2l8 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 379. 



ard ; Lizzie Cannell, the handsomest of all dark ones, with 

 edges white and crimped ; Madame Thibaut, another crimped 

 kind, delicately lilotched and penciled with roseand white, with 

 crimped petals, and the handsomest ot its color ; Beacon, one of 

 the showiest — its standard petals are very deeply blotched ; 

 Ophelia, a rosy purple, and very distinct, the most striking one 

 of tlie group. The old Pelargonium Rollissoni must have a 

 word. It is a distinct-looking species, with crimped, woolly 

 and odorous foliage and a multitude of handsome umbellate 

 corymbs of small rosy purple flowers. Show Pelargoniums, 

 when out of bloom, should be ripened well by withholding 

 water to some extent. In autumn Mr. Harris stores his |)lants 

 in a cool light place where they are kept dry. In midwinter they 

 should be pruned into shape, potted and started into a slow 

 but substantial growth for spring-flowering. The same plants 

 may be submitted (o this treatment for several years. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Lewisia rediviva. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have just returned from a visit to the experiment sta- 

 tion near Paso Robles, where I was interested at finding a 

 small colony of the beautiful Lewisia rediviva. It grows on 

 the high valley land or rolling plain, about two miles east of 

 the Salinas River, at an elevation of eight or nine hundred 

 feet above the sea. The soil is a hard clay and rather sterile, 

 and the plant has not been seen anywhere else in that region. 

 I am not aware that the Lewisia has before been reported 

 south of Monte Diablo in the valleys of California, but I may 

 be mistaken in this, as I am not familiar with its literature, 

 and, indeed, took the plant to Professor Greene for identifica- 

 tion. It interested the Botanical Department of the LTniversity 

 exceedingly, as it is really a plant belonging to the mountains 

 and to colder districts. Professor Brewer found it on the sum- 

 mit of Monte Diablo, and it extends northward to British 

 Columbia, and east to Montana, Utah and Arizona. 



A number of people in Paso Robles who are fond of gar- 

 dening have moved some hundreds of Lewisia-plants, while 

 in full bloom, and set them out to form edgings. The Lewisia 

 maintains its reputation of being exceedingly tenacious of life, 

 and the large fusiform roots have gone on growing under a 

 hot sun without seeming to suffer in any manner. I saw plants 

 which bore twelve or fifteen large pale pink flowers apiece, 

 and they form a very attractive border at this season. The 

 small colony alluded to is already decimated for the use of 

 such gardens, Ijut the plant grows readily from seed, and is so 

 hardy a perennial that the settlement, though only a few hun- 

 dred feet across, will hardly be destroyed. 



Berkeley, Calif. Chixrhs H. Sliinn. 



Taxation for Municipal Iiiiprovements. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your editorial of April loth, on the proposed new 

 system of parks for Essex County, alludes to a method of pay- 

 ing for such improvements which deserves more attention 

 and stricter observance. You say " the valuations of property 

 facing the new parks and parkways will lie sure to advance 

 sufficiently to more than pay for the improvement." Of course 

 they will, and little reflection is needed to show that here is 

 the natural fund which ought to be taken for every such im- 

 provement. That it is ample the history of all improvement 

 abundantly testifies. But is it so taken ? Consider what val- 

 uation increases with improvements of this kind. If I own a 

 plot of unimproved property facing the park, valued at, say, 

 $5,000, and my neighbor has a similar plot with $5,000 worth 

 of improvements on it, it is manifest that, while he will have 

 twice the amount of taxes to pay that I have, his property has in- 

 creased no more in value than mine. His dwelling, fences, 

 drains, etc., are not one whit more valuable because of the 

 proximity of the park, but they are assessed as if they had an 

 added value. Thus, even on the assumption that real estate 

 is assessed at its true value, an inequality and injustice arises, 

 which is added to by the fact that unimproved real estate is 

 notoriously undervalued for purposes of taxation. Does not 

 this go to show that in levying taxes for public parks and other 

 such desirable improvements, the increased value of the land 

 ought to be the basis of taxation, and improvements ex- 

 empted ? Any other system is, practically, a fine on the men 

 who put their land to use. Your recommendatio.ns are in the 

 line of sound public policy. You should go further and de- 

 clare against a system of taxation which undLily burdens one 

 class of property-owners for the benefit of another. 



