590 



Garden and Forest. 



[December ii, if 



specimens. As A J'ei/chii is a species which grows only 

 at high elevations on the mountains of central Japan and 

 far north on the other islands, there is no question of its 

 hardiness. It is, according to Rein, distinguished by its 

 red bark and by the brilliant bluish white color of the two 

 bands of stomata on the under surface of the leaves, which 

 give it a peculiar and striking appearance. It grows in its 

 native forests sixty to ninety feet high, with a diameter of 

 trunk which rarely exceeds two feet. The wood is de- 

 scribed as moderately librous, splitting easily, and as being 

 lighter and less elastic and firm than that of the Momi {A. 

 firma), and therefore not as highly prized. 



The result of a suit brought by the Government in the 

 United States Circuit Court, against John R. Hite and John 

 W. Snyder, shows the difficulty which exists in protecting 

 the forests on the public domain of the United States, and 

 the feelings of the people in western communities on sub- 

 jects relating to forest preservation. The defendants in this 

 suit are wealthy residents of Mariposa County, California, 

 who had, it was claimed, been engaged in cutting timber 

 unlawfully on Government land during the ten years 

 between 1877 and 1887. The amount of damages claimed 

 by the officers of the Government was $91,000. The stolen 

 timber was sawed in a mill owned by Hite, situated about 

 fifteen miles from Mariposa. There seems to have been no 

 great difference of opinion on the facts in the case, and the 

 Government had little difficulty in establishing the exist- 

 ence of the depredation and the employment of the timber. 

 The jury, after deliberating for five hours, returned a ver- 

 dict in favor of the Government, fixing the damages, how- 

 ever, at only $5,000. The letter of Mr. Shinn, on another 

 page of this issue, should be read in the light thrown upon 

 it by such incidents as this if we are to appreciate the full 

 dangers to which our western forests are exposed. 



S 



"Ornamental Planting'' in Paris. 



O frequent is the inappropriate use in our public and 

 private pleasure-grounds of formal flower-beds, isolated 

 exotic plants and bright-hued shrubs and trees, that the 

 untraveled observer may be pardoned if he concludes that 

 Americans must be exceptionally devoid of a feeling for true 

 landscape-art. But, no matter where his landing-place on 

 European soil may be, the American soon discovers that his 

 countrymen are not alone in their sins. There, as well as here, 

 he finds some parks, where the original "natural " scheme 

 has been keptfreefrom inharmonious details ; but many others 

 will be found where such a scheme is ruined by the tasteless 

 devices of so-called " ornamental planting." Indeed, certain 

 mistakes in treatment are common abroad, which have not 

 been introduced here, and injudicious planting is more con- 

 spicuous to-day in the pleasure-grounds of France and England 

 than in those of America. Perhaps the most striking instance 

 in point is that of the Pare Monceau in Paris — the most striking 

 because the park itself, if freed from its deforming details, 

 would be the loveliest of the smaller urban parks of the world. 



The Pare Monceau lies directly north of the Rond Point of 

 the Champs Elysees. When first laid out in 1778 by the land- 

 scape-gardener, Carmontel, it was well outside of the city 

 and was then considered one of the most beautiful " English 

 gardens" in France. What remains of it to-day leads one to 

 believe that its reputation was well deserved. A decree of the 

 Convention in the first years of republican rule ordered the 

 establishment, within its limits, of various buildings of public 

 utility, but its distance and lack of easy communication with 

 Paris preserved it from actual injury. After some changes of 

 ownership, in 1852 it was constituted public property. In sub- 

 sequent years the development of the now splendid quarter in 

 which it lies necessitated the reduction of its area to about twenty- 

 two acres, something less than one-half of its original size ; 

 but fhe reserved portion was carefully respected, and to it were 

 transferred certain interesting architectural features that had 

 stood elsewhere. The wide Boulevard de Courcelles now 

 runs along its straight northern side, where a gateway, in its 

 tall iron railing, opens between two porters' lodges. The 

 other three sides are curved in outline, and the southern, 

 where there are two smaller entrances, is encircled by a row 

 of fine residences each having its small garden . opening on 



the outer alley of the park, s But what gives especial beauty 

 and character to the Pare Monceau is the design of the two 

 chief approaches — on the east where it is entered from the 

 Avenue Velasquez, and on the west where the Avenue Van 

 Dyck leads out into the wide Avenue Hoche and thus directly to 

 the Arc de Triomphe. Each of these short avenues is planted 

 with double rows of fine Plane-trees, and Hanked by sumptuous 

 private houses, set back in large and shady gardens. Tiiey 

 form, therefore, approaches of much stateliness, where tlie 

 effect is semi-architectiu^al, semi-verdurous, and make an ad- 

 mirable transition between the rigidity of the ordinary streets 

 beyond and the " natural" design of the park itself. Where 

 each avenue meets the park, moreover, there is an elaborate 

 high barrier of wrought iron, profusely gilded, with great cen- 

 tral gates — works of the forger's art, which have become fa- 

 mous as among the very best produced in modern times. 

