August 5, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



313 



erably less than a tenth of an acre. Comparatively few lots 

 average a quarter of an acre, and within ten miles of a great 

 city the possession of as much as half an acre for a homestead 

 is usually a mark of affluence. Even the most modest of Mr. 

 Sturgis's designs would exceed this limitation. 



One may, to be sure, secure larger homestead areas by 

 going farther from the city, where land is cheaper. With the 

 remarkable development of quick transit facilities this recourse 

 is becoming increasingly practicable. Such outer suburbs are 

 usually accommodated by express trains, and in this way a 

 place twenty or twenty-five miles from the city is practically as 

 near as one from five to ten miles away. It may be said, how- 

 ever, that building-land in the remoter places is likewise thus 

 given practically the same value as that nearer at hand. Theo- 

 retically this is true. But, fortunately, the supply of land is 

 still immensely in excess of the demands for dwelling-places. 

 With the widening of the circle that limits the suburban zone, 

 as measured by the growth of transit facilities, the amount of 

 land available for home-building purposes increases in geo- 

 metrical ratio. It therefore becomes correspondingly difficult 

 to monopolize such lands for the speculative real-estate enter- 

 prises that now curse the environs of every large city with 

 their hideous huddlings of ramshackle wooden boxes. With 

 so much land lying unoccupied on every hand it seems neither 

 right nor reasonable that when thousands eagerly seek homes 

 amid the more agreeable rural surroundings they should be 

 squeezed into indecent proximity in neighborhoods that pos- 

 sess few of the advantages of either town or country. It 

 seems likely that the more ideal suburban conditions will be 

 established in these outer zones, at present chiefly occupied 

 by woods and pastures. But it should be remembered that 

 for the advantages of good streets, sewerage, water-supply, 

 light, etc., a fairly compact population is required unless the 

 cost to the individual is carried beyond the means of the 

 average man. These necessities are what should really fix the 

 value of building-land, and the size of house-lots should be 

 made as large as may possibly be consistent with these con- 

 ditions. 



But meanwhile we must make the best of existing condi- 

 tions. What is the best that can be done with lots of the 

 present average size ? The detached dwelling of the closely 

 built suburb has few, if any, advantages over the house in the 

 city block. There is air on all sides, to be sure, but the sub- 

 urban house is apt to be deprived of needed sunshine by the 

 close proximity of neighboring dwellings. As usually built 

 upon, the land has little use for purposes of household recrea- 

 tion, and both outdoors and in, owing to surveillance from 

 overlooking windows and from the street, there is less pri- 

 vacy than in the city dwelling. 



With a lot of, say, 4,000 square feet the house occupies, as a 

 rule, from 1,200 to 1,500 square feet. Some advantage might 

 be gained by giving more careful consideration to the ques- 

 tions of air and sunlight in planning and placing the house. 

 But the huddling system of detached dwellings is so radically 

 defective that no great improvement can be looked for in this 

 direction. A very material gain, however, might be made by 

 adopting some plan of building in blocks. or in semi-detached 

 dwellings. Let us take an acre of land, for instance. With 

 ten dwellings, this would give 4,356 square feet to each house- 

 holder. With 1,500 square feet occupied by each house we 

 would have 28,560 square feet left for outdoor space. If the 

 ten dwellings were built in a block there would not only be a 

 very considerable economy in construction, but, after deduct- 

 ing a reasonable space for yard-room, there would remain at 

 least half an acre to be used in common for garden and play- 

 ground purposes. An average block, bounded by four streets, 

 would give a very much larger area for use in common. 



An objection to this plan might come from the difficulty of 

 securing unity of action among individual owners. For this 

 reason it might work better for a tenant than a householding 

 svstem, the rent including the cost of maintaining the open 

 space. Under the initiative of some liberal building enterprise, 

 however, the plan might be adapted to householding require- 

 ments. The maintenance of the open space held in common 

 might, for instance, be vested in some trust, or, perhaps, pub- 

 lic authority, the cost to be assessed annually upon the indi- 

 vidual owners. Perhaps cooperation to this extent might 

 lead to other forms of cooperation, as in a common laundry 

 for the block, and possibly a cooperative kitchen. 



