May 3, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



191 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— Landscape-art in Central Park 191 



The Work of Frederick Law Olmsted at the Columbian Exposition... 192 



Waiting for the May Mrs. J. H. Rohbins. 192 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XIL (With figure.) C. S. S. 193 



Foreign Correspondence: — \ew Plants W. Watsoti. 194 



Cultural Department: — Hardy Evergreen Hollies and Barberries. . y. G. Jack. 196 



Plants in Flower J. N. Gerard. 197 



Sowing Annuals, etc J. N. G. 197 



Mexican Bulbs F. H. H. 197 



Sweet Corn C. E. Htinn. 197 



Correspondence :— Aquatics in Modern Gardening Samuel Hetishaw. 197 



Maple-sugar J. E. C. 198 



Blue Flowers A.G.ig?, 



Quercus densiflora Frank M. Gallaher. 199 



Impotency of Grape Pollen S. A. Beach. 199 



Recent Publications 199 



Notes '99 



Illustration : — Prunus Maximowiczii, Fig. 31 195 



Landscape-art in Public Parks. 



WHILE the rapid growth of popular sentiment in 

 favor of securing open spaces for recreation in our 

 cities and towns is evident and altogether gratifying, there 

 is always the danger that when a community realizes the 

 need of pleasure-grounds it will eagerly seize the first site 

 that is offered at what seems a reasonable price. The 

 preparation of the land thus hastily secured is not always 

 entrusted to an artist of experience in designing and con- 

 structing works of this sort, and it is often the case, there- 

 fore, that the ground which was selected without proper 

 forethought is treated without proper intelligence. A cap- 

 ital mistake at the outset of such an enterprise will leave 

 it a crippled and misshapen thing forever, and therefore 

 when the 900,000 inhabitants of the twelve cities and 

 twenty-four towns which constitute the greater Boston 

 determined to have some pleasure-grounds, they made an 

 admirable beginning by creating a Metropolitan Park 

 Commission to take the whole complicated question under 

 advisement to ascertain the best way of establishing a 

 homogeneous park system for the entire district. The first 

 report of the commission justifies the confidence expressed 

 in it at the time of its organization, and no town or city 

 which contemplates any similar work can afford to go on 

 without a careful study of this admirable document 



When New York decided to enlarge its park area, a 

 commission was named who at once proceeded to select 

 several large bodies of land to meet the growing needs of 

 the city. At some future time some designer, good or bad, 

 will be invited to make plans of these various pleasure- 

 grounds. The Boston commission, on the contrary, began 

 by taking counsel with Mr. Charles Eliot as to the selection 

 of park sites, and no doubt his assistance in outlining 

 the general scheme, and later on in defining the boundaries 

 of the various parks and studying them in their relation to 

 each other, will be worth a great deal more than it would 

 have been had he not been called in as a professional 



adviser until after the land had been secured. The great 

 number and varied forms of the municipal bodies which 

 together form the greater Boston, make the problem a 

 rather intricate one from a political point of view, and for 

 this purpose Mr. Baxter was made secretary, because he 

 not only knew the ground, but his studies had made him 

 familiar with subjects of this sort and with the necessary 

 documentary evidence in the case. A legal adviser was 

 also chosen to examine the precedents for legislation and 

 to draw up acts which were necessary to carry the scheme 

 into effect, and each one of these gentlemen has done his 

 work in a singularly comprehensive and thorough way, so 

 that a distinct service has been rendered not only to Bos- 

 ton but to every rapidly growing town and city in the 

 country. 



The political and social difficulties may be less serious 

 in many other cities than they are in the case of 

 Boston and its suburbs, but in every instance the physical 

 problems can only be dealt with by a true artist, and no 

 one can read Mr Eliot's report without feeling that expert 

 advice is a necessity in every park-project from the very be- 

 ginning. The opinion prevails too widely that the sole 

 business of an artist is to contrive something which will 

 please the eye, when really the true artist is the most prac- 

 tical of men. His scheme of development will be prima- 

 rily based on what is the most useful, and the beauty will 

 grow out of.it as something natural and appropriate, and 

 will therefore have a strength and character which it never 

 would have possessed if it had been tacked on as an 

 ornamental after-thought The water which flows about 

 the great buildings in Jackson Park doubles the beauty 

 of all the stately structures there by reflecting their images 

 from its surface, and it adds a certain sparkle and anima- 

 tion to the scene which make the only appropriate finish 

 to a picture of joyousness and festivity; but the foundations 

 of the buildings are firm because they rest on the earth 

 that was dredged out to form these very water-ways, and 

 the same glittering channels furnish the most convenient 

 means of intercommunication between the buildings. In 

 this way a true artist commands every opposing force to 

 render helpful service and converts difficulties into oppor- 

 tunities. So, in the construction of a park, the designer who 

 will utilize the ground to its fullest extent and make it 

 furnish the highest pleasure to the greatest number will at 

 the same time make the most beautiful park, for the beauty 

 will not be merely superficial, but it w^ill be vitalized by an 

 informing purpose. In public works, and even in the ar- 

 rangement of private grounds, the complaint is sometimes 

 made that it costs too much to employ a landscape-gar- 

 dener, when, in reality, a true artist will not only rescue all 

 possible beauty from clumsy destrucfion, but will turn 

 every natural feature to its highest use, and, in this way, 

 will not only prevent waste of priceless opportunities, but 

 in most cases prevent positive blunders, which mean a 

 double loss. 



Of course, this report of Mr Eliot's is simply a prelimi- 

 nary survey of the ground, and attention is invited to it 

 primarily to show the value of just such a study. The 

 impression prevails too generally that the true function of 

 a landscape-gardener is to make shrub-borders and flower- 

 beds, but even a hasty perusal of this report will convince 

 any reader that it is the duty of some one to make such a 

 fundamental study if the park system of any city is to be 

 developed on the best lines, and that a searching review of 

 the physical and historical geography of any district is 

 needed in order to establish the principles which should 

 control even the selection of its park sites. It is obvious 

 that when the time comes to work out in detail these new 

 Boston parks the same painstaking method will be needed 

 if their boundaries are properly defined and their entrances 

 properly adjusted to the highways of traffic and travel ; if 

 all the beauty of land and water is to be saved and aug- 

 mented ; if every age and class is to find its special want 

 met most conveniently ; if proper provision is made for 

 festal assemblage and for the distribution of visitors who 



