270 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 4, 1890. 



as those which manifest themselves in the relations of for- 

 ests to the welfare of men and nations, but unless the teach- 

 ers and leaders of the people are capable of such foresight 

 our proper national destiny is imperiled. The nation 

 which cannot take care of its forests, its streams or its soil 

 is likely to be found wanting in other things when new 

 conditions arise requiring wisdom, forethought and self- 

 control. 



We all need to learn. It is not safe to assume that any 

 class of people knows all there is to be known on any sub- 

 ject. When we differ let us express our opinions plainly 

 and directly, and stand up for them man-fashion, and ex- 

 pect other men to do the same. It is good American style 

 to say what we mean and mean what we say. No impor- 

 tant subject of our time has yet had adequate discussion in 

 this country. It is of the first importance that forestry sub- 

 jects should come to be regarded as matters of general pub- 

 lic interest and concern ; that they shall not be fenced off 

 into a narrow arena for petty contentions between special- 

 ists, the forestry people on the one side and lumbermen on 

 the other, while the country remains generally indifferent 

 and absorbed in other affairs. These subjects are so large 

 and vital, and have such relations to our national welfare, 

 that it is reasonable that intelligent and practical men 

 should inform themselves regarding them. They can do 

 this only by acquaintance with the literature of these sub- 

 jects, and with their systematic presentation and continu- 

 ous discussion in journals which treat such topics intelli- 

 gently and earnestly. All thoughtful men will, therefore, 

 wish for the lumber trade journals the greatest possible 

 success. 



Our London correspondent describes in another column 

 an interesting meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 held on the 13th of May, at which a discussion upon hardy 

 trees and shrubs with showy flowers was the principal 

 feature, considerable collections of the flowers of such 

 plants being shown by the authorities of the Royal Gar- 

 dens at Kew and by some of the nurserymen who make a 

 specialty of cultivating them. This exhibition and the dis- 

 cussion which it provoked are indications, perhaps, that 

 the English, who still set the fashion to the world in gar- 

 dening, are at last beginning to realize that they have 

 unduly neglected of late years deciduous trees and shrubs 

 in favor of evergreens, which, as our correspondent points 

 out, have been too much planted in England during the 

 last thirty years. They have their place, and have greatly 

 increased the material available for the use of the modern 

 gardener. It is equally true, however, that modern Eng- 

 lish gardens have been made monotonous and uninterest- 

 ing by the excessive use of such plants, which, even in 

 England, do not thrive everywhere, and which in cities 

 and their suburbs seem always out of place because they 

 > are never really healthy when brought within the influence 

 of city smoke and dirt. We in America can well rejoice at 

 this change of English feeling, or, to speak more accu- 

 rately, this return to the ideas of the early part of the cen- 

 tury, when deciduous trees and shrubs with handsome 

 flowers were held to be the chief ornament of the garden. 

 We have followed the fashion set in England here and 

 tried to cultivate conifers and broad-leaved evergreens, gen- 

 erally with the most unsatisfactory results. The climate of 

 eastern America is not favorable to plants of this nature ; 

 but if deciduous trees and shrubs are to become fashiona- 

 ble again, we have all the natural conditions in our favor, 

 and if we cannot show the world the effects such plants 

 are capable of producing, it will be because our gardeners 

 lack the intelligence to strike out for themselves and make 

 the most of their advantages. 



American gardening, as has been said before more than 

 once in these columns, if it ever ceases to follow foreign 

 fashions and attains to a national school of its own, will 

 owe its excellence to a more general use of deciduous 

 plants than now prevails, and to the development of new 

 and better forms of such plants. 



It is only a visit to Central Park on a pleasant Saturday 

 afternoon in May, when the lawns are covered with chil- 

 dren, that can give the real idea of its immense value to this 

 city. Many of these children dwell in crowded tenement- 

 houses, and the full enjoyment of a breath of fresh air 

 amid rural surroundings must seem to them like a fore- 

 taste of heaven. It seems incredible that any one with 

 any interest in New York and in its people, with the 

 memory of such a sight in his mind, can for a moment be 

 willing to see any part of the park alienated from the pur- 

 poses which primarily make it useful, and devoted to any 

 other use. Central Park is truly a marvelous creation, when 

 it is considered what it was made from, and that it is in the 

 heart of one of the large cities of the world. Its supreme 

 merit lies in the fact that it reproduces Nature as no other 

 great-city park in the world does, with the single excep- 

 tion of Prospect Park, in Brooklyn. As compared with the 

 parks of London, Paris, Berlin or Vienna, Central Park is 

 pure country, where the city-dweller can forget bricks and 

 mortar and revel in the delights of trees and grass, of 

 moss-covered rocks, and meadows dotted with wild 

 flowers. There are prospects in Central Park, like some of 

 those from the foot of the terrace looking across the lake, 

 which are as far removed from all idea of city surround- 

 ings and city life as if they looked out upon the banks of 

 some lake a hundred miles away in a remote and wild part 

 of the country ; and these views represent all of the coun- 

 try that thousands of children born in this city ever know. 

 Surely every effort' to deprive our people of any of the 

 natural beauties of Central Park must be thwarted, what- 

 ever effort it may cost the intelligent men and women who 

 have at heart the best interests of the city. 



The park is already too small for the demands made on 

 it by the public. In a few years it will be so crowded on 

 holidays that its usefulness will be seriously interfered 

 with. No part of it, therefore, should be given up for any 

 purpose whatever which in any way will interfere with its 

 real mission, which is to bring to the people of this city a 

 little of the country and its civilizing and health-giving 

 influences. 



A Stone Bridge in Wales. 



AS an interesting contrast to the stone bridge at Topsfield, 

 Massachusetts, which we illustrated a short time ago, we 

 give on page 275 a picture of a similar bridge in Wales. The 

 picture speaks for itself with regard to the beauty that such 

 • bridges have, no matter what the character of their surround- 

 ings may be. In the former instance we saw a quiet, pretty 

 stretch of river, the banks overhung by low trees and shrubs, 

 and no buildings in sight. Here the bridge forms a feature in 

 a village street, yet it is just as appropriate and just as charm- 

 ing. Of course were these simple but solid stone houses 

 replaced by wooden ones of the usual American type there 

 would be less harmony and less dignity in the picture. But, 

 at least in our older villages, the wooden houses stand beneath 

 great Elms and Maples, which give beauty of a different kind; 

 and in a street thus composed a stone bridge would be an 

 equally fortunate detail. The thick growth of Ivy that covers 

 the sides of the Welsh structure could not everywhere be re- 

 produced in our colder, drier climate ; but we have enough 

 vines of our own to clothe bridge or river wall most beauti- 

 fully, during the summer season at least. And even in their 

 winter nakedness they would still be attractive, while the cheap 

 bridge of wood or iron is hideous when naked, and only tol- 

 erable even when draped with green. 



The Trees of Persia. 



NO country, within the same limits, presents such 

 vivid contrasts of scenery and vegetation as Persia. 

 There are wide districts which have all the characteristics of 

 the Desert of Sahara, while only a day's ride from there one 

 climbs stupendous mountain ranges or plunges into the depths 

 of forests where the sun is hardly seen and the music of the 

 cataract reverberates through a primeval solitude. The centre 

 and south of Persia is a vast arid table-land from 3,000 to 4,000 

 feet above the sea. Here and there it is intersected by moun- 

 tain chains many thousand feet high, covered with perpetual 

 snow. The melting of this snow furnishes the water which, 



