besides a number of other 

 trees planted from time to time on this 

 part of the avenue to replace dead 

 trees. Of the number of such replant- 

 ed trees there is unfortunately no rec- 

 ord. 



The condition and appearance of the 

 trees in these plantations seems to of- 

 fer sufficient arguments against an at- 

 tempt to grow to maturity tour rows 

 of trees of the first size in a city plant- 

 ing space only 100 feet wide and the 

 use of more than one kind of tree in 

 one city street, as is now proposed by 

 the Park Commission. Their plan has 

 in my opinion these objections: 



First: The trees alternate in the 

 rows instead of standing opposite. 



Second: Each tree will stand only 

 40 feet from its neighbor except at the 

 end of the blocks where the space be- 

 tween two of the trees will be 20 feet. 

 The plan, therefore, does not provide 

 symmetry or sufTicient space to permit 

 the trees to grow for more than a few- 

 years. 



Third- The trees in the outer rows, 

 having the benefit of the light and 

 space from the adjoining roadways, 

 will grow more rapidly than the trees 

 in the inner rows which will become 

 crowded and deformed, and at the end 

 of a few years the symmetry of the 

 plantation will further be injured by 

 the inevitably unequal size of the 

 trees. 



Fourth: The plan is impracticable 

 and cannot be successfully executed, 

 for it calls for the planting together 

 of lai-ger and smaller trees, a system 

 which is never successful, as has been 

 shown in Commonwealth avenue be- 

 tween Arlington and Dartmouth streets 

 where from time to time unsuccessful 

 efforts have been made to plant small 

 trees to fill the vacancies caused by 

 the death of older trees. A still bet- 

 ter example of the results which follow 

 the mi.\ing of large and small trees to- 

 gether in street-planting is found in 

 Berlin where in Unter Den Linden 

 young" trees have been planted to take 

 Ihe place of older trees as these have 

 given out. This plan has proved so 

 ursatisfactory that an entirely new 

 planting has now been made. The 

 planting space Is about the same width 

 as, in Commonwealth avenue; and two 

 rows of trees have now been used to 

 replace the four rows of the original 

 plantation. 



Fifth: The plan pi-ovides for the use 

 of several distinct varieties of trees dlir- 

 ferent in habit, rate of growth, and 

 hardiness. The use of more than one 

 kind of tree in one city street has been 

 given up in all modern systems ot 

 street-planting, because different kinds 

 of trees mixed together do not produce 

 the formal and symmetrical effect 

 which is needed in street-planting, and 



which can be produced only by the use 

 of trees of one variety. The want of 

 symmetry resulting from the use of 

 several kinds ot trees in one street is 

 well illustrated in Commonwealth ave- 

 nue between Arlington and Dartmouth 

 streets, which may be compared with 

 tht Beacon and Charles street malls of 

 the Common where the good effect pro- 

 duced by using continuously one kind 

 of tree is well sho-ft'n. 



Sixth: The adoption of the plan as 

 it calls tor the moving of all the trees 

 planted in the spring of 1904 means 

 unnecessary delay in supplying the 

 avenue with ^hade. These trees have 

 grown rapidly and they already have 

 long and large roots. Their removal 

 from their present positions will retard 

 their growth for several years. Some 

 of them will probably die from the 

 operation, and it may be expected that 

 they win never become as gqod trees 

 as they would have if they had not 

 been moved. 



Seventh: The adoption of this plan 

 involves an unnecessary exijenditure of 

 money. In 190:5-4, upon the recom- 

 mendation of the Park Commission, 

 the city spent $10,000 in planting the 

 two rows of trees on Commonwealth 

 avenue between Dartmouth street and 

 Massachusetts avenue. The Commis- 

 sion now recommends a further expen- 

 diture of about $24,000 to undo its 

 work of six years ago. This is some- 

 thing more than the waste of public 

 money, for it destroys a good plan in 

 the attempt to adopt another plan 

 which it is impossible, under existing 

 conditions, to carry out. 



Yours very truly, ' 



C. S. SARGENT. 



AN IMPOSING EXHIBIT OF WHITE 

 ORCHIDS. 

 It is a rich and rare picture which 

 we present as a cover illustration in 

 this issue. AVe learn from Mr. Arms- 

 strong, the exhibitor, that the group 

 contained in all about one thousand 

 plants. The extent of the group was 

 9x72 feet, making it probably the larg- 

 est orchid group ever staged in Eng- 

 land and a gold medal w;is its reward. 

 It contained two hundred plants of 

 Dendiobium nobile Virgina'e, five hun- 

 dred other dendrobiums in variety, be- 

 sides numerous varieties of odonto- 

 glossums, cymbidiums, laeliocattle- 

 yas, cypripediums, lycastes, masdeval- 

 lias, sophronitis, etc. Nobody can 

 blame the florist if he looks with 

 envious eyes on that bewildering 

 array of pure white dendrobiums 

 which forms the foreground of the pic- 

 ture. What possibilities in chaste dec- 

 orative work they suggest! We hope 

 to see something equally rich on this 

 side of the Atlantic some day in the 

 near future. 



PROPAGATING ARAUCARIAS. 



HORTICULTURE: 



Will you kindly let me know what 

 method is employed in Belgium for 

 propagating Araucaria excelsa? They 

 root from cuttings, but do not make 

 satisfactory plants. L. M. 



Rooting from top cuttings is the 



method almost exclusively employed 



in Belgium in the propagation of 



Araucarias. Propagation by seed is 



not practiced. 