 Between these approaches runs the main roadway of the park, 

 gracefully curved, yet not so sinuous as to render it inappro- 

 priate as a portion of one of the main routes taken by persons 

 driving to and from the Bois de Boulogne. About midway of 

 its length it is crossed by another driveway running between 

 the northern and soutliern gates. Otherwise there is no pro- 

 vision for carriages, but a sufficient number of paths open up 

 all parts of the domain to the pedestrian, for whose use it is 

 primarily intended. These paths are most gracefully, yet 

 simply, laid out, and, passing now by open kiwns and again 

 under groves of tall trees, offer a grateful alternation of sun 

 and shade. It is no wonder that tlie nurses and babies of the 

 neighborhootl should crowd the park on pleasant days in win- 

 ter as well as spring ; and there is no spot where the lover of 

 landscape-gaixlening would be better content to saunter, were 

 it not for the superfluity of minor " decorative " features which 

 the taste of recent years has seen fit to introduce. No area of 

 its size could be more beautiful in the modeling of its surface, 

 sinking here into wide sloping lawns, between which runs the 

 main drive, and rising there in gentle banks crowned by 

 thickly planted trees, among which Planes, Horse-Chestnuts 

 and Maples are most conspicuous. No trees of remarkable 

 size or conspicuous beauty, as individuals, can, perhaps, be 

 found in the Pare Monceau ; the planting seems to have been 

 done with a view to the contrasting of broad, open stretches 

 with masses of foliage, rather than to the development of fine 

 individual specimens of tree-growth. But, given the area of 

 the ground and its special purpose as an umbrageous retreat 

 in the heart of the town, the scheme is a wise one ; and here 

 and there, where the lawns are largest, some isolated groups of 

 three or four large trees of the same kind stand where they 

 are most elTective. Through the thickly planted part of the 

 park runs a little stream, which, near a pretty grotto and 

 rockery, feeds an oval pond partly encircled by a Corinthian 

 colonnade. This once formed part of a rotunda begun by 

 Catherine de Medici at St. Denis ; and not far away from it is 

 the fragment of a straight colonnade which once formed part 

 of the old Hotel de Ville of Paris. These architectm-al relics 

 do not injure the natural effect of the park, for, thickly shaded 

 and draped with vines, they look like the remains of charming 

 pavilions or covered walks designed for the repose of the 

 pedestrian. They add, indeed, to the romantic elfect of the 

 scene and cannot be called inappropriate, since it is confess- 

 edly an in'ban and not a rural pleasure-ground. 



But hov>' the hand of the gardener has defaced this charming 

 park ! All along the borders of the roads and paths formal 

 flower-beds of large size and crude color are thickly dis- 

 tributed ; the rising banks are spotted over with little speci- 

 men evergreens, Palms and exotic flov\'ering plants of many 

 sorts ; the bases of the trees which stand on these banks are 

 smothered in big beds of Geraniums or tuberous Begonias ; 

 ail immense bed of purple-leaved shrubs, surrounded by sickly 

 white-leaved Negundos, lies on one side of the main drive, 

 forming a discordant spot ; the isolated trees on the lawns are 

 encircled by flower-beds, and even the isolated exotic plants 

 which are placed near them — as if they were not obtrusive and 

 discordant enough in themselves — are surrounded in the same 

 way. A tuft of Pampas grass, which would be far better 

 away, is rendered doubly bad by its ring of Geraniums, or a 

 wide-leaved Palm overshadows a circle of crimson Coleus. 



But worst of all, perhaps, is the way in which the shrubberies 

 are treated. Instead of the shrubs being allowed to droop 

 naturally in a varied outline upon the grass, they are trimmed 

 to allow a flower-bed about a foot wide to run in a straight line 

 along their base, and this bed is filled with rigid rows of 

 gaudily colored plants. Nothing could be more uncalled for 

 than this intrusion of "ornamental" plants between the grass 

 and the shrubs, which, if left to themselves, might effect a 

 beautiful union ; and nothing could be worse than the look of 



