March 30, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



145 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUIil.lSlIBD WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Offick: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE TOST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles ; — The Specdroad in Central Park 145 



A Modern Massachusetts Farm. {With plan.) i.^g 



The Great Madrona of San Rafael. (With figure.) 146 



Color in Rural Buildings Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 146 



New or Little-known Plants; — New Orchids R. A. Rolfe. 148 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 148 



Cultural Department :— Flower Garden Notes E. O. Orpei. 150 



The Cultivation of Bulbs in the South Professor IK F. Massey. 152 



Early Irises 7. ^V. G. 152 



Notes on Begonias T. D. Hatfield. 152 



Arachnanthe Cathcartii John Weathers. 153 



Chrysanthemum Blight S. A. Beach. 153 



Manettia bicolor/ Acacia Drummondii T, D. H. 153 



Correspondence : — Grafting. — I A. W. Pearson. 154 



Myosotis palustris Charles L. Mann. 154 



Baccharis halimifolia in Atlantic County, 'iie\j]eTSQy... Rev. John E. Peters. 154 



Exhibitions : — The Boston Flower Show 155 



Periodical Literature 155 



Notes 155 



Illustrations : — Plan of the Phillips Estate, Beverly, Mass 149 



The Great Madrona of San Rafael, Fig. 23 151 



The Speedroad in Central Park. 



IF the construction of a road for fast driving in Central 

 Park was a matter of local importance merely, we 

 should not feel called upon to make any further allusion to 

 the subject. But the case is a representative one. All our 

 rapidly growing cities feel just as New York does this pres- 

 sure for more room. Land set apart for pleasure-grounds 

 in these cities is constantly coveted by individuals and 

 classes who wish to devote it to some special use which 

 seems to them of pressing iinportance. Central Park was 

 the first area of anything like a square mile in extent ever 

 designed as a consistent work of landscape-art in the heart 

 of a great city for purely rural recreation and the refresh- 

 ing influence of pastoral scenery. If, after thirty years of 

 experience, the leading city of the country should declare 

 by its example that such a park could not be maintained 

 for such a use, it would be a discouraging blow to all who 

 take any practical interest in public pleasure-grounds in 

 other cities. It would incite attacks on every other park 

 and make all park-property in the country more insecure. 



There is no need of restating the arguments against this 

 project. Four years ago, when the last formidable move- 

 ment for securing the so-called speedroad was in progress, 

 the salient objections to it were set forth in this journal 

 (Vol. I., p. 37), and as late as our issue for March 9th the 

 subject was discussed in a leading article. It may be well, 

 however, to make a brief statement of what has recently 

 taken place. Less than a fortnight ago the House of Assem- 

 bly passed an act which had previously passed the Senate 

 authorizing the construction of a road in the park for fast 

 driving. The Governor signed it the same afternoon and 

 the Mayor of this city gave a statement to the morning 

 papers in approval of the measure. The Park Board at a 

 special meeting the next day ordered their engineer to pre- 

 pare plans for the road and voted funds to defray the ex- 

 penses of the survey. Nearly every newspaper in the city 



at once attacked the scheme and a volunteer committee of 

 citizens was formed to invite petitions of remonstrance and 

 secure funds for holding a public meeting. The demon- 

 stration was so prompt and energetic that the Mayor dis- 

 covered a "difference of opinion" in the matter, and at 

 his request the Park Board announced that it wouM give a 

 public hearing on the question. The protestants appeared 

 in force and the Park Board rescinded its action ; and after 

 the hearing had been continued another day, the Board 

 voted that it was inexpedient to build the road. All this 

 happened within a week. Meanwhile, names by the 

 thousand and money enough to meet all expenses poured 

 into the rooms of the Citizens' Committee. The news- 

 papers kept up the attack with singular unanimity and 

 vigor, and last Friday a memorable meeting to demand the 

 repeal of the act was held in the hall of the Cooper Union, 

 A committee of one hundred was then selected to lay the 

 case before the legislature, and it is possible, though hard- 

 ly probable, that the act will be repealed before this paper 

 reaches its readers. 



In large cities individuals are apt to feel indifferent about 

 matters of this sort, so that the spontaneous uprising of the 

 people was almost a surprise. Particularly gratifying was 

 the action of the workingmen, whose organizations lent 

 most efficient aid to the defenders of the park. One of 

 the most telling speeches at the meeting was made by 

 Mr Archibald, representing the Central Labor Union, 

 who showed that the park had an especial value for the 

 families of those who could not get away to the moun- 

 tains and seaside for the summer The sound views on 

 the true functions of an urban park expressed by all the 

 speakers at this mass meeting showed that the people are 

 prepared to take high ground as to the value of such parks, 

 and this is a renewed assurance of their safety, Ex-Mayor 

 Hewitt was especially happy in demonstrating that a park 

 is a great educational and moral as well as a sanitary in- 

 fluence in city hfe. A letter from Mr, Frederick Law Olm- 

 sted argued that since the earnings of the people of the 

 city had been put into the park for a particular object it 

 would be unjust and immoral to divert it to a use incon- 

 sistent with that object. The construction of the speed- 

 track would, therefore, lessen the security of every man in 

 the enjoyment of his earnings and tend directly to anarchy. 



Altogether there is good reason to believe that the park 

 is in less danger of any destructive invasion than it was 

 before this attack. The people have had an opportu- 

 nity to give expression to their affection for the park and 

 to prove their power in protecting it. They have been 

 called to think over their moral obligations in the matter, 

 and the public-spirited men of the city, the men on whom 

 its future prosperity depends, will give their influence to 

 the side of stability and security when such questions 

 arise, and will not permit the city to degenerate into a 

 condition where nothing is sacred and nothing is safe. 



A Modern Massachusetts Farm. 



THE plan of an estate in North Beverly, Massachusetts, 

 published on page 151, deserves the careful attention 

 of all persons interested in rural economy because it stands 

 for what we hold as the fundamental principle underlying 

 all successful agriculture — the adaptation of the crop to the 

 character of the soil. This principle is well understood 

 now in most European countries, but the neglect of it in 

 this has caused the unprofitable removal of millions of 

 acres of valuable forests from lands suited by nature to 

 produce forests, but entirely unfit for permanent and profit- 

 able tillage. 



The estate which stretches along the western shore of 

 Lake Wenham, a beautiful sheet of fresh water, consists of 

 275 acres, and was bought in 1879 by the late John C. Phil- 

 lips, of Boston. The purchase comprised a number of 

 farms or parts of farms and various small parcels of land ; 

 only a part of it, perhaps forty acres in all, being adapted 



