May 24, iJ 



Garden and Forest. 



221 



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, MAY 24, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — The Park Movement in the United States 221 



The Removal of Elm- trees from Boston Common , 221 



The Value of Deciduous Shrubs for Planting in the Cliinate of our 



Northern Atlantic States 222 



Notes from West Virgi nia Danske Dandride:e. 222 



Garden Gossip : May ISIrs. J. H. Robbins. 223 



Notes ot Mexican Travel. - IV C. G. Pringle. 223 



New or Little-known Plants: — Bromelia fastuosa. (With figure.) 224 



Foreign Correspondence :— London Letter W. Watson. ■2.2^ 



Cultural Department : — Protection of Plants in Winter y. G. Jack. 226 



Vegetable Notes C. E. Hunn. 227 



Plants in Bloom J. N. Gerard. 227 



Chrysanthemums T. D. H. 228 



The Forest: — In the Amador Second-growth Forests. . . Charles Howard Shinn. 228 



Correspondence : — The Gardens at Wellesley ...H.H. Hunnewell. 228 



Plants in Bloom at Passaic, New Jersey J. N. G. 229 



Recent Publications 229 



Notes 230 



Illustration : — Bromelia fastuosa. Fig. 35 225 



The Park Movement in the United States. 



IN most parts of the country cities are becoming alive to 

 the necessity of providing- adequate parks for public 

 use. Kansas City, until recently, has been without a square 

 foot of park-ground, and is now taking measures to sup- 

 ply this deficiency. Louisville is laying out three large 

 parks, and Milwaukee is making notable additions to its 

 system. Portland, Oregon, is considering the same ques- 

 tion ; Des Moines, Iowa, has obtained several tracts of 

 land for park purposes ; Omaha is to have a new park on 

 the south side, and Cheyenne is also to have a new one. 

 In Pueblo, Colorado, two tracts of i6o acres each have 

 been given to the city for park purposes. Topeka, Kansas, 

 is to devote twenty acres of the Fair Grounds to a park, 

 and is to expend $25,000 in improving it. As an auditorium 

 seating 5,000 persons is to be built, it looks, however, as if the 

 greater part of the appropriation was to be spent for other 

 than regular park purposes. Quincy, Illinois, has an active 

 Boulevard and Park Association which has established two 

 small pleasure-grounds, and proposes to surround the en- 

 tire city with a park-way. In Detroit a part of the Cook 

 farm, between Jefferson Avenue and the river-front, has 

 been given to the city on condition that for the first three 

 years $1,000 a year shall be spent for improvement, and 

 $500 a year for the next fifteen years. 



It is remarkable that in the south there is, as yet, but 

 httle interest felt in the establishment of parks, although 

 provision for pleasant outdoor life and recreation is most 

 desirable there, where the climate, with the short winters 

 and the long open-air season, is particularly favorable to 

 the creation of beautiful recreation-grounds. 



In Massachusetts the development of this movement has 

 been very notable. The Boston suburbs of Everett, Med- 

 ford and Hyde Park have recently established park com- 

 missions. Lynn has complemented the sylvan charms of 

 Lynn woods by obtaining a site for a fine ocean-side ter- 

 race adjacent to the magnificent beach ownied by the 

 neighboring town of Nahant. Under the agitation of the 

 metropolitan park question, the sea-side suburbs of Revere 

 and Winthrop are awakening to a sense of their opportuni- 



ties. On the South Shore the Quincy Park Commission has 

 approved Mr. Charles Eliot's recommendation for a shore 

 drive completely bordering Quincy Bay and connecting 

 with Merrymount Park ; the latter to be enlarged, and ap- 

 proached from the westward by a park-way, utilizing the 

 course of a stream called Furnace Brook. 



This idea of making the water-courses of a community 

 the basis of park-way or boulevard improvements, as the 

 cheapest means of solving the problems of surface drain- 

 age, and at the same time creating pleasant features of the 

 landscape, was first introduced by Boston and Brookline 

 in the grand park-way from Jamaica pond to the Charles 

 River. The city of Newton now proposes to adopt the 

 idea on an extensive scale by laying out boulevards 

 wherever possible along the lines of waterway throughout 

 the city, except in thickly settled neighborhoods, where the 

 cost of taking would be too great. In the latter event 

 rights of way for surface-drainage will be acquired. 



Waltham has taken Prospect Hill, which in elevation 

 ranks next to the Blue Hill range among the hills around 

 Boston, for a public park. Maiden is moving to establish 

 a number of local pleasure-grounds, chiefly for playground 

 purposes. Winchester proposes to take the banks of the 

 Aberjona River to abate a serious nuisance and beautify 

 the town. Dedham has in view a park along the Charles 

 River. Salem and Gloucester have recently established 

 park commissions, and the former city proposes to acquire 

 the historic "Witch Pasture" and "Gallows Hill." The 

 neighboring town of Beverly, soon to be a city, contem- 

 plates acquiring Prospect Hill, a sightly eminence close to 

 the centre of population and commanding beautiful views 

 of land and sea. 



Ancient Plymouth, where Mr. Nathaniel Morton has 

 been the leading spirit in the park movement that led to 

 the establishment of the fine public forest called Morton 

 Park, with more than five miles of pleasure-drives, has con- 

 tinued its enlightened policy by laying out and improving, 

 under the advice of the most competent landscape-archi- 

 tects, several lesser parks throughout the town. 



There is little danger that any of the thrifty cities of the 

 country will acquire more park-land than will be needed 

 within a few years by a rapidly growing population. In 

 every city this desire for breathing-spaces, for playgrounds, 

 for stretches of grass and the shade of trees should be en- 

 couraged. There should be no delay about getting land 

 while it is cheap, and getting enough of it. Of course, it 

 would not be prudent to develop fully a large park area 

 before the population demands it. But this does not mean 

 that a plan for development should be put off until the 

 pressure for outdoor room is urgent. Planning by piece- 

 meal is wasteful work, and the best park system for any 

 city can only be attained when a design for its entire park 

 area as one consistent scheme is secured. Professional 

 advice is, therefore, needed at the very outset. It is 

 needed to direct in the selection of the land, and needed 

 also to lay down the lines of a general scheme, along 

 which all construction shall be carried on. This will pre- 

 vent all costly revision and adjustment. The first work 

 will then always be foundatioii work, so that what follows 

 will fit naturally and easily upon what has been done. 

 Parks are so essential to the wants of modern city life, and 

 land is so expensive, that it is a shameful extravagance 

 when the public grounds of a city are not treated in such a 

 way that they can serve the very highest use of which 

 they are capable, and this can only be accomplished by 

 the careful study of trained artists. 



The recent action of the city forester of Boston, in caus- 

 ing the removal of a number of old Elm-trees from the 

 Common, has produced a vigorous protest from many 

 quarters, and the Mayor has ordered that the cutting should 

 be stopped. Whether the condition of these particular 

 trees justified their removal we do not pretend to judge. It 

 is well known that there are too many trees on the Com- 

 mon and that some of them have been allowed to fall into 



