H 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 203 



1 



We quote the following paragraph from an editorial 

 article recently published in the American Archilecl and 

 Building Neivs, knowing that other suburban communities, 

 beside those in the neighborhood of Boston, are suffering 

 from the evils therein set forth : 



Tlie operations of tlie Boston Board of Survey, which is 

 authorized by law, on petition of the niajorily of property- 

 owners in any part of the city, to lay out streets to the territory 

 concerned, estal)lisli grades, and construct the streets, assess- 

 ing the cost on tlie owners of tlie land, have attracted the very 

 favorable attention of the inhabitants of the neighboring 

 towns, and Brookline, tlie richest and most prosperous sub- 

 urban village, has already voted to petition the Legislature, at 

 its next session, for authority to establish a similar Board of 

 Survey, with the same powers. As the contrast between a 

 systematic, economical and convenient method of laying out 

 streets, and the extravagant, ridiculous, and, in one word, 

 idiotic practice at present in vogue in the other neighboring 

 towns grows more glaring, the example of Brookline will 

 probably be widely followed, and then, at last, will the very 

 important suburban portion of Boston enter upon a period of 

 substantial development. As we once mentioned, out of a 

 total of about one hundred streets in one suburban district, 

 which fairly represents all, more than forty are culs-de-sac, or 

 return to the point from which they started ; and every year 

 adds considerably to the number of abortions, while the laying- 

 out of a street which can be passed through, to reach any other 

 point, usually requires the intervention of the County Commis- 

 sioners, and is an extremely rare event. The consequence is 

 that driving through the Boston suburbs is to a stranger gen- 

 erally one of the most exasperating experiences of his life. 

 Starting, let us say, on a country road, which, however, soon 

 takes a direction away from the point he wishes to reach, he 

 endeavors to find a transverse street which will lead him 

 toward his destination. Of what appear to be transverse 

 streets there is no lack, but to find a navigable one, so to speak, 

 is quite a different matter. Three-fourths of them, in some of 

 the towns, are marked with the warning " Dangerous," and the 

 prudent charioteer takes care not to tempt the perils which 

 lurk within them. Reaching, at last, one without the alarm- 

 ing sign, he turns into it, and drives a few hundred yards, when 

 he reaches a fence, at which the street terminates, either in a 

 neat oval, or a jungle of weeds. Turning, with difficulty, 

 he makes his way back to the high-road, and proceeds, getting 

 always farther from the place he wishes to reach, until he finds 

 another promising-looking street. This, on trial, proves to 

 describe three sides of a square, and conducts him back to the 

 high-road, half a dozen rods beyond where he left it. The 

 next street that looks feasible takes him, between two rows of 

 handsome houses, straight to a jjond, and, unless his horse and 

 carriage are adapted for swimming, there is nothing for it but 

 to return to the high-road again. The next public way, jjer- 

 haps, brings up against a gravel-bank, and another, beautifully 

 macadamized, leads him to a circular park, from which (here 

 is no other outlet. By the time he has studied the varied to- 

 pography of all these specimens of suburban engineering, the 

 day has nearly passed, and he returns to his starting-point with 

 thoughts upon suburban town governments which would 

 hardly bear expression. Of course, the natives understand 

 that the reason why Arlington Avenue comes to a dead stop 

 under a tree is that the owner of the land beyond the tree 

 went back on his promise to extend it through his property ; 

 and that Smithdale Street forms three sides of a square be- 

 cause Mr. Smith only had six acres of land, and wanted to have 

 his street all on his own ground ; but the knowledge of these 

 personal matters does not do much to console the people who 

 would like to use these avenues for the purpose of getting 

 somewhere, and not as subjects of ethical study ; while even 

 the tax-payers, when they find themselves confronted with a 

 heavy appropriation for extending a few of these culs-de-sac 

 to a proper outlet, begin to regret that means could not have 

 been found for having the proper disposition made at the out- 

 set. Such a means the citizens of Boston have now provided 

 in their Board of Survey, and, although it has only been con- 

 stituted a few months, it has shown itself of such immense 

 utility that the general feeling of the citizens is one of deep re- 

 gret that they have not thought of it before. 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — IV. 



Though Nature is constantly beautiful she does not exhibit 

 her highest powers of beauty constantly, for then they would 

 satiate us and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their 

 appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest 

 touches are things which must be watched for. Her most per- 

 fect passages of beauty are the most evanescent. — Rusktji. 



