33° 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 9, 189c. 



But a few days ago two of the Park Commissioners of 

 this city voted to' spend at least $300,000 for the oblitera- 

 tion of one of the most beautiful meadows of Central Park, 

 and that, too, after their attention had been directed to the 

 fact that the great defect of the park is its scanty area of 

 open greensward, and that the greater portion of the turf 

 had been won from the rocks at enormous expense by 

 blasting away the ledges and carting in loam to replace 

 them. They did seek counsel of Mr. Vaux and of Mr. 

 Olmsted, who together designed and constructed the park, 

 and both of these artists not only strenuously opposed the 

 scheme, but gave convincing reasons for their opposition 

 to it; and yet the Commissioners acted in direct violation 

 of the advice they solicited. The meadow is to be sacri- 

 ficed, if the scheme is not frustrated, in the interest of a 

 sorry collection of animals, although the spot has been 

 shown to be in every way unsuited to their health. It has no 

 water, cannot be properly drained, has not a sunny aspect, 

 is shut off from cool breezes in summer and has no protec- 

 tion against the cold winds of winter. To make ready for 

 the cages 25,000 square feet of rock will need to be blasted 

 out and many of the stateliest trees in the park must be 

 destroyed. The President of the Board admits that he only 

 contemplates a temporary use of the meadow for his colony 

 of beasts, and for this he is willing to spend half a mil- 

 lion dollars and leave unsightly wounds upon the face of 

 the landscape, which, with the best of care, cannot be 

 healed in a generation. 



No one would think of consulting either of these men 

 about the planning or planting of a country door-yard with 

 a reasonable hope of receiving any advice worth listen- 

 ing to, and yet they have no hesitation about deciding 

 upon critical questions of park design and construction. 

 The fact that they have never had any training or expe- 

 rience in such matters does not restrain them from acting 

 with entire confidence in the soundness of their judgment. 

 They plainly have a supreme contempt for any view which 

 conflicts with their own, and they reject without considera- 

 tion the advice of the very men who are recognized 

 by all the world as the most competent to give an opinion. 



Small park boards, with ample powers, may be prefera- 

 ble to large ones, all things considered. But certainly 

 parks are never free from danger when a majority of the 

 board controlling them consists of two or three men who 

 have no respect for expert opinion, who have no clear 

 ideas of the intricate nature of the problems which must be 

 solved when a park is successfully designed, who do not 

 even understand that any question as to plan or construc- 

 tion can possibly present itself which the average American 

 citizen is not competent to answer off-hand. As a matter 

 of fact, the most serious attacks upon the integrity of our 

 city parks have been organized by the men who were 

 chosen to protect them. 



The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 23d mentions the sale 

 of 87,000 acres of forest-lands in Pennsylvania to men 

 from outside of the state, and says that the timber is likely 

 to be cut off in a more sensible manner than if these lands 

 were, as hitherto, divided into many small holdings. It is 

 probable that timber lands in the eastern states would be a 

 more profitable investment for capital than some of the 

 enterprises which have been popular during the last few 

 years, but this depends very much upon the feeling and 

 usages of the communities in which the lands are situated. 

 Pennsylvania has, or had very recently, a law for some of 

 the mountain counties of the state which always brings 

 disaster to forests, a statute permitting cattle to run at 

 large. This leads to the practice of starting forest-fires for 

 the benefit of the pasturage, which results in the destruc- 

 tion of much valuable timber, and in the rapid elimination 

 of the fertility of the soil of large areas. Great injury has 

 already been done in the mountain region of Pennsylvania, 

 and it will be interesting to observe the effect of the 

 improved methods of forest-management which the In- 

 quirer thinks will be adopted by the new purchasers. 



A Japanese Pot Plant. 