New York. Liif/ier G. Saiid. 



[So complicated a problem as the adjustment of taxes 



for municipal improvements can hardly be settled offhand 

 by looking at it from a single point of view. No doubt, 

 the property which faces Central Park has increased in 

 value since the park was planned by an amount equal to 

 the original cost of the land condemned for the park. But, 

 of course, these property-owners were not the only ones 

 whose land was enhanced in value by the park. In the 

 case of Essex County, the entire population voted for the 

 parks. These will minister to the health and pleasure of all 

 the people, and lands belonging to many of them will rise in 

 value, even when it does not lie directly along the bound- 

 ary of any new park. Almost every community has its 

 own way of doing things, which depends partly on law, 

 partly on precedent, and partly on tradition. A few years 

 ago a wide parkway was built in a New Jersey city, which 

 greatly increased the value of that portion of the city it 

 traversed. All the land which was taken was valued by 

 commissioners, and the owners of this land were paid what 

 was considered its full value. In many cases, where a 

 narrovi? margin was taken from a lot, it was naturally sup- 

 posed that the remainder would be worth more when the 

 road was built than th« entire lot was originally ; but the 

 courts would not allow any deduction from the assessed 

 damages to the land on account of this probable better- 

 ment, as it was held that no one knew how much the in- 

 creased value would be, and it was unjust to tax values 

 which only existed in the future. 



As to the point of taxing the land only and not the im- 

 provements on the land, it may be said that in most cities 

 where new streets are opened or sewers built taxes are 

 levied by the front foot, without any regard to the value of 

 the dwellings on the property. It may be worth while to 

 note here that, in Baltimore, parks are paid for by taxing 

 the gross receipts of street railways. From an article 

 in The Municipality n/id County it appears that the 

 greater proportion of the cities in the United States do not 

 assess adjacent or abutting property for park purposes. 

 Boston has an odd system of assessing lands about parks 

 within distances varying from two hundred to six hundred 

 feet. In Brooklyn, Prospect Park was made a charge 

 against twelve wards, which composed the old city. Kan- 

 sas City has a system of submitting to a jury the deter- 

 mination of what assessments against property adjacent 

 to parks are equitable. St. Paul assesses sixty per cent, 

 against adjacent property, the distances from the parks 

 wherein such assessments are made depending on circum- 

 stances. In Denver there is an attempt to divide the city 

 into park districts, each one of which shall be assessed for 

 its own public grounds. Altogether, it looks improbable 

 that any uniform system of levjnng taxes for park improve- 

 ments can be expected in this country — for some time, at 

 least. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



How to Know the Wild Flowers. By Mrs. William Starr 

 Dana. Illustrated by INIarion Satterlee. Revised and en- 

 larged edition. Charles Scribner & Sons. 



The popularity of Mrs. Dana's book is proved by the 

 fact that the demand for it has justified an edition which 

 contains fifty per cent, more plates than the old one, so 

 that in this volume a hundred and sixty-four of our wild 

 flowers are figured, and new descriptions of flowers have 

 been added until nearly five hundred flowers are now 

 described. Of course, the disadvantages of a book like 

 this for reference are evident. When a comparatively small 

 number of flowers are selected for identification, among 

 the great number of those omitted there are sure to be 

 many about which the learner will find himself hungry for 

 information. Plants so common as to be generally recog- 

 nized, very rare plants and those with inconspicuous flow- 

 ers, are among the classes that are rejected, but all these 

 phrases are comparative. The well-known flowers of one 

 locality may not be familiar in another, and the novice is 

 quite likely at the outset to come upon a flower that has 



