June 5, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



265 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles ; — Fairmount Park, — Death of Dr. Reichenbach 265 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China. Ill IV. B. Heinsley. 266 



New or Little Known Plants : — The Carolina Hemlock. — Syringa Amuren- 



sis C. S. S. 267 



Cultural Department: — The Summer Propagation of Slirubs, 



Jackson Daivson. 267 



The Bush Honeysuckles Professor y. L. Btidd. 268 



Notes on Wild Flowers F, H. Horsford. 269 



Window Ferneries IV. H. Taplin. 270 



About Melons W. F. Massey. 270 



Garden Field-labels Professor L. H. Bailey. 270 



Heuchera Sanguiiiea.^Papaver bracteatum roseum E. O. Orpet. 271 



Orchid Notes JoJm Weathers, F. Goldring. 272 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum f. 272 



Recent Publications 273 



Periodical Literature 273 



Correspondence: — Squirrels and Conifers Professor Wm. Trclease. 274 



Viiieland, New jersey .?. 274 



Exhibitions: — Rhododendrons in Boston 275 



Notes 276 



Illustrations: — The Home of the Carolina Hemlock 269 



Syringa Amurensis, Fig. 112 271 



Fairmount Park. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK in Philadelphia illustrates two 

 thing-s : the importance of careful preliminary studies 

 of the ground on the part of a landscape-gardener of expe- 

 rience and training before an urban park is located, and 

 the necessity of devising some better method than now 

 exists for the permanent management of parks in Ameri- 

 can cities. 



Fairmount Park is one of the largest urban pleasure- 

 grounds in the world. The site along the banks of the 

 Schuylkill River is in itself beautiful ; the surface is undu- 

 lating and diversified, the soil is excellent, and there is no 

 American park, with the exception, perhaps, of Druid Hill 

 Park in Baltimore, which can show such noble trees — some 

 natural, especially Tulip-trees and White Oaks, and some 

 planted, for several fine old country places were embraced 

 in the park. The drive along the Schuylkill in the East 

 Park is certainly in itself, in spite of many disfigurements, 

 one of the noblest pleasure drives in existence, while the 

 narrow gorges of the Wissahickon supply much that is 

 charmingly natural and delightful. But Fairmount Park, 

 in spite of its great size and of all these natural advantages, 

 cannot be considered successful, either from a practical or 

 from an artistic point of view ; and no trace of a master 

 mind can be found in its location or in its treatment. 

 Much of its value to the people of Philadelphia is lost, be- 

 cause of its remoteness and difiiculty of access from the 

 centre of population ; and the inadequacy and inconven- 

 ience of all the park approaches are serious injuries to the 

 appearance of the city and a real drawback to the proper 

 enjoyment of the park. The great drive in the East Park 

 is reached through a narrow and rather obscure street filled 

 with the tracks of a surface road, the immediate entrance to 

 the drive itself being through the narrow arches of a railroad 

 bridge. Railroad lines skirt the park in all directions. One of 

 the main drives from the West Park to the Schuylkill plunges 

 down a steep hill to a railroad grade-crossing of the 

 most dangerous character, while the entrance to the beau- 

 tiful Wissahickon drive is under a railroad bridge. Rail- 



road tracks separate the West Park from the banks of the 

 river, which is crossed by a railroad bridge within the park 

 limits. 



Had the people of Philadelphia when the spirit first 

 moved them to possess a park called upon some man of 

 experience and ability to advise them about its location 

 and to propose a scheme of approaches and a system under 

 which extensions of the city should be built, it is safe to 

 say that they would have had a much more convenient 

 and satisfactory park than they have at present ; and that 

 the cost of the advice would have been saved many hun- 

 dred times over. The greatest landscape-gardener might 

 not have succeeded in overcoming all the railroad difficul- 

 ties in the situation, but it is safe to say that a man of 

 adequate experience in the treatment of such problems 

 could have brought the park into closer and more satisfac- 

 tory relations with the centre of population than now exist 

 and thus increased its value and usefulness. The mistake 

 of not taking proper advice in the location of the park 

 lands was repeated when it came to construction ; and 

 much of the work done within the park is not of a 

 character to develop all its great natural beauties. 



But Fairmount Park as it is now located cannot be 

 changed, and it is not probable that the general scheme 

 long ago adopted for laying it out will ever be greatly 

 modified. Of the past history of the park, except as a 

 warning to other cities, it is therefore less important to 

 speak than of its present and future condition. The most 

 casual examination shows that Fairmount Park is in a 

 miserable and alarming condition. The roads are neglected 

 and often badly gullied ; the grass is totally uncared for, 

 uncut, filled with weeds, and often killed out over con- 

 siderable areas. The young plantations are choked with 

 weeds and apparently abandoned to their fate. Old trees 

 are perishing through neglect. The pretentious gardens in 

 the neighborhood of Horticultural Hall show what a few 

 years of neglect can accomplish, and how much out of place 

 such gardens are in public grounds. Horticultural Hall 

 itself, which contains some of the largest tropical plants 

 which can be seen in the United States, would delight 

 the enterprising and curious entomologist more than it can 

 the lover of plants. 



The condition of Fairmount Park shows what effect unre- 

 stricted political influence must have upon an organization 

 requiring such careful, intelligent and sustained manage- 

 ment as a great city park of rural character. It is merely 

 a question of time, unless the management of city parks can 

 be divorced from politics, when all their rural character and 

 real value will be destroyed. The politicians have their grasp 

 already firmly fixed upon Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and it is 

 hoping beyond hope to beheve that it can be rescued from 

 their clutches. The Central Park in this city has been 

 saved because there happens to be two or three men able to 

 realize what the park is, and what its value to the commun- 

 ity consists in, who have sufficient public spirit and sufficient 

 ability to enforce their views upon the public. But new 

 dangers threaten Central Park from all sides, and nothing 

 but extreme vigilance can ward off the attacks of selfish 

 and unscrupulous men. 



There is, however, a ray of light in the east, when 

 Mayor Hart's gallant and successful tight to take the Boston 

 Park Commission out of politics and to place it in the 

 hands of experienced men of affairs, brings hope to all 

 interested in the development of the new park system. 

 But even in Boston this change for the better cannot be 

 permanent under existing political methods, and there can 

 be no improvement in the management of American 

 urban parks until they are placed under the control of 

 bodies of men who are not dependent upon political pat- 

 ronage or political influence for their appointments, and 

 who will manage this trust in the interests of the public, 

 and not for the advancement of one or of the other politi- 

 cal party. Fairmount Park is a lamentable spectacle, but it 

 maybe made to point a moral, and to illustrate the dangers 

 of political influence in the management of parks. 