READERS of garden literature have in late years be- 

 come familiar with the descriptions and illustrations of 

 the dwarfed conifers of which the Japanese are so fond. Less 

 is known of their dwarfed deciduous trees, a portrait of one 

 of which appears in our illustration on page 335. It is a 

 weeping double-flowered Cherry, in which the Japanese 

 specially delight, and which they grow in great numbers 

 for the decoration of their gardens, often grafting them to 

 assume curious and abnormal forms, and cherishing them 

 year after year among the most precious of their household 

 belongings. 



Our illustration was made from one of a large series of 

 photographs of these plants taken in Japan by Dr. William 

 Sturgis Bigelow of Boston, who has favored us with a set 

 of them. 



Water in Landscape-Gardening. 



WATER is an essential element in the beauty of a landscape, 

 whether it is presented as sea, lake, river or running 

 brook, and no landscape-gardening can be perfect without its 

 addition in some form. While all admit the grandeur of the 

 ocean and the beauties of the lake, with its ever-changing sur- 

 face, in the selection of a country home, that spot should have 

 the preference which combines with other advantages a run- 

 ning stream in the form of river or brook. It should be a 

 rapid stream, boiling over a pebbly bed and noisy enough 

 to lull one into healthful slumber as he lies down to rest at 

 night. Just such a stream is the upper Saco, among the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire, where it rushes over a 

 rocky bottom, through the farm of the elder Crawford, 

 and fills that charming valley with its murmurs. Such 

 a stream is the Tweed at Abbotsford, among the Scottish hills, 

 whose rippling, so dear to Walter Scott, was the only sound, 

 as Lockhart tells us, that on that summer's day broke the still- 

 ness of the death scene when the great man passed away. 



He is fortunate who, with other elements of beauty about 

 him, can combine upon his own grounds these of which we 

 have spoken, or in the absence of these, even the cool, spark- 

 ling spring bubbling up in some Fern-embroidered dell. 



But if one cannot possess either the rushing stream or the 

 trickling rivulet, he may in a degree supply their lack or even 

 supplement them by the construction of artificial lakes and 

 fountains. These may be costly enough; but water can be in- 

 troduced into any garden in a modest way so as to be within 

 the reach of moderate means. Of course the water supply is 

 the first item to consider in the construction of a fountain. If 

 this is provided by a city or town the character and volume of 

 the fountain need only be regulated by the owner's purse. If 

 water comes from a neighboring brook by a hydraulic ram or 

 by means of a windmill, the fountain of course must be regu- 

 lated by the size of the reservoir. Where this supply is limited, 

 a weeping fountain, which consists of an upper basin into 

 which the water is brought with just sufficient volume to over- 

 flow on every side into a larger basin below, is perhaps to be 

 preferred. By carrying the pipe to a level with the outer edge 

 of the upper basin the water may be thrown a little above the 

 surface in a jet, or it may be allowed to boil up in the basin. 

 In material and design such a fountain may be infinitely varied. 

 An inexpensive arrangement was carried out in this way. The 

 vase, or upper basin, was formed of an irregular shaped block 

 of freestone, nearly circular and some three feet in diameter. 

 This was supported upon three blocks of the same kinds of stone 

 placed with apparent carelessness one upon the other, the 

 lowest resting in the centre of a lower basin, which was circu- 

 lar and some five feet in diameter. The blocks were drilled 

 for the passage of the conduit pipe and the whole was rough- 

 hammered. The spray of the water which dripped from the 

 upper basin quite sufficed to moisten the Ferns and aquatic 

 plants set about its base and the color of the freestone was 

 quite in harmony with its surroundings. 



A rustic, spring-like fountain when placed amid suitable 

 surroundings and away from buildings, can hardly fail 

 to please. The supply pipe may be concealed behind well 

 arranged rock-work and water can flow or trickle down from 

 stone to stone into a basin below. If these stones are selected 

 from the borders of a stream and are well covered with moss, 

 or from an old stone wall and are encrusted with lichens, the 

 general effect will be greatly heightened. If the interstices are 

 filled with soil an excellent place is provided for the growth of 

 Ferns and of climbing and drooping plants. 



A wall fountain is suitable to be placed in connection with 



