432 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 401. 



might be planted in this way, where it would not offend 

 against the general design. Early in June last year we 

 spoke of the magnificent display made in the Arnold 

 Arboretum by a hundred and twenty varieties of th(; com- 

 mon Lilac all in flower at once. The collection occupying 

 a wide bed stretched for nearly a thousand feet along one 

 of the principal drives, the color of the flowers being well 

 brought out by the green turf on the slope behind them. 

 In a park system connected by broad parkways we might 

 have a thousand Forsythias massed in one place and a thou- 

 sand Spirteas in another, so as to make a more striking 

 effect at flowering-time than the same number of plants 

 would if scattered along individually. In a natural land- 

 scape one often sees ten thousand Red Buds or Flowering 

 Dogwoods, or Wild Crabs or Hawthorns scattered along 

 the edge of a forest, and, of course, the margins of woods 

 and parks can be treated in the same way. If we had 

 half a dozen meadows in a chain of parks, instead of bor- 

 dering them with a mixture of all these shrubs we could 

 plant each one mainly with a single kind which would 

 make a striking display at flowering-time. There is noth- 

 ing inharmonious in the landscape as seen from Roan 

 Mountain, with its foreground of a million Rhododendrons, 

 ajid it is the mass which gives impressiveness to the picture. 

 These are a few of the ways in which special attractions 

 could be provided, and many others might be suggested, 

 as, for example, the massing of trees or shrubs conspicuous 

 for the bright colors of their fruit or foliage in autumn, but 

 it must always be borne in mind that refreshment pure and 

 simple — refreshment for body and mind — is the primary 

 office of a public park, and although a pleasure-ground 

 may casually help students in botany or in other branches 

 of science, this advantage, as well as the striking displays 

 which can be provided for different seasons, should be 

 mere incidents that do not affect its fundamental purpose. 



The Floating Gardens of Mexico. 



THE famous chinampas, or floating gardens, are a 

 never-ending attraction of the City of Mexico, and 

 yet little is known to the general reader regarding these 

 curious places. Contrary to the general belief, the so- 

 called floating gardens of the present day do not float. 

 Many years suice, however — in fact, before the conquest 

 of Mexico by the Spaniards — the name was appropriate, 

 for real floating gardens were then common on the lakes 

 in the Valley of Mexico, especially in the immediate 

 vicinity of the city. But when Humboldt visited Mexico 

 (then called New Spain) in 1803, and Abbe Francesco 

 Clavigero (a missionary among the Indians) a few years 

 later, these peculiar possessions of the Mexicans were rap- 

 idly diminishing in number; and in 1826 Captain G. F. 

 Lyon informs us that "the little gardens constructed on 

 bushes or wooden rafts no longer exist in the immediate 

 vicinity of Mexico (the city) ; but I learned that some may 

 yet be seen at Inchimilco." * 



Abbe Francesco Clavigero describes the true floating 

 gardens as follows: "They plait and twist Willows and 

 roots of many plants, or other materials, together, which 

 are light, but capable of supporting the earth of the garden 

 firmly united. Upon this foundation they lay the light 

 bushes which float on the lake, and over all the mud and 

 dirt which they dravi^ from the bottom of the same lake, "f 



The common form was a quadrangle, and the average 

 size about fifteen by forty feet, although some of the largest 

 were a hundred feet in extent. Many of the latter con- 

 tained a small hut, in which the cultivator sometimes 

 lived ; one or more trees were also growing in the centre 

 of these largest plots. The earth used was extremely rich, 

 and this being kept in a moist state by its proximity to the 

 water (the elevation above it being not over a foot), the 

 gardens were productive of the choicest vegetables and 

 flowers, including also Maize. 



^- your7tiil of a Residence and Tour in ilie Repiibltr of hhwico in iS 

 t History 0/ Mexico, 1807, vol. ii. 



'.(>, vol. ii. 



