October in, 1896. 



Garden and Forest. 



421 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Conducted by 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 

 Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, li 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Article : — Park Lands and their Boundaries 



Is Indian Corn Growing Wild in America? Robert P. Harris. 



Reforesting Waste Lands in Holland "John Gijford. 



Fjreign Correspondence : — Notes on Orchids IV, Watson. 



New or Little-known Plants: — Rhamnus crenata. (With figure) C. S. S. 



Cultural Department: — The Flower Border in Autumn Wm. Tricker. 



Hardy Plants for Forcing T. D. Hatfield. 



The Acacias N. J. Rose. 



Notes from the Santa Monica Forestry Station John H. Barber. 



Notes on Watsonias IV. E. Endicott. 



Calilornia Irises J. N. Gerard, 



The Japanese Wineberry M. Barker. 



Correspondence : — Along our Roadsides L. F. Horner. 



Notes from Botanical Garden at Smith College Edward y. Canning. 



Asparagus Rust G.E. Stone. 



The Forest : — The Burma Teak Forests. — XII Sir Dietrich Brandis. 



R ecent Publications 



Exhib tions :— Flowers and Fruits at the American Institute Fair. — II 



N07E5 



Illustration : — Rhamnus crenata, Fig. 56 



r\GE. 



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Park Lands and their Boundaries. 



IN a late number of the New England Magazine, Mr. 

 Charles Eliot gives an outline sketch of the park system 

 of Boston and its adjacent cities, with a map showing the 

 reservations proposed and actually made for this metro- 

 politan district. Within a radius of eleven miles from the 

 State House there are thirty-seven distinct municipalities, 

 containing a population of a million and property worth a 

 thousand million dollars. Of course, some of these com- 

 munities have parks of their own, and they have acquired 

 land for securing a pure water-supply, but it became plain to 

 thoughtful people that without cooperation of the different 

 towns and cities the time was at hand when all the 

 water-front along the rivers or the sea, and all the broad 

 areas of woodland or meadow which would be desirable 

 for public use, would be built over or appropriated for busi- 

 ness purposes. The wise plan was, therefore, devised of 

 establishing a metropolitan park commission. In addition 

 to the parks of Boston, Quincy, Cambridge, Lynn and others 

 already existing, this board has selected a dozen other sites 

 for some peculiar fitness of their own or because they are 

 necessary to supplement the others and connect them into 

 a system ; and the map now shows that there is no part of 

 the district which is not provided with open spaces and park- 

 ways according to its needs. We have had occasion, hith- 

 erto, to speak of the singular wisdom displayed in choosing 

 certain of these reservations for special purposes. Twenty 

 minutes from the heart of the city there is a curving beach 

 of sand three miles long and fronting the open sea. This 

 splendid beach is now free to the people, while on the high 

 ground behind it is a driveway from which there is to be 

 a clear view eastward, since every obstruction between it and 

 the shore is to be removed. The Charles River is to be 

 turned into a water parkway. The Blue Hills reservation, 

 five miles long, takes in the highest land and the most 

 impressive scenery in the entire district. The Lynn 

 Woods contain two thousand acres of picturesque forest 

 land. The Middlesex Fells, the Hemlock Gorge, the 

 Waverly Oaks, Stoney Brook, are all particularly valuable 

 in themselves and for their position to furnish outing 

 grounds to the growing population of Greater Boston. 

 These reservations were not selected by chance, nor 



were they taken here and there because some one had land 

 to dispose of, or because some association of property- 

 owners clamored to have their district recognized. A 

 comprehensive and well-balanced system was carried out 

 because professional advice was taken at the outset — that 

 is, just when it was most needed. In an early volume of this 

 journal the fact was recalled that when Messrs. Olmsted 

 & Vaux planned Prospect Park, they suggested that the 

 ocean beach ought to be made the terminus of a great 

 parkway which should take Prospect Park in its course, 

 and then, sweeping through the rich country behind what 

 was the city of Brooklyn and linking together a chain of 

 small parks, be thrown across the East River from 

 Ravenswood and carried into Central Park and onward 

 to the north through a system of sylvan roads, or across 

 the Hudson from the head of Riverside Drive over a bridge 

 which is sure to come, to be connected with the heights of 

 Bergen, the Palisades and the Orange Mountains. This 

 magnificent scheme could have been carried out for a rea- 

 sonable sum and made complete by the year 1900, and 

 even then, with all the park-land subsequently acquired, 

 our park area, in comparison with our population, would 

 be less than that of London now is. 



Our cities are increasing in population more rapidly than 

 the country, and there is more need of public parks every 

 year. But we are beginning to realize that these open 

 spaces are quite as necessary to the life of a civilized city 

 as its school system, or a good water-supply, or art gal- 

 leries or libraries. There is likely, therefore, to be less 

 trouble in securing the land now, even though it is much 

 more costly than it was twenty years ago. The danger is 

 that the grounds will be selected by men who have given 

 no thought to the interests involved, and who do not real- 

 ize how complicated a matter it is to provide for the varied 

 wants of a great population. It is not enough to appoint 

 a commission of worthy citizens who begin their work 

 with a cloudy notion that about so man)'- acres are 

 needed for recreation-grounds, and who then set them- 

 selves to adjusting the claims of rival east-side and west- 

 side associations or up-town or down-town interests. An 

 individual park ought to be an organized work of art. A 

 system of parks requires still more study if it is wisely 

 adapted to the varied wants of all classes and all ages, with 

 facilities for ever}' form of outdoor recreation. 



Just here the example set by Boston should be a model 

 for every city. Professional advisers were appointed before 

 an acre was bought. They were consulted not only in a 

 general way as to the selection of park sites, but, after 

 making a complete study of the whole question, they selected 

 the sites and worked out their boundary lines. In this city we 

 have several so-called parks in the annexed district which 

 are not yet parks in any sense of the word, but simply 

 areas of land which are to be at some time converted into 

 parks. No study has been made of those lands, and when 

 they were purchased the shape of the territory was a 

 matter of slight consideration. No doubt, a careful exam- 

 ination of any one of them would show that some half- 

 dozen acres adjacent to, but outside of, its present limits 

 would be worth ten times as much as many another 

 area of the same size within the park. No cursory 

 examination of land, even by a skilled park-maker, is ade- 

 quate to solve questions like this. What any park boun- 

 dary ought to exclude and include can only be deter- 

 mined after long and serious study. The fundamental 

 mistake here was made in purchasing this land before 

 expert counsel was taken. There is no need of haste in 

 constructing our new parks, but certainly if they are to 

 serve their highest purpose some attempt at designing 

 should be made before the surrounding property multiplies 

 in value. It ought not to be forgotten that after the land 

 for Central Park was purchased, the approaches at the Fifth 

 and Eighth Avenues, which were essential to give some- 

 dignity to its entrances, had to be secured at enormous 

 expense, and very costly, loo, were the blocks added at the 

 northern end of the park, which were found necessary to the 



