2l8 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 8, 1889. 



laiulscape-g'ardener should study when strivdng to make 

 the best use of the material at his disposal. 



A new edition of the " Manual of the Botany of the 

 Northern United States" is in press, and will appear early 

 in the autumn. It has been prepared by Mr. Sereno Wat- 

 son, with the assistance of Professor John M. Coulter. 

 The Willows have been elaborated by Mr. M. S. Eebb ; 

 the Carices by Professor Bailey, and the Ferns by Professor 

 Eaton — the best authorities in the United States upon these 

 dil^cult plants. The field covered by the new edition is en- 

 larged to embrace the territory as far west as the one-hun- 

 dredth meridian, older editions having covered the Northern 

 States east of the Mississippi River only; and the Hepal- 

 iccE from the pen of Professor Underw^ood are to be added. 

 "Gray's Manual" is one of the best books of its class that 

 was ever written, and for forty years it has been the con- 

 stant guide and companion of every man and woman who 

 have successfully studied the flora of eastern North America. 

 No popular flora was ever cast in a better mould, or has 

 had a more widespread and lasting influence. Twenty 

 years have passed, however, since the last edition ap- 

 peared, and a new one to include all the additions which 

 nave been made in recent years to our flora, and all the 

 changes in nomenclature and grouping made necessary 

 by recent, investigations has long been greatly needed. 

 Professor Gray, up to the very end, expected to publish a 

 new edition of the Manual, but the time never came when 

 he could turn his hand to it without neglecting more im- 

 portant duties, and the task has fallen upon his associate 

 and successor. 



The following is the substance of a dispatch dated April 

 2 1st, from Holyoke, Massachusetts, and published in the 

 Boston Herald on the following morning : A fire which 

 destroyed a large amount of valuable woodland property 

 started from some embers emptied among the brush on the 

 outskirts of this city at four o'clock this afternoon. The 

 wind was blowing a furious gale, and fanned the embers 

 into flames, which were communicated to the woods near 

 by. The wind carried the fire from tree to tree. Farmers 

 turned out to fight the flames, but for hours their efforts 

 were unavailing. Thousands of acres of valuable timber 

 were burned before the fire was got under control. It had 

 laid waste a territory four miles long and 100 to 400 yards 

 wide. 



A dispatch in the same issue of the Herald from Pitts- 

 field, Massachusetts, states that " two forest-fires are now 

 raging, one in the west part of the town, north of the Val- 

 entine summer place, which is doing considerable damage 

 and threatening several dwellings. Another great forest- 

 fire is burning furiously in the north part of the town. This 

 covers a very large area of territory, and is sweeping on 

 toward the east with great fury, taking the timber in its 

 course and threatening a whole settlement with destruc- 

 tion." A dispatch from North Adams of the same date, 

 states that "extensive forest-fires have been raging in this 

 vicinity for the past few days, destroying large quantities 

 of valuable timber, also thousands of cords of wood which 

 had been cut and piled during the winter." 



Announcements similar to these appear almost daily at 

 this season of the year in the press of the country. 

 They emphasize what we have so often insisted upon — 

 that it is m the early spring, before the appearance of the 

 new leaves, that there is the greatest danger from forest- 

 fires, and that it is useless to expect that such fires will 

 diminish in number and in \'iolence until the time and the 

 method of setting brush-fires upon farms are regulated by 

 law, and some responsible officer is appointed in each 

 town to decide when such fires can be set with safety to 

 the community. It seems preposterous that any man 

 should be allowed to set a fire on his land without restric- 

 tion and without regard to the lives and property of his 

 neighbors. 



