May 22, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



241 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUIiHSHEn WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Offick : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by . . • . 





Profes.sor C. 



S. Sakgc.nt. 





ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS 



MATTER AT THE POST 



■ OFFICE 



AT NEW YORK, N. 



V. 



NEW YORK, 



WEDNESDAY, 



MAY 



22, 



1889. 





TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles : — The Attack on the Niagara Reservation. — The Judicious 



and Systematic Thinning o£ Trees 241 



The Art of Gardening.— An Historical Sketch. V.^udea and Phoenicia, 



Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 242 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. IVatson. 243 



New or Little Known Plants : — Brodicea Palnieri (with figure) ...S. W. 244 



Yucca angustifolia (with illustration) . C. S. S. 244 



Cultural Department: — Artificial Manures for Vegetal>les, 



Professor IV. F. Massey. 244 



Early Tomatoes W H. Bull. 245 



Plants for Bedding W. H. Tallin. 246 



Isopyrum biternatum. — Gentiana acaulis.— Polemoniums. . . ..£. O. Orprt 246 



Notes from a Spring-Garden C. 246 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum C. S. S. 247 



Principles of Physiological Botany. XX Professor George Lincoln Goodale. 249 



Periodical Literature 2i;o 



Correspondence ; — A Public Loss IVaverly. 250 



The Home of the Bean William D. Ely. 250 



Pearl River Nurseries 5. 251 



Notes 252 



Illustrations : — Brodisea Palmeri, Fig. 107 ; 245 



Yucca angustifolia 247 



The Attack on the Niagara Reservation. 



LAST week we spoke of the constant watchfuhiess 

 that must be exercised by the pubHc-spirited por- 

 tion of the community, if city parks are to be saved 

 from invasion and spoliation. It should be added 

 that the same unceasing vigilance is needed for the pro- 

 tection of other reservations which a wise policy has set 

 apart for the general benefit and enjoyment of the people. 

 The conveyance of the Yosemite Valley to the National 

 Government, and subsequently to the State of Califor- 

 nia, was made to guarantee the protection of its won- 

 derful scenery from defacement and vulgarization and 

 to insure the preservation of its natural sublimity and 

 beauty throughout all coming time. But experience has 

 shown already that it is in constant peril from the attacks 

 of private greed. There are complaints, which seem well- 

 founded, of the slaughter of the game, the burning of 

 the woods and the mutilation of the marvelous cones 

 and basins of the geysers in the Yellowstone Park. In our 

 own state all efforts to save the Adirondack forests from 

 the destructive invasion of railroads have so far proved 

 unavailing ; and even the Niagara Reservation has within 

 a few days narrowly escaped from an attack upon its integ- 

 rity by a private corporation. 



The organized effort to preserve the scenery of the Falls 

 of Niagara, which resulted at last in the passage of an act 

 to make certain lands about the Falls free forever not only 

 to the people of New York but to all mankind, was one of 

 the most remarkable movements of recent times. From 

 the outset to the end, appeal was made directly to the most 

 elevated sentiments and the most generous emotions of the 

 people. They were invited to aid in the redemption of 

 Niagara, not because it would enhance the value of their 

 real estate, not even as a matter of local pride, but simply 

 because the unparalleled sublimity and loveliness of this 

 spot, with its power to kindle noble thought, was one of 

 the priceless possessions of the race. Many men of this 

 state and of all parts of the Union — men eminent in every 

 walk of life— made bold to declare in a memorial to the 

 Governor of New York and the Governor-General of 

 Canada that "objects of great natural beauty and grandeur 



are among the most valuable gifts which Providence has 

 bestowed upon men. The contemplation of them elevates 

 and informs the human understanding. They are instru- 

 ments of education. They conduce to the order of society. 

 They address sentiments which are universal. They draw 

 together men of all races, and thus contribute to the peace 

 of nations. " Upon this high level the campaign was con- 

 ducted throughout, and the victory was gained without a 

 single appeal to sordid or selfish motives. 



Notwithstanding the gratifying response of the people 

 and of their representatives in Alban)' to the efforts of the 

 public-spirited citizens who kept reiterating their appeal 

 through the press and in public addresses an'! private cor- 

 respondence until every intelligent reader of the state was 

 informed of the exact condition of Niagara, of its danger, and 

 of the reasonableness of the proposed legislation, it was al- 

 ways plain that an adequate appreciation of the value of the 

 scenery of Niagara was not universal. There were good 

 people who were willing to see the Reservation occupied 

 by museums and monuments, and who would encour- 

 age the erection of buildings for educational ends, because 

 they felt, in a vague way, that education was a good in 

 itself, and who would not be made to understand that any 

 unnecessary structures would help to mar the scenery, 

 which was the essential thing to be saved. Every attempt 

 at invasion of this sort has fortunately been repelled, and 

 it was hardly to be expected that any private corporation 

 would at this early day be bold enough to attempt the 

 capture of the Falls in order to use them as a water-power 

 for private advantage. It is a fact, however, that a bill 

 with this intent has been introduced into both houses of the 

 Legislature, and received a favorable committee report in 

 both cases. The Niagara Hydraulic Electric Coinpany 

 was authorized, so far as the committees of both houses 

 had the power, to build coffer-dains above the cataract, to 

 erect machinery, and to bore a tunnel under the bank of 

 the river. Of course it was claimed that all this would in- 

 flict no inj iiry upon ' 'the scenery, " but it is plain to every one 

 familiar with the way of similar corporations that this fac- 

 tory would have despoiled the spot of much of its natural 

 charm, and would have been a wanton defacement and 

 desecration which must have given pain to every beholder. 



The moral of all this is, as has been well expressed by 

 Mr. Harrison, the Secretary of the Niagara Association, 

 that "great wisdom and decision will always be required 

 adequately to protect the Niagara Reservation from the 

 encroachments of greed and vulgarity. In the nature of 

 things it can never be safe for the people of intelligence, 

 good taste and public spirit of the State of New York or of 

 the country at large to withdraw all oversight and inter- 

 est from the inanagement of the Reservation and the care 

 of the scenery about the Falls." This bill was checked 

 in the Senate, but other bills will be presented at every 

 session of the Legislature, and the friends of Niagara and 

 of American civilization must be in constant readiness to 

 meet attack if they hope to save what has been gained. 



There is rarely sufficient room near any tree for all the 

 seeds which it produces to germinate or for the seedlings 

 to develop into fully-grown individuals. Nature is lavish 

 in sowing seeds that the succession of the plant may be 

 insured. Most trees are gregarious, therefore, in extreme 

 youth, from habit transmitted through many generations. 

 They love company, and really thrive only when closely 

 surrounded Close planting is essential, therefore, to insure 

 the best results. As the trees grow, the weaker are pushed 

 aside and finally destroyed by the more vigorous, and the 

 plantation is gradually thinned. This is the operation 

 which is always going on in the forest when man does not 

 intervene. It is a slow and expensive operation, however, 

 and the result is attained by a vast expenditure of energy 

 and of good material. The strongest trees coine out vic- 

 torious in the end, but they hear the scars of the contest 

 through life. The long, bare trunk and the small and mis- 

 shapen head — the only form of a mature tree found in the 