A VISIT to Pallanza naturally includes the far-fauied Bor- 

 -^*- romean Islands, which lie directly opposite. I had only 

 opportunity to visit Isola Bella, a heavy tliunder-storm [irt'- 

 venting a visit to Isola Madre, which is said to contain some 

 interesting trees. While the terraced gardens of Isola Bella, 

 established two hundred years ago, contain many specimens 

 of interest to an arboriculturist or deiidrologist, the whole place 

 is so painfully artificial that one cannot help wishing the fine 

 trees were in some freer, more natural situation. Yet, no 

 doubt, these fen terraces (built on a barren rock, as the guide- 

 books tell us), with their grottoes, fountains, statues and other 

 artificial embellishments, all contributed to complete what in 

 one epoch was considered high-art in gardening. There are 

 many signs of neglect and decadence, and the average visitor 

 is likely to be disappointed in both palace and grounds ; in- 

 deed, it may be said that the trees and shrubs are the objects 

 best worth a visit to the island, unless it be to get an object- 

 lesson in the taste of past times and to see how thoroughly 

 ugly an artificial garden may be. On approaching the shore 

 one of the most interesting groups noticed is a cluster of 

 some twenty-five or thirty trees of our southern Magnolia 

 (M. fijetida), which were flowering freely at the time of my 

 visit. These trees are from forty to fifty feet high, and, though 

 crowded together, they were the best group noted anywhere. 

 Among many other specimens, which the gardener points out 

 to every party he conducts, are Cork Oaks (O. suber), three or 

 four feet in diameter of trunk ; the tree known asCryptomeria 

 elegans, which here proves quite hardy and very beautiful ; a 

 common Laurel, or Sweet Bay-tree (Laurus nobilis), whose age 

 is counted by centuries ; Araucaria Brasiliensis, with a stem a 

 foot and a half through, and also a good representative of A. 

 Cunningham!. Of the genus Eucalyptus there are fair-sized 

 trees of several species, some of them being in flower at this 

 time (July 24th). Large Camphor-trees occupy a conspicuous 

 place, and, of course, the Deodar and Cedar of Lebanon are 

 not left out, for without these no such garden would have been 

 considered complete. Some Acacias thrive in the open air 

 here, and so do great Oleanders. Hovenia dulcis, which we 

 have not yet been able to grow at the Arboretum, is here 

 almost thirty feet high. As it grows in the Himalayas and Japan, 

 as well as in China, it is possible that somewhat hardier forms 

 may yet be introduced. 



Citrus trifoliata is in fruit at fifteen feet in height ; an ex- 

 ample of one of the Club Palms (Cordyline [Draca2na] indivisa) 

 has reached a stature between twenty and twenty-five feet. 

 There are not so many American plants to be seen here as 

 about Pallanza; but among others were noted large bushes of 

 our Candle-berry (Myrica cerifera), while a great specimen of 

 the Trumpet Creeper (Tecoma radicans) has a stem a foot in 

 diameter near the base. Another Tecoma, the handsome 

 flowering Japanese T. grandiflora, fifteen years planted here, 

 was just opening (July 24tli) its first flowers of the season. A 

 little-known Asiatic climber of the Pea family, Pueraria Thun- 

 bergiana, is here growing to a great height on one of the 

 walls. 



I observed in the vicinity of Pallanza that the Forsythias 

 were bearing a great abundance of fruit. It is perhaps owing 

 to late frosts that these plants, in colder regions, rarely bear 

 many pods or perfect much seed. 



After Pallanza, Berlin was the next point where an extended 

 stay was made; but stops were made at Zurich, Munich, 

 Leipzig and the establishment of Dr. G. Dieck, at Zoeschen, 

 near Merseburg. The journey by rail over the St. Gothartl 

 route docs not afford much entertainment from a botanical 

 point of view ; hut the sail through Lake Lugano, on the way 

 to the St. Gothard line station at Lugano, and the glimpses of 

 mountain and valley one gets from the train, are alone well 

 worth the journey. Lake Lugano is a little gem, surrounded 

 as it is by hills and mountains clad with green from summit 

 to the water's edge, yet within sight of snow-covered peaks. 

 The principal occupations of the district are the cultivation of 

 fruits and the entertainment of foreigners. If natural sur- 

 roundings, climate, etc., count for anything, it would seem as 

 though a finer race of men and women should be developetl 

 here than in less-favored regions. 



After passing through the St. Gothard tunnels one sees the 

 mountain-sides marked at frequent intervals by narrow per- 

 pendicular scars. These are slides where logs are run down. 

 But with the cutting of timber here there is also some sys- 

 tematic reforesting, especially of Spruce, on the lower slopes. 

 The Fig lives fairly well in the open air in many places about 

 Lake Lucerne, but at Vitznau the plants had been much killed 

 by the severity of the past winter. Few botanical notes were 