Many lives and many millions of property are sacrificed 



every year in the United States in this way, but the men 

 who set the fires and allow them to escape to the land of 

 other people are not responsible or cannot be made re- 

 sponsible for the damage they cause. The number of such 

 fires can, however, be greatly restricted, and the Forestry 

 Associations, Forestry Commissioners and similar bodies 

 who are looking about for some object upon which to 

 centre their efforts will find here a eood cause. Preven- 

 tion is the only cure for forest-fires, and the mosteflicient 

 way to prevent them will be found in limiting the right of 

 individuals to set brush-fires. A brush-fire in a wooded 

 district on a dry spring day, with a high wind blowing, is 

 a much more dangerous thing to the community than a 

 nitro-glycerine factory. Yet no farmer would ever claim 

 the right to manufacture nitro-gl3'cerine on his prem- 

 ises, or consider that his liberties were invaded if the com- 

 munity in which he lived objected to his making it. It is 

 through the establishment of some supervision over the 

 setting of brush-fires more than by any other one thing that 

 the interests bf forestry can be advanced and the protection 

 of rural property increased in the Eastern and Northern 

 States. 



Some Old American Country-Seats. 



II.— The Lyman Place in Waltham. 



O EYOND Caml)ridge and Somerville and about seven miles 

 *-' from Boston Common rises a range of irregular and 

 sometimes rocky hills, from whose sinnmits one may see on 

 the west Wachusett and on the east the ocean. At the south- 

 ern end of this highland two considerable brooks issue from 

 the hills and, joining their waters, How as one stream across 

 about a mile of smoother country to Charles River. Between 

 the western brook and the foot of the rocks is a wai-m slope 

 having a southern exposure, and here one of the colonists of 

 1634, by name John Livermore, built his house and cleared 

 the land for a farm. Other Livermores — namely, Nathaniel, 

 Samuel and Elijah — in turn succeeded to the property; of whom 

 Samuel came to most honor, for he married four times, and 

 served his fellow-townsmen as their clerk, assessor and cap- 

 tain of the company, and also as deacon of the church, which 

 was built about 1722 "within twenty rods of Nathaniel Liver- 

 more 's dwelling." Elijah Livermore became the founder of 

 a town in Maine, and sold the farm to Mr. Jonas Dix, of the 

 class of 1769 at Harvard College, who broujjht his bride to the 

 Livermore homestead, and there lived the quiet life of a 

 schoolmaster and selectman until his death in 1796. 



It would 1)6 very interesting to know what was the condition 

 of the neighborhood at this time, whether the sheltering hills 

 behind tlie farm were wooded or no, and what sort of a chan- 

 nel the Chester brook ran in. The place must have been de- 

 cidedly attractive in some way, for its next owner, Theodore 

 Lyman, a merchant of Boston, bought it with the express in- 

 tention of making it a country-seat, and forthwith built a man- 

 sion which was valued by the assessors of 1798 at the vast sum 

 of eight thousand dollars ! This substantial house he placed 

 not upon the highland, where the popular taste of to-day would 

 set it, but upon the flat, and from one to two hundred feet 

 south of the southernmost rocks. Here it was sufficiently 

 high above the brook, which flowed in front about 400 feet 

 away, while behind it space was obtained for a well-sheltered 

 garden. The east wing was Ijuilt close to a little knoll, which, 

 with the trees upon it, helped to make the house appear 

 firmly and comfortably planted. The west \\\w^ also had its 

 supporting trees. The smooth lawn before the house was 

 made with material dug from beside the brook, which was 

 then induced, by the help of a low dam, to flow more quietly 

 and broadly. Plainly, English books on landscape-gardening, 

 like Repton's or Whately's, had made part of this American 

 gentleman's reading. — the low setting of the house and the 

 serpentine curves given to the grass-edged shore of the 

 stream furnish proof of this. 



At first, the approach road entered the estate from the 

 south-east and crossed the brook on a stone bridge of three 

 arches, but in after years a new entrance was made in the 

 position shown upon our plan, and then the older way was 

 discontinued, with the unfortunate effect of l:)rin,£jing the drive- 

 way to a sudden ending at the house-door. No other im- 

 portant alterations of the original plan have been attempted 

 since the designer himself made this change. To be sure, the 

 second Lyman, pi'obaljly in haste to provide shade in certain 

 parts, planted many Norway Spruces, but these his son is now 