The better class suburban street has a certain attractiveness 

 in the well-kept lawn spaces in front of the houses, with usually 

 a uniformity in the distance of the building-line from the 

 street. As a rule, under any form of improvement over exist- 

 ing methods, it would probably be desirable to retain this 

 space free and unobstructed, for the sake of the pleasing 



appearance of breadth which it gives to the street. Then, how- 

 ever, let the rest of the ground be screened from the public 

 eye at the house-line, either by shrubbery, lattice-work, wall, 

 or balustrade, as may seem desirable. In combination with 

 a judicious disposition of veranda and terrace space — taking 

 care that the former does not exclude needed winter sunshine 

 from the house — the better class suburban dwelling may thus 

 be provided with charming opportunities for outdoor life with 

 practically all the seclusion obtainable within. As for the re- 

 quirements of those whose grounds range from half an acre 

 upward, these should be carefully studied in each individual 

 instance. In the development of the park-like suburban neigh- 

 borhoods, which are increasingly in favor for the residences of 

 the well-to-do, the services of a landscape-architect are usually 

 demanded. In the development of the plan a provision for 

 outdoor seclusion in connection with each home site needs 

 thoughtful consideration with reference to the design as a 

 whole. 

 Maiden, Mass. Sylvester Baxter. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Yucca elata. — A collection of Arizona species of Yucca 

 was obtained for Kew about three years ago, and among 

 them was a plant, with a five-foot stem, of Y. elata, which 

 is now flowering in the temperate house. It has a scape 

 eight feet long, bearing a branched panicle of flowers, 

 which are milk-white, very fragrant, about three inches 

 across when fully expanded, and are apparently of good 

 lasting qualities. The plant is ornamental when not in 

 flower, with its head of dark green linear leaves with white 

 marginal fibres, and reflexed dark brown persistent dead 

 leaves almost hiding the whole of the lower part of the 

 stem. It is one of the handsomest of all the Yuccas, I 

 believe. This is the first time this species has flowered in this 

 country. It might be called an arborescent Y. angustifolia 

 so far as leaf-characters go, but there is a wide difference 

 between the two in inflorescence. The latter is hardy at 

 Kew, where about fifty examples, almost full size, are a 

 feature on a sunny slope in the Bamboo garden. — [See vol. 

 ii., p. 569. — Ed.] 



Clethra canescens.- — Flowering examples of this shrub 

 were exhibited this week by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons and 

 were awarded a first-class certificate. The species is a 

 native of Japan, Java, the Philippines, etc., and was intro- 

 duced from the first-named country about twenty years 

 ago by Messrs. Veitch, with whom it has proved hardy in 

 their Coombe-Wood nursery. It formerly bore the name 

 of Clethra barbinervis. It has stalked oval or obovate 

 leaves three to five inches long, the margins serrate, the tip 

 acuminate, the surface hairy and the nerve-pits bearded. 

 The flowers are borne on erect slender racemes and they 

 are pure white. In general appearance this species is most 

 like the North American C. alnifolia, which is one of our 

 most useful summer-flowering hardy shrubs. In the green- 

 house one of the most attractive shrubs at this period of 

 the year is C. arborea, a native of Madeira. It is a hand- 

 some evergreen at all times of the year, and when clothed 

 with its elegant racemes or compound panicles of white 

 Lily of-the-valley-like flowers in July and August it is 

 greatly admired. — [See vol. vi., p. 257. — Ed.] 



Elliottia racemosa. — Collectors of rare hardy shrub 

 this country are eagerly inquiring after this plant, of which 

 there is a healthy example at Kew, probably the only one in 

 Europe. Here, however, all attempts to propagate it have 

 failed. I believe that some nurserymen in the United States 

 possess this plant, possibly they have succeeded in work- 

 ing up a slock of it ; if so we would much like to know 

 how it is done. It is stated that this interesting monotypic 

 genus is no longer to be found wild in the United Stales. 

 the only locality where it used to be found having been 

 swept by fire. The plant has never flowered in England. 

 Perhaps some one acquainted with it under cultivation will 

 kindly furnish an account of it for publication in Garden 

 and Forest. — [See vol. vii., p. 2 



Rosa L/EVIGATA. — The Cherokee Rose is not a success in 



