1 60 National and public parks and tree planting 



against, but rather in favour of, all hardy trees and 

 shrubs, and the always welcome turf. The smoke of a 

 great city does not affect them so much, and that draw- 

 back will surely be got over before many years are past, 

 being a self-inflicted one. We know enough to be able 

 to get rid of the smoke of London in three years if the 

 ( powers that be ' would only take it in hand. With these 

 advantages we ought not to lose the good of these 

 parks through inartistic design or stereotyped repetitions 

 of other ways in spite of differences in soil. Nothing 

 could be worse than that these parks should be devoted 

 to a single plan of ' floral decoration ' destructive of all 

 initiative on the part of the able men in charge. Nor 

 should they be planted with common nursery trees 

 which one may see by every suburban road. Not that 

 they should be botanic gardens, because we have already 

 the finest existing botanic garden at Kew ; but, having 

 such an ample area of space, they might show groups 

 and masses of the finer and rarer trees for which 

 space could not be spared at Kew. 



The permanent planting of the whole park should be 

 considered, and we should see something better than 

 broken-backed Elms and the commoner sorts of trees. 

 The Elm, the most dangerous and worst of trees for 

 a town garden or to plant along roads and paths, is too 

 much seen, and often surrounded by spiked rails. If 

 we planted good trees we should have their beauty in 

 the winter to artists and others a better thing than 

 even a summer effect instead of wasting our efforts in 

 making a show for a few months in one place only. 



Public parks do not afford a tithe of the beauty and 

 interest of which they are capable, if we take into con- 

 sideration their vast extent, their variety of soil and 