The gardens of the present day are very different affairs. 

 They do not float, but, on the contrary, are composed of 

 strips of solid ground, usually about fifteen by thirty feet in 

 extent, although some are larger. These plots are inter- 

 sected by small canals, through which visitors are pro- 

 pelled in canoes. They are constructed by heaping up the 

 earth about two feet above the water. Willows, and some- 

 times Poplars or Silver Maples, also a species of Cane, are 

 often grown along their banks to keep them from washing 

 down. The nearest gardens to the City of Mexico are 

 along La Viga Canal, a public waterway about forty feet 

 in vi'idth and of varying depth. Its source is' Lake Texcoco 

 (formerly known as Tezcuco), two and a half miles west of 

 the city, from whence it flows to a point near the town 

 and then returns by a circuitous route to the lake. The 

 gardens are located where the ground is naturally low or 

 swampy. 



All produce the choicest vegetables, flowers, and not 

 infrequently fruits, in great abundance, embracing nearly 

 every variety grown in the United States, and others un- 

 known to us. Even in the ditches or little canals beautiful 

 Water lilies often line the way, while many of the plots are 

 one mass of vari-colored flowers, the most common ones 

 being Roses, Pinks, Geraniums, Poppies and Fuchsias. 

 The great variety of shades and the enormous size of many 

 kinds astonish and delight the visitor from more northern 

 latitudes. The Poppies are more attractive than our finest 

 Pseonies ; on certain feast days every one wears a wreath 

 made exclusivel}'' from these showy flowers. 



The quick and luxuriant growth of the products is mainly 

 due to the daily application of water, which is dipped up in 

 gourds attached to long swinging and pivoted poles, and 

 deftly thrown about. It is needless to say that the culti- 

 vator never depends upon rain. Some of the plots are 

 occupied by their owners and their families, who live in 

 charming little houses constructed of cane, and surrounded 

 by all their possessions, often including cows, horses, pigs 

 and chickens. La Viga Canal is almost impassable on 

 Sundays especially, and the same may be said of the beau- 

 tiful driveways along its tree-lined banks ; for Sunday in 

 the City of Mexico is the liveliest and, in many respects, 

 the busiest day of all the week. It is the great market day 

 as well as holiday, and a large number of the craft on La 

 Viga (see illustration on page 433) are loaded with produce 

 of every description from the gardens and elsewhere. The 

 visitor to the floating gardens seldom hides his disappoint- 

 ment on discovering that they are stationary, but he never 

 regrets having visited then; ; indeed, a day spent on the 

 canal and among the chinampas will long be remembered 

 as one of the pleasantest in Mexico. 



Little is certainly known regarding the origin of these 

 famous places. Abbe Clavigero says that when the Mexi- 

 cans were driven from their native country, ages in the 

 past, they were forced to occupy small islands in Lake 

 Texcoco, where " they ceased for some years to cultivate the 

 land, because they had none, until necessity and industry 

 together taught them to form movable fields and gardens, 

 which floated on the waters of the lake. . . . These 

 were the first fields v\'hich the Mexicans owned after the 

 foundation of Mexico." The custom may have originated 

 as above stated, but the following view, founded on a care- 

 ful examination of some of the oldest works on Mexico, is 

 advanced as the more probable, especially since the Mexi- 

 cans still retained and cultivated the watery plots after their 

 independence was again established. 



For long ages the Valley of Mexico was subjected to 

 devastating inundations. The valley is about sixty miles 

 in diameter, and is surrounded by a continuous wall of 

 hills and mountains. The waters collected on these flow 

 into six principal lakes. The plaza mayor, or great square, 

 in the City of Mexico is elevated a few inches only above 

 the nearest lake — Texcoco. In former times, a prolonged 

 rainy season caused the surplus waters in the other lakes — 

 which have an elevation of from three to thirteen feet 

 above the plaza mayor— to burst their banks and flow into 



