December i8, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



501 



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 VORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles " — Municioal Art 501 



The Pepper-tree. (With figure.) 502 



Some Notes on Timber-culture ; J^, A. lyniig/i. 502 



Vaccinium vacillans with White Fruit Rez'. E. J. Hill. 503 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 503 



Plant Notes; — Chama:-doiea glauciFolia. (With fiL;Lire.) 504 



Cultural Department: — The Selection of Carnation Cuitint^s.-Zo^/ir^i/ Wight, =06 



Violet Notes ." IV. N. Crajg. 506 



Seasonable Garden Notes IV. B. Endirott. 507 



Notes on Begonias Robert Cameron. 50S 



Correspondence ;— Schools of Horticulture Louis Bevier. 508 



R ECENT Publications 509 



Notes 510 



Illustrations ; — Branch of Pepper-tree, Schinus Molle, with ben-ies, Fig. 69 . . . 505 

 Chameedorea glaucifolia. Fig 70 507 



Municipal Art. 



IT has never been contended, so far as we know, that an 

 election by the people to a municipal office entitles the 

 successful candidate to be considered a master of liberal 

 arts or an expert in the industrial arts. The man vi^ho is 

 made city Comptroller by the iMayor, or Commissioner of 

 Public Works, will hardly consider such an appointment 

 equivalent to taking a degree in philosophy or the sciences, 

 or in mechanical engineering. In regard to the founda- 

 tions of a roadway or a britdge neither the Mayor nor the 

 Comptroller would consider that his official position justi- 

 fied him in acting against the advice of a board of civil 

 engineers, and even in some questions relating to the fine arts 

 city officials have been known to manifest some hesitation 

 before flouting the advice of men whose professional stand- 

 ing is recognized the world over. Thus, if a great public 

 building were to be constructed, a mayor or a commissioner 

 would probably consult an architect rather than attempt to 

 devise a plan himself On the other hand, park commis- 

 sioners have often assumed to pass upon the artistic quali- 

 ties of statues and memorials presented to the city and 

 decide upon their location instead of referring these questions 

 to some expert of taste and training, and last week four 

 city officers and a representative of the Grand Army of the 

 Republic used their positions to decide a critical question 

 relating to the most important public monument ever 

 erected in this city, in direct opposition to the carefully 

 prepared counsel of every organized body of artists and art 

 critics in this city. 



Now, it is very evident that if New York is to have any 

 municipal art worthy of the name we shall be indebted for 

 it to artists. If there is ever to be anything like a well- 

 considered scheme of decorative treatment for the city, 

 any individual works or related series of works which will 

 delight the eye and kindle the imagination, they will be 

 created by artists. No one considers it the duty of the 

 Comptroller or of the Recorder or the commander of the 

 Grand Army of the Republic to design such works or to 

 arrange them. No one would think of asking ex-officio 

 advice of any of them on a matter of art. If in any special 

 case they are clothed with final authority in matters of this 



sort it is quite as plainly their duty to refer them to trained 

 artists as it would be to refer a problem relating to 

 public buildings to an architect, or a question of law to the 

 Corporation Counsel. If it is argued that these men are in 

 certain cases entrusted by law vi'ith the decisions of such 

 matters, and that they must, therefore, act on their personal 

 responsibility, we reply that their action is in the nature of 

 a breach of trust if they do not decide according to the best 

 possible light they can get on the subject, and every public 

 officer ought to know where to look for such light. 



The particular case to which we have alluded is this : 

 The Legislature of this stale appropriated a quarter of a 

 million dollars for the erection of a memorial to the soldiers 

 and sailors of the War for the Union, to be erected at some 

 point designated by the Commissioners of Public Parks. 

 Legally appointed trustees of this fund asked permis- 

 sion to erect the monument on the Plaza at the Fifth Ave- 

 nue entrance of the park, and the Park Board, without 

 consulting- Mr. Vaux, their official adviser, at once granted 

 it. Of course, this was a fundamental mistake, for since 

 none of the trustees nor the Park Commissioners have had 

 any such training as would give special weight to their 

 opinion as to the location of a work of art, they should 

 have at once asked for expert counsel. In some way the 

 matter vv'as at length brought before the National Sculpture 

 Society, and this society, in connection with eight other 

 associations, which together have organized a central body 

 known as the Fine Arts Federation of this city, presented a 

 report last week to the Monument Committee, in which 

 another site is unanimously recommended. They took 

 pains to give reasons why the Plaza was an improper place 

 and why the point where Seventy-sixth Street and River- 

 side Park meet is in every way suitable. The Plaza is iden- 

 tified with the entrance of the park, and a lofty structure 

 there will inevitably destroy the effect of the lower gate- 

 ways which ma)' in the future be built at this entrance. 

 The plaza is low, and the proper place for a column or 

 tower, such as is contemplated, should plainly be on higher 

 ground. The monument should be on the axis of broad 

 streets, instead of at one side of them, so that it could be 

 viewed at long distances within the city. It should be at 

 a point visible from the noble waterways which surround 

 the cit)^ where there is sufficient space for ceremonial dis- 

 plays, both military and naval, and certainly where it 

 would not be dwarfed in stature as it would be on the plaza 

 by the tall buildings around it. If the structure were set 

 at the point recommended by the Fine Arts Federation it 

 would be visible from the Hudson River as far north as 

 Irvington ; it could be seen from Staten Island and over 

 the low grounds south of Jersey City as far avi'ay as Eliza- 

 beth, and the view from its summit would be magnifi- 

 cent. It would be a prominent object in the fore- 

 ground to all who cross the proposed Hudson River 

 bridge, and to every one who sails past it on the river. If 

 placed at the southern end of the drive, with General 

 Grant's tomb at the opposite extremity, the two could be 

 connected by a series of monumental works which would 

 add to the dignity of this noble parkway from end to end. 

 These are a few of the points of this instructive report, but 

 we think no one can read it through without feeling the 

 convincing force of the array of arguments presented for 

 the site recommended by the Fine Arts Federation, and yet 

 of the six officials constituting the Monument Committee 

 only one was willing to heed their counsel. 



Now, all the members of this committee are public-spirited 

 men, who are influenced solely, we do not doubt, by a 

 desire to serve for^he highest interests of the city. They 

 are above any suspicion of vulgar self-seeking or other 

 improper motive, and yet from lack of respect for expert 

 advice their decision, if adhered to, will prove, as we 

 firmly believe, a matter of regret to the people of the city for 

 generations to come. If the artists are right in their view 

 of this subject, the mistake will appear more and more 

 serious as the years roll on. If the committee have an)' 

 justifying reasons for their course which do not naturally 



