164 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUEAX, SOCEETY. 



F. Atkins, who is the Chairman of the Belmont Park Commis- 

 sion. Together, they contributed $12,500 for the purpose. 

 This sum, with the amount added by the Metropolitan Commission, 

 has enabled the taking of a beautiful tract of something like sixty 

 acres. This comprises the lovely pastoral landscape, with the 

 remarkable formation, originating with the glacial period, known 

 as a "kame" — a long, serpentine ridge, running out from the 

 shoulder of Helmet Hill, close by, and losing itself in the meadow 

 coursed by Beaver Brook, which flows along its left side on its 

 way to the Charles. Upon the slopes of this kame grow the 

 famous old oaks which tree lovers regard as the finest examples of 

 their kind in the United States. These trees have been admirably 

 ■described by Mr. L. L. Dame, of Medford, in his valuable book, 

 *' Typical Elms and other Trees of Massachusetts," which con- 

 tains excellent photographic pictures' of the group made by Mr. 

 Henry Brooks. The oldest of these trees are estimated to be at 

 least one thousand years old. 



The reservation also includes the valley of the brook to a point 

 beyond the upper of the tW'O small ponds which are formed in its 

 course, together with the beautiful cascade sung by Lowell in his 

 exquisite lyric, " Beaver Brook." In the cottage near this cascade 

 was the home of the late Mr. Robert Morris Copeland, the 

 landscape gardener. Its extraordinary beauty and its charming 

 associations with a great name make this reservation, though small 

 in extent, one of the most valuable features of the Metropolitan 

 Park System. It is in the near neighborhood of rapidly growing 

 populations, and it is easily reached from Boston, Cambridge, and 

 other parts of the metropolitan district, by the frequent trains of 

 two lines of railway. 



A large area of permanent open space in this section is assured 

 by the grounds of the McLean Asylum for the Insane, the Con- 

 valescent Home, and the Massachusetts Home for Feeble-Minded 

 and Idiotic Youth ; all of which are established close by and 

 assure the preservation of the natural beauty of the surrounding 

 landscape. 



The Blue Hills Reservation is the second established in the 

 Metropolitan Pai'k System. This has an extent of four thousand 

 acres, and comprises practically tiie entire mountain-like range of 

 the Blue Hills. Mr. Charles Eliot, in his admirable report to the 

 preliminary Metropolitan Park Commission, very aptly character- 



