June 26, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



251 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUULISHED 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-UFFICH AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles ?— The Proposed Statue in Bowling Green 251 



Rhododendrons in a Natural Wood. {With figure.) -52 



cEnotlieras on the Prairies Pro/eisor F. A. U'atigh. 253 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. IVatson. 253 



Plant Notes ■■ ■ 254 



Cultural Department: — Notes about Annuals Rahert Otmeroti. 255 



The Rock-garden T. D. Hatfield. 256 



Strawberry Culture E. O. Orfet. 257 



The Vegetable Garden IV. N. Craig. 257 



Correspondence :— New Fields in California Fruit-growing, 



William M. Tisdale. 25S 



Meetings of Societies:— Convention o£ Nurserymen at Indianapolis 239 



R ecent Publications 2.39 



Notes 260 



Illustration : — Rliododendrons in a Natural Wood, at Westbrook, Long Island, 



Fig. 37- •■ =55 



The Proposed Statue in Bowling Green. 



THREE or four months ago a gentleman of this city 

 wrote to the Park Commissioners that he had a 

 bronze stat;-ue of one of his direct ancestors and of heroic 

 size — it is really six feet two inches high — which he was 

 ready to present to the city, with an appropriate pedestal, 

 and for which he would prepare a proper foundation on the 

 condition that it should he placed in Bowling Green. Very 

 obviously the commissioners should have refused to accept 

 the statue with this proviso. They have been placed in 

 charge of the public grounds of this city and have assumed 

 the responsibility, not only of protecting them from the 

 intrusion of objects which may detract in any way from 

 their value, but to guard them from any change which does 

 not directly add to their value as parks. It is quite as 

 much a question of art to decide upon a site for a statue as 

 to pass upon its intrinsic merit. Any statue which has 

 sufficient artistic value to justify its purchase by the city, 

 or its acceptance by the city as a gift, deserves to be placed 

 where it can be seen to the best advantage. On the other 

 hand, it ought not to be admitted into any of the city's public 

 grounds unless it can be placed so as to add in some way 

 to their beauty or usefulness. 



As we remember, the obelisk was accepted with a pro- 

 viso as to its location by the commissioners, and it was 

 placed where it now stands without any consultation with 

 a paid and responsible landscape architect connected with 

 the department. The President of the Park Board at that 

 time stated that the public-spirited gentleman who brought 

 the monument to this country desired that it should be 

 placed on a knoll in the park, and this individual prefer- 

 ence was offered as a sufficient reason for erecting it on its 

 present site. Now, an obelisk is impressive because of its 

 definite contrast between the vertical and the horizontal, 

 and the Egyptians who invented this form of architectural 

 ornament never thought of placing one on an eminence. 

 Indeed, a memorial was signed by many of the leading 

 artists of the city, when it was being moved from the 

 vessel which brought it from Egypt, asking that it should 

 be placed in the plaza at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the 

 park, where it would stand on absolutely level ground. 



from which it could be viewed at different distances, and 

 where it could be approached from every side, and where its 

 full meaning could be brought out. As it now stands there 

 is nothing to emphasize its rigid uprightness. It loses its 

 austere expression from its connection with the flowing 

 lines of the ground on which it stands. Of course, it is no 

 addition to the beauty of the park. Besides this, many 

 beautiful trees were cut away to make room for it, a stretch 

 of green turf was interrupted, and the top of a beautiful 

 hillock which made in itself a delightful picture was 

 shaved off to make i-oom for a work that was altogether 

 alien to its surroundings. In short, the park itself suffered 

 serious damage, and the obelisk has lost its dignity and 

 impressiveness because it was improperly set. 



For many years there has been a committee to pass upon 

 the merits of statues which it was proposed to erect in our 

 public grounds, and we believe that the present commission 

 has transferred this authority of selection to the National 

 Sculpture Societ)'. In this way the parks are now reasonably 

 fortified against a promiscuous invasion of bad statues.- 

 But, very plainly, the decision of the question where any 

 statues are to stand must finally rest with the Park Com- 

 missioners. One of the reasons for their official existence 

 is the protection of the parks from being desolated by the 

 partisans of special ideas on special occasions. A park 

 board has no right to consider the preference of individuals 

 as against the rights of all the people. Whenever the park 

 board is importuned to admit any alleged work of art, or 

 any building for a special purpose, or to devote a part of 

 its grounds to a specific use, their attitude at such a crisis 

 should invariably be one of conservatism and respectful 

 criticism. ' There always will be found persons who are 

 willing to celebrate themselves or their ancestors by 

 givijig the city a statue, provided they can have it set up 

 in some prominent place. There always will be public- 

 spirited citizens who are carried away by some novelty 

 which they wnsh to introduce in the parks. But the park 

 board stands against the preferences and demands of indi- 

 viduals and of special classes and for the greatest useful- 

 ness to all the people. And when it is considered that the 

 beauty of the parks is their highest use, it is plain that 

 such a point as the location of a statue should be decided 

 by some final court, in whose taste and training and expe- 

 rience and artistic sympathy the people can repose confi- 

 dence. Commissioners are rarely chosen for their ability 

 to decide questions of art, but, as the settlement of such 

 questions must finally rest with them, their plain duty is 

 to have a permanent and paid officer in such matters to 

 whom they can refer these questions with confidence. 



As for the statue of Colonel Abraham De Peyster, which 

 it is proposed to set up in Bowling Green, it may be said 

 that the former advisory committee of the park has pro- 

 nounced it " a fairly successful work." Colonel De Peyster 

 was Mayor of this city two hundred years ago, but it may 

 be doubted whether he is a figure of sufficient historical 

 importance to justify the devotion of a part of such valua- 

 ble ground as Bov\'ling Green to his memory, even if the 

 statue in itself were of the highest artistic excellence. 

 Probably not one out of a thousand persons who pass 

 the site of the statue every day has ever heard of his name. 

 Again, this is one of the oldest open spaces in the city, and 

 it stands at the beginning of the city's great thoroughfare. 

 If any consistent scheme for beautifying the city with 

 works of historical or artistic significance is e\'er adopted 

 it will be a point of singular value. It is even now one of the 

 most interesting sp-ots in the city for its traditions, and its 

 grass and water and trees make an attractive picture even 

 if it had no such associations. The President of the Na- 

 tional Sculpture Society has put on record his opinion 

 that no portrait statue should be placed there, but that 

 the ground should be reserved for some more impressive 

 work if it is to serve any other purpose than the one it now 

 so satisfactorily fills. However that may be, it was the 

 plain duty of the Park Board, when the Bowling Green site 

 for the statue was suggested, to refer the matter to their 



