September 23, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



381 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1896. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article : — -A River Parkway 381 



Trees in Visalia, California Charles H. Shinn. 382 



The Sand Dunes of Northern Indiana and their Flora. — III..AV7/. E. J. Hill, 3S2 

 Foreign Correspondence: — Climbing Plants for Tropical Houses. . W. Watson. 383 



Plant Notes : — Evonymus obovatus. {With figure.) 384 



Cultural Department : — Shrubs with Ornamental Fruit Jackson Dawson. 386 



Seasonable Work IV. H. Taplin. 3S6 



Chrysanthemums T. D. Hatfield. 3S6 



Orchids in Flower E. O. O. 387 



Vegetable Notes William Scott. 387 



Primroses, Lilium Wallichianum superbum (Lilium sulphureum), 



E. O. Orjtet. 3S7 



Marguerite Carnations Edward J. Canning. 388 



Two Good Roses, Pueraria Thunbergiana, The European Medlar, Vibur- 

 num Lantana Joseph Meehan. 3S8 



Correspondence : — Notes from Southern California Edmund D. Sturtevant. 388 



Utilizing Choke Cherries Professor F. A. U r angh. 38S 



The Forest : — The Burma Teak Forests. — VIII Sir Dietrich Brandt's. 389 



Notes 390 



Illustration : — Evonymus obovatus, Fig. 51 385 



A River Parkway. 



TWO years ago we discussed in these columns (see 

 vol. vii.j pp. 191 and 231) certain projected improve- 

 ments in the lower reaches of the Charles River, lying 

 within the limits of Greater Boston, and recommended by 

 a joint committee consisting of the Metropolitan Park 

 Commission and the State Board of Health. This work 

 has been already begun, although an insufficient appro- 

 priation has prevented the complete realization of the 

 admirable plan, and the beauty of the banks, not to speak 

 of the comfort of the people who live near them, in one 

 conspicuous instance at least, has been marred by the 

 erection of a manufacturing establishment on ground which 

 the city ought to have possessed. This first report re- 

 lated to that portion of the river which is mainly a tidal 

 estuary, while a second and most interesting one, just 

 issued, covers the course of the stream from the head of 

 tide-water for sixteen miles through the metropolitan dis- 

 trict between Dedham and Watertown. 



In their review of the situation the landscape-architects of 

 the Commission, Messrs. Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot, describe 

 this as a typical example of the small rivers which have been 

 forced out of their channel by the stony rubbish of the ice 

 age and have found their way through its billowy surface as 

 best they might, filling up one hollow and overflowing into 

 the next. The scenery, which is pleasant without being very 

 striking, consists of gravel bluffs and ridges, originally 

 forested and many still clothed with wood, with gentler 

 slopes which have long been cleared and cultivated, and 

 occasional swamps between the stream and the higher 

 lands, still filled with rushes and sedges. In the early 

 years of the country the river was a commercial highway, 

 and Watertown, at the head of the tide, was an important 

 point ; but under the act for encouraging manufactures the 

 commonwealth gave as much of the common property in 

 rivers and lakes of the state as was needed for water-power, 

 so that there are eight dams now along the main stream 

 about which villages cluster, and one of them has become 

 a city. But the time has come when the growth of Boston 

 and its suburbs demands a reconstruction of the condition 

 of the river and a regulation of it to meet the needs of this 

 new population, and as a matter of fact it is stated that in 

 spite of the defacement of the banks and the inconveni- 



ence occasioned by the dams, the river has once more 

 come to be used as a highway, but a highway of pleasure 

 instead of traffic. Now the inhabitants of this region stand 

 more and more in need of means of recreation. Boating 

 is one of the most agreeable of pastimes, and this river 

 furnishes the most pleasant boating-course near Boston, 

 and, therefore, the landscape-architects recommend that it 

 shall be preserved as a parkway — that is, that the river 

 and its scenery for these sixteen miles be made the central 

 feature of a park, with its banks and waters available for 

 public recreation. 



If any such plan is adopted the first duty of its adminis- 

 tration would be to keep the current clean from sewage 

 and objectionable waste from factories which offends the 

 eye and exhales noisome odors. The second duty would 

 be to restrain dam owners from raising or lowering water- 

 levels. This is not only because the lowering of the water 

 leaves an exposure of muddy banks which displeases the 

 eye, but the hot sun soon helps to decompose the rank 

 vegetable matter, not to speak of animal matter which 

 is sure to collect along the margins of this open sewer, so 

 that the exhalations from these become a source of dis- 

 comfort, and, what is still worse, deleterious to the public 

 health. The third duty of the authorities in charge should 

 be to provide public passageways over and around the 

 dams for men and boats, and among many other recom- 

 mendations it is incidentally suggested that electric 

 launches might be rented to run as omnibus-boats or as 

 cabs. 



But simply to secure the navigation of a river is not 

 to make it a water-parkway, unless the charm of the 

 scenery is to be preserved and enhanced. Of course, 

 it is impossible to banish manufacturing from streams 

 in thickly settled communities, but, as the joint com- 

 mittee say, it is hardly reasonable that the centre of one 

 of the most attractive portions of the metropolitan area 

 should be forever given up to a use for which many less 

 attractive spots are equally available. The destruction of 

 the beauty of small rivers running through crowded neigh- 

 borhoods seems almost inevitable, and it is impossible to 

 preserve the natural charm of the banks without restricting 

 important business and trade. The simple question, as 

 the report puts it, is whether the preservation of the lovely 

 landscapes of the Charles River will be worth to the 

 community what it originally cost, together with the ex- 

 pense of supervising it. 



It is clear that if the river-banks are owned by numerous 

 private persons the scenery will ultimately be ruined. 

 Granting that many of the river-side industries are to 

 remain where they are, the landscape-architects suggest 

 two ways of treating the remaining private property on 

 the river. In the first place, as in parkways on land, a 

 building limit along the bank may be made, with certain 

 restrictions to prevent the felling of trees between, the 

 water and the building line without permission. This 

 would provide rather a wide strip of land with private 

 boat-houses and landings under special permit, and, 

 although the general public would acquire no right to the 

 land, a commission might preserve much of the local 

 scenery without depriving the owners of country-seats of 

 their privacy or the possession of a portion of the river-bai 1 k. 

 A more thoroughgoing way would be to acquire for public 

 use the actual fee of the private river-banks. Under this 

 scheme the boundaries of the banks on either side ought 

 to be streets which provide frontages for houses built to 

 face the public domain. Spaces of varying width between 

 the streets and the water could be made accessible by foot- 

 paths, while the lands as well as the waters controlled by 

 the governing commission would be continually policed. 

 Such a possession of the river-bank would greatly increase 

 the possible enjoyment of the people of the metropolitan 

 district, for to follow on foot the meandering shore of a 

 pretty stream is almost as delightful as to float with its 

 current, and it is pleasant to have the privilege of landing 

 anywhere from one's boat. 



