108 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



device which can shorten and make real and vivid its necessarily long 

 and difficult introductory chapters is worthy of consideration. 



The white peak which we saw in the distance is a model of one of 

 the high Alps in miniature, but quite large enough to escape being 

 ridiculous and to furnish bedding. ground for an interesting collection 

 of native alpine plants. The peak itself is built of a clean white 

 rock to imitate the snow ; and from all sides run little rivulets of clean 

 water, forming many mossy pools and pretty waterfalls. 



In no place of the size can we find so many pleasing pictures. Our 

 view falls either upon a group of trees arranged with such consum- 

 mate skill as to awaken no suspicion of art, and still the different 

 varieties are so placed that their shades of green, silvery white or 

 bronze, blend and form contrasts always pleasing. P2ach group of 

 trees looks different and changes its entire character as you view it 

 from different sides. There is nothing of the formal about them ; 

 neither studied variety or artificial symmetry, so distressing in French 

 gardens and parks. If it is not one of these groves that catches the 

 eye, it is sure to be an open, airy vista between them, — fresh green 

 grass or water. Here, too, there is a refreshing absence of fussiness, 

 no stars in different colored coleus, no filigree in geometrical figures, 

 no fancy borders, no clipped hedges, no idiotic figures carved in juni- 

 per. We may well agree with Lord Bacon, when he says, "These things 

 be but toys : you may see as good sights many times, in tarts." 

 Green grass, water, picturesque groups of trees, need no garnishing. 

 The effect of these is only heightened by different colors of foliage 

 natural to the different species. And off to one side, against a dark 

 wall of ivy, a gorgeous blaze of roses may enliven the scene without 

 jarring upon its harmony. In fact, this perfect harmony of the whole 

 is strongly suggestive of music, oratorio or symphony. It stands in 

 marked contrast to the Annie Rooney jingles, Boulanger marches, or 

 even cat concerts with which we have often been greeted in public 

 parks and gardens elsewhere, poor hodge-podges of all manner of dis- 

 cordant or silly fussiness, crankism and notions, asserting themselves 

 so clamorously that one naturally prefers walking a good ways around 

 such a park to walking through it. 



From the size of the trees we should judge that the designer of this 

 paradise must be long since gone to his rest. He must have been a 

 poet, artist and prophet combined. In our busy, hurried, lives we are 

 apt to think that anybody who may never have really looked at a tree 

 in his life has good enough taste to plant our trees for us, — so far apart 

 this way and so far apart that way, in rows and all tlie same kind. 



