226 



Garden and Forest 



[May 8, if 



certain to repa}' the trouble, as the Cool Orchids. . . . We 

 have at least a hundred genera which will Hourish anywhere, 

 if tlie frost be excluded ; and as for species, a list of two 

 thousand would not exhaust them, probably. . . . But a rea- 

 sonable man may content himself with the great classes of 

 Odontoglossum, Oncidium, Cypripedium and Lycaste ; among 

 the varieties of these, ^Ndiich no one has ventured to calculate, 

 perhaps, he may spend a happy existence." Odontoglossums 

 stand first, Mr. Boyle declares, having the great merit of 

 bursting- into Hower at any season as they may chance to 

 ripen. "It is their instinct to Hower in spring, but they are 

 not pedantic about it in the least. Some tiny detail overlooked 

 here and there, absolutely unimportant to health, will retard 

 inflorescence. It might very well happen that the owner of 

 a dozen pots had one blooming every month successively. 

 And that would mean two spikes open, for, with care, most 

 Odontoglossums last above four weeks." Lycaste is likewise 

 strongly recommended. Mr. Boyle speaks of that genus as 

 he protests " without prejudice," and, as we think, very sen- 

 sibly, saying that the flower of the most common species, L. 

 Skinneri " is stiff, heavy and poor in color. But there are 

 tremendous exceptions. In the first place, L. S/elnneri alba, 

 the pure white variety, beggars all description. Its great 

 flower seems to be sculptured in the snowiest of transparent 

 marble. That stolid pretentious air which offends one — 

 offends me, at least — in the colored examples, becomes vir- 

 ginal dignity in this case." How vast is the difference in the 

 estimation which collectors put upon varieties of this plant is 

 shown by the fact that " plants of the same size range from 

 three shillings and six pence to thirty-five guineas." 



With regard to Cypripediums Mr. Boyle states a fact that will 

 probably be new to American readers. C. spectabile, he says, 

 growls " like any water-weed in the bogs of New Jersey where 

 it is frozen hard, roots and all, for several months of the year." 

 But transplanted to England, "very few survive the season 

 . . . even if protected." The fine specimens seen at English 

 flower shows in the spring " are imported in a dry state." It 

 is the damp of the English winter that they cannot bear, and 

 the same thing is true of Canadian and Siberian species. "I 

 saw in Russia, and brought home a magnificent species, tall 

 and stately, bearing a great golden flower which is not known 

 in ' the trade ; ' but they all rotted gradually. Therefore 1 do 

 not recommend these temperate varieties which the inexpe- 

 rienced are apt to think so easy. At the same cost others 

 may be brought which, coming from the highlands of hot 

 countries, are used to a moderate damp in winter." At the 

 end of his article Mr. Boyle sums up the requisites for the cul- 

 tivation of good Cool Orchids : "These plants ask nothing in 

 return for the measureless enjoyment they give but light, 

 shade from the summer sun, protection from the winter frost, 

 moisture — and brains." 



Turning now to those parts of his article which speak of the 

 difficulties attendant upon the importation of South American 

 Orchids, we find them bristling with striking anecdotes, 

 familiar doubtless to the practiced amateur, but causing- the 

 novice to wonder, with Mr. Boyle himself, how Orchids can 

 possibly be as cheap as they are. Accounts of the difficult and 

 dangerous journeys of the collectors who are sent out by the 

 great English Orchid firms read like paragraphs from Jules 

 Verne's novels rather than sober statenients of enterprises un- 

 dertaken for commercial reasons; and the list of the men who 

 have perished by accident or disease is long and pitiful read- 

 ing. Even after the Orchids have been found, secured and 

 brought down to the coast they must be transported by water 

 to a port where a European steamer can be had, and the at- 

 tendant dangers are then as great to the plants as to their 

 guardian. And when the port is finally reached it may very 

 well be that the collector " has to wait days in that sweltering- 

 atmosphere for the Royal Mail steamer; and when it comes in 

 his troubles do not cease, for the stowage of the precious cargo 

 is vastly important. On deck it will almost certainly be injured 

 by salt water. In the hold it will ferment. Amidships it is apt 

 to be baked by the engine-fire. Whilst writing I learn that Mr. 

 Sander has lost 267 cases by this latter mishap, as is supposed. 

 So utterly hopeless is their condition that he will not go to die 

 expense of overhauling them." And in this case the charge 

 for freight alone from South America had been ^750. Mr. 

