8 



NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



which inspired James Gates Percival 

 (poet as well as geologist) ; places in or 

 near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, which 

 stimulated the pen of Washington 

 Irving; certain environs of Osage and 

 Clear Lake, Iowa, which were of notable 

 significance in the development of 

 Hamlin Garland, etc. 



Here and there in the prairie country, 

 one finds small areas of open ground 

 still in their natural state. This is 

 sometimes the case with the railroad 

 right-of-way. Here may be found 

 plants, and, to a lesser extent, animals 

 which seem to have passed from the 

 neighboring regions. Such areas are 

 especially welcome to the lover of 

 literature. If their natural phenomena 

 are not yet known to our literature 

 proper, let us not destroy the oppor- 

 tunity for the writers of the future. 

 The natural forest edge also let us 

 preserve as many sections of it as 

 possible. Here, where the prairie 

 meets the woods, were the original 

 haunts of many of our familiar herbs 

 and shrubs and birds spring migrants : 

 white-throated sparrow, hermit thrush, 

 etc.; summer residents: thrasher, cat- 

 bird, Bell's vireo, etc. ; winter visitants : 

 juncoes, tree sparrows, the great north- 

 ern shrike, etc. 



We have already destroyed much 

 which cannot be replaced. No sane 

 student of literature will deny the 

 national importance of the lumber 

 industry or of the greatest possible ex- 

 tension of grain producing land. But 

 the same student is anxious to prove to 

 himself and to the world that America 

 is not entirely commercial in spirit. 

 He hopes for and believes in the Ameri- 

 can artist painters, musicians, and 

 writers of the near and of the distant 

 future. For these artists and for those 

 thousands if not millions of citizens 

 whose lives are to be enriched by these 

 works of pen and brush, we should 

 preserve, all over the country, carefully 

 selected, representative areas, as nearly 

 in the primitive condition as is now 

 possible. 



2. THE VALUE OF NATURAL PRE- 

 SERVES TO THE LANDSCAPE 

 ARCHITECT 



BY STANLEY WHITE 



Inasmuch as one of the chief interests 

 of landscape architecture is the pres- 

 ervation of beautiful landscapes, noth- 

 ing can be more evident than the im- 

 portance to the profession and to those 

 deriving benefits from its works of 

 this movement to save various natural 

 regions from possible injury or de- 

 struction. Landscape architects have 

 always maintained a keen interest in 

 such movements: as private practi- 

 tioners in urging the development of 

 organizations interested in natural pre- 

 serves, and through their national 

 professional society in formally support- 

 ing the movements in defence of our 

 great national reservations against im- 

 proper exploitation. 



Frederick Law Olmsted, in speaking 

 of our national parks, says: 



The National Parks are set apart 

 primarily in order to preserve to the 

 people for all time the opportunity of a 

 peculiar kind of enjoyment and recrea- 

 tion, not measurable in economic terms 

 and to be obtained only from the re- 

 markable scenery which they contain 

 scenery of these primeval types which 

 are in most parts of the world rapidly 

 vanishing for all eternity before the 

 increased thoroughness of the economic 

 use of land. In the National Parks 

 direct economic returns, if any are 

 wholly secondary to the one dominant 

 purpose of preserving essential esthetic 

 qualities of their scenery unimpaired as 

 a heritage to the infinite numbers of the 

 generations to come. 



One of the most notable achievements 

 in this direction was the creation of the 

 Boston Park system, with its rich 

 natural and semi-natural preserves 

 largely through the original idea and 

 subsequently the active work of Mr. 

 Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, 

 concerning which there is an excellent 

 account in his biography. 1 Many other 

 instances could be cited, as the design 



1 Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, by C. W. 

 Eliot. 



