October 2, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



469 



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, OCTOBER 2, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — A Crisis in the History of Central Park 469 



D rives and Walks. — IV 470 



Native Shrubs of California Professor Edward L. Greene. 470 



Notes uyjon Some North American Trees. — XII. . .Professor C. S. Sargent. 471 



Abies Fraseri. (With illustration.) C. S. S. a,T2. 



New or Little Known Plants :— Aster Herveyi. (With figure.) 472 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Goldring. 472 



Cultural Department : — Autumn in the Garden George H. Ellwanger. 474 



Stove-Plants in Flower at Kew W. Watson. 476 



Notes from a Northern Garden T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 476 



OrcViid Notes P. Goldring and A. Diminock. ^jj 



Aponogeton distachyon O. 477 



The Hybrid Montbretias W- 477 



The Forest :— Forest Pavilion at the Paris Exposition 478 



Recent Publications 47^ 



Periodical Literature 479 



COKRESPONDENCE :— The Palm-house at Allegheny City Park John Thorpe. 479 



Helonias buUata P. E. Boynton. 479 



Notes 480 



Illustrations : — Aster Herveyi, Fig. 131 473 



The Home of Abies Fraseri, Fig. 132 475 



A Crisis in the History of Central Park. 



THE Central Park of New York is one of the most 

 interesting' creations of American genius. No other 

 city in the world has within its borders a work of landscape- 

 art which equals it in originality of conception, in sim- 

 plicity and beauty. It is worthy of the noblest civic pride, 

 and it especially deserves affection and jealous care, be- 

 cause no other pubHc work of the city approaches it in 

 dignity or value. If New York is to have a great Exposi- 

 tion in 1892, nothing in the display could be more attractive 

 to visitors than this park arrayed in all its sumrner loveli- 

 ness. Nothing more distinctively or characteristically 

 American can be imagined than the upper portion of the 

 park, where the broad, free sweep of hill and valley per- 

 mitted a more natural treatment of the original features of 

 the land than was possible among the frequent narrow 

 ridges of rock in the portion south of the reservoir The 

 gently undulating meadows, with their perfect turf; the 

 projecting point of rock, with its clustering Pin Oaks ; the 

 recesses in the wood border, where the limits of the green- 

 sward are lost in shadows ; the sense of mystery and 

 spaciousness which is given by the skillfully broken line of 

 foliage which encircles the whole; the natural forest which 

 sweeps up the long slope toward thejiorthern boundary : 

 all these constitute a picture of pastoral rest and peace 

 which has no rival in the heart of a great city. 



It is this most delightful portion of the park, and as much 

 more of it as they may consider necessary, which the Com- 

 mittee on Sites have voted to cover up with carpentry. 

 Even if it were probable that the wounds thus made could 

 be healed within a reasonable period, this would mean the 

 obliteration of the most beautiful bit of scenery on Man- 

 hattan Island at precisely the tiine when all the world is 

 invited here, and it would advertise the vandalism of a city 

 which failed to appreciate its noblest possession. But the 

 hope that only temporary damage would be inflicted by 

 such an invasion is a delusion. There can be no difference 

 of opinion among persons fainiliar with park work as to the 

 probable extent of injury to the park, if the proposed build- 

 ings, with their necessary approaches and surroundings, 

 are placed on the North Meadows. Not one of them 

 will dissent from the view of Mr. Olmsted, who writes : 



"I am positive that no such structure could be provided 

 for without involving a devastation that could never be 

 repaired. I do not believe that it could be done without 

 an enonnous waste of the value of the park for the pur- 

 poses to which it has been dedicated, and for which it has 

 been prepared at great outlay." But we are not left to con- 

 jecture in this matter. Mr. Russell Thayer, who was Chief 

 Engineer and Superintendent of Fairmount Park at the 

 time of the Centennial Exposition, has written these words 

 of warning, which are of singular value, because they are 

 a record of actual experience : 



In my opinion, it is impossible to erect the large structures 

 required without destroying great numbers of the finest trees 

 in the park, and, at the same time, doing almost irretrievable 

 damage to the present shape of the grounds. Foundations 

 will be required for all the structures, which will completely 

 alter the present contour of a great portion of the present beau- 

 tiful surface of the park and make it almost impossible ever 

 to restore it to its present condition. The greater portion of 

 the drainage system of the parlc would, of course, be destroyed, 

 and, in many places, it would be necessary to level off the 

 small hills and fill in the valleys in order to provide proper 

 grades for the floors of the larger buildings. Besides the de- 

 struction of the greater portion of the trees, which would una- 

 voidably interfere with the proper laying out of the buildings 

 of the Exhibition, most of the shrubbery in the portion of the 

 park devoted to the object would necessarily be destroyed. In 

 fact, it may be stated that the greater portion of Central Park 

 would be so changed after this Exhibition had been held 

 therein that it would not be recognized as a public park. . . . 

 The section of Fairmount Park occupied by the Centennial Ex- 

 hibition was, previous to that eveirt, almost totally unimproved, 

 the greater portion Ijeing merely farm-lands. And even there, 

 after the removal of the hundreds of buildings which com- 

 posd the Exhibition, the grounds were a perfect desert of clay 

 and gravel, upon which not a blade of grass could be made to 

 grow for several years. Therefore, I am obliged to state as my 

 candid opinion that, if the Exhibition is held in a highly culti- 

 vated park like the Central Park, the damage thereto will Ije 

 almost incalculable. 



The park is still young, but it has taken thirty years 

 to grow into the beauty which now invests it, and a gen- 

 eration would be needed to restore it after the Exposition 

 converted it into a desert. Oaks and Hickories, Chestnuts 

 and Beeches, like those which were growing in the natural 

 wood before the park was planned, can be replaced only 

 after years of patient waiting. But what ground is there 

 for hope that any resolute effort would be made to restore 

 the park. If there is not enough public spirit in the city to 

 preserve it now, when in the prime and freshness of its 

 beauty, what encouragement would there be to begin over 

 again, with the very surface of the ground scarified and 

 blasted, until not one of its original features could be 

 recognized } Even if any attempt at restoration were made 

 it would soon be abandoned for some new invasion, be- 

 cause the clamor for space to be used for one purpose or 

 another will grow louder as the population becomes more 

 dense. The probabilities are that if the park is thrown 

 open to this celebration, it will be left an entirely different 

 and inferior work, and that its most impressive landscape 

 features will be obliterated foreven 



We cannot believe that the city is to suffer such a wanton 

 spoliation, or that the park is doomed to ruin long before 

 it has attained its mature beauty or has approached the 

 full measure of its usefulness. When the intelligence and 

 public spirit of New York have been appealed to on capital 

 occasions, they have never failed to repel any assault that 

 threatened the park with serious injury. They have 

 erected barriers of precedent all around it against every form 

 of destructive intrusion, and, foreseeing that these bari'iers 

 might be prostrated before some sudden gust of passion or 

 of enthusiasm, they have deliberately enacted a law to meet 

 such emergencies. Beyond all doubt the present dangers to 

 Central Park are more grave than any it has heretofore 

 encountered. Its very existence as a park is in jeopardy. 

 Bat the people of the city can be trusted to i^edcem their 

 solemn obligations to hand down this peerless pleasure- 

 ground without impairment to posterit)'. 