 Roezl, a famous and experienced collector, we are also told, 

 once took special paii-is with a "unique shipment" of Masde- 

 7iallia Schlimii. " It contained 27,000 plants of this species, 

 representing at that time a fortune. Among the 27,000 two lit- 

 tle bits survived when the cases were opened." As for the 

 difficulties attendant upon actual collecting Mr. Boyle says 

 that the Roraima Mountain is getting to be regarded as "quite 

 easy travel for the Orchid-hunter nowadays. If I mention that 



the canoe-work on this route den-iands thirty-two portages, 

 thirty-two- loadings and unloadiiigs of the cargo, the reader 

 can judge what a 'difficult' road must be." And to secure 

 Odontoglossiiin Haliii ci\one the "ardent explorer must march 

 in the bed of a torrent and on the face of a precipice alter- 

 nately for an uncertain period of time, with a river to cross 

 about every day ; and he has to bring back his loaded mides 

 or Indians over the same pathless waste." 



Correspondence. 



How a City Gained a Park. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The city of Bridgeport is spreading rapidly into the 

 coimtry, and fortunately the suburbs are in many cases pro- 

 vided with shaded streets and open gardens. But the distinc- 

 tive name of "The Park City" has been given to it, not for its 

 rural surroundings, but on account of the two parks of strik- 

 ingly different characters which it now possesses. 



The one. Seaside Park, secured by the wisdom and gen- 

 erosity of various citizens, lying along the Sound shore, where 

 it curves with a particularly beautiful line, has long been en- 

 joyed as a fashionable resort by the rich, and as a blessed 

 breathing place by the poor ; and it has before it a future 

 hardly realized by those who do not know that it is but the 

 starting-point of a system of seaside boulevards which will 

 extend uninterruptedly from Bridgeport to South Norwalk, if 

 the present design is carried out. 



The other, Beardsley Park, lying several miles distant on 

 the east side of the town, is the gift of one public-spirited man 

 on the condition that the city improve it for the people, mak- 

 ing yearly appropriations to that end. 



The appropriations are comparatively small, and progress, 

 therefore, necessarily slow, but already about fifty acres are 

 improved to a degree that invites the attention of the public to 

 this new possession. The gift comprises many acres more of 

 charmingly undulating land, and as the work continues all 

 these will be included. 



There is a pretty story about the inspiration of this gift, 

 which should be more widely known. It seems that the good 

 man who gave this park to Bridgeport had been for some time 

 impressed by the need of such a health-giving resort in that 

 portion of the town, and for that class of people who could not 

 drive to the delightful but remote "Seaside." 



He had been vaguely intending to give such a park to the 

 city as a sort of monument or memorial — at all events, to give 

 it. But one hot summer day, a holiday, going into town from 

 his farm, he saw a poor woman and some little children enter 

 a field and establish themselves under a tree, apparently for a 

 picnic. Knowing the owner of the field, and seeing him at 

 that moment approach, the good man determined to remain 

 and see the result of the owner's visit. As he anticipated, the 

 little picnic party was ejected, though doing no harm at the 

 time, and as they went sadly away the vaguely benevolent in- 

 tentions of the spectator were instantly crystalized into a pur- 

 pose which was acted upon at once. The result of that day's 

 disappointment to the mother and her children was that the 

 beautiful Beardsley Park is open freely and perpetually to 

 them, and to all who, like them, long for the peace and pastoral 

 beauty which "restore the soul " and give to the poor as well 

 as to the rich the sense of sharing in the general beneficence of 

 the bountiful seasons as they pass. All that can be done to 

 make Beardsley Park comfortable and delightful for just this 

 class is being done slowly and well, while here, also, the fine, 

 solid roads will for ages invite those who ride or drive to 

 enjoy this exquisite rural park which so happily places a wide 

 barrier just here between the onward march of the city and 

 one of the loveliest of inland views. Elizabeth Bullard. 



Bridgeport, Conn. , 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In Vol. I., page 107, of Garden and Forest, I gave the 

 dates of the first appearance of Hepatica triloba in the same 

 locality in the woods of Newton, Massachusetts, during the 

 last twenty-six years; the first blossonis being, as it would 

 seem, a fair criterion of the atmospheric conditions attending 

 the early months of these different years. This year the first 

 flowers were picked, on the same spot, on the 17th of March, 

 and were fairly in blossom and were not forced into bloom by 

 removal to a warm room. I again transcribe from my mem- 

 orandum the dates for the last ten years : 



March 



2d, 



1880. 



April 



3d, 



1 881. 



March 



5 th, 



1882. 



April 



1st, 



1883. 



April 



13th, 



1884. 



April 



March 



Marcli 



March 



March 



15th, 

 i8th, 

 2 1st, 

 23d, 

 17th, 



1886. 



1887. 

 1888. 

 i88q. 



