April 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



181 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



BNTERRD AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Artici.fs :— Yellowstone Park i8i 



The Utility of Beauty i8i 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — XII.... y. G. Jack. 182 



Plantains 183 



The Forests of Lower California. (With figures.) C. R. Oraitt. 183 



Plant Notes :— Some Recent Portraits 184 



New or Little-known Plants :— A New Strain of Roses J.N. Gerard. 1S4 



Foreign Correspondence :— London Letter W. Watson. 184 



Cultural Department :— The Best Garden Strawberrie's O. IV Blacknall. 186 



Phaius ^randilolius in a Window-garden Mrs. Danske Da7idriclge. 186 



Flower Notes T. D. H. 187 



Narcissus Bulbocodium O. O. 188 



Permanent Narcissus Beds O. 188 



Growinja; Plants in Moss IVm. F. Bassett. 188 



Paovius Antiquorum, Beeonia Triomphe de Lemoine, Corydalisbulbosa, 

 ^^ J. N. G. 188 



Gorrespokdence : — The Northern Limit of Sabal Palmetto, 



Professor IV. F. Massey. 189 



A Plea for Warm Tints in House-paintinf!; Mrs. J. H. Robbins. 1S9 



Sweet Peas /f. ^. 190 



Sand Dunes Charles L. Mann, B. E. Ferno-w. igo 



Recent Publications 19° 



Notes '9° 



Illustrations:— Pinusjeffreyi, var. peninsularis. Fig. 28 185 



A Pine Forest in Lower California, Fig. 29 187 



The Yellowstone Park. 



THE men and women who take an intelligent and active 

 interest in Yellowstone Park are comparatively few, 

 widely scattered throughout the country and not organized 

 for any united aggressive or defensive policy. Here and 

 there a far-sighted man appreciates the immense value which 

 such a reservation will be to the country in the future, and 

 there are a few enthusiastic tourists who have camped in 

 and around it and have acquired a genuine affection for 

 the place, but the great body of our citizens very naturally 

 are absorbed in interests which are nearer home, and they 

 have little time or energy or thought left after their daily 

 labors for anything so remote from their present and per- 

 sonal interests. One would think the Congressmen of the 

 country, whose duty it is to look after the affairs of the na- 

 tion, would give studious attention to the great reserva- 

 tions of public land which belong to the people which they 

 represent. But they, too, are engrossed with other matters 

 which are of immediate importance to themselves or to 

 their constituents, so that the parks and public forests re- 

 ceive a small fraction of their attention. 



There is a small group of men, however, whose interest 

 in the Yellowstone Park never sleeps, for it is an interest born 

 not of public spirit, but of selfishness. This is the partner- 

 ship whose lobby is working now, as it has done in the 

 last Congress and the one before, to confiscate a portion 

 of the park for private use. It is not a scheme to provide 

 raiUvay facilities for any particular section ; it is a scheme 

 to allow no railroad but one through the park, and then to 

 control the franchise. Of course, this project is utterly 

 bad, against public policy generally and against the inter- 

 ests of the park particularly. It has been opposed by every 

 Secretary of the Interior for eight years past, and by every 

 one else who has any genuine interest in the park. The 

 best-informed observers believe that it is primarily a job to 

 get from Congress something which can he sold for cash. 



This year, instead of loading the bill to establish the boun- 

 daries of the park with a rider, the lobby has introduced a 

 separate bill asking for a right of way through it. A majority 

 of the Committee on Public Lands in the House has been se- 

 cured, and the bill has been reported favorably. And yet 

 this park belongs to the nation, and not to this set of rail- 

 road speculators. Every man in the country is part-owner 

 of it ; every man has a right to the protection of his own 

 property, and every man should in some way make a 

 vigorous protest against this condemnation of public prop- 

 erty to private use. It is, therefore, the duty of every one 

 who reads this article to write at once to his representative 

 and request him to see that this measure is stopped where 

 it is. 



Besides this Montana Mineral Railway job, there has 

 been reported in the Senate a bill which cuts off about one- 

 half of the forest-reservation which adjoins the park on the 

 east, and also cuts off the south-west corner of the reserva- 

 tion on the south. It will be remembered that this reserva- 

 tion was set apart by a proclamation of the President under 

 the power granted to him a year ago, and Congress is now 

 considering a measure to enlarge the park so as to include 

 this reservation. This bill is nominally in the interest of 

 the people of Wyoming, who wish to retain control of this 

 forest, but really the people of Wyoming have greater in- 

 terest in preserving this forest than any other people of the 

 United States, for it will insure the preservation of a forest 

 which will almost certainly be destroyed if the national 

 protection is removed from it. A most serious mistake is 

 that of cutting off the south-west corner of the forest, which 

 is done, as it appears, in the interest of railway corpora- 

 tions, simply because they think they may some day 

 want to pass that way. No survey has been made, and 

 probably there will never be any occasion for going 

 through this region. If any such railway line were needed 

 it would be much easier and better to pass on the south 

 side of the Tetons than to go around on the north side. Of 

 course, the mining-prospectors and timber-gatherers have 

 an interest in reducing the reservation, but experts declare 

 that there are no mining properties of any serious value in 

 this portion of the reservation which it is desired to hand 

 over to destruction. 



It is high time that the whole country should be aroused 

 to face this matter as it stands. Here are two bills favora- 

 bly reported, both of which are inexcusably bad. No rail- 

 way franchise should be allowed within the park under any 

 condition, and this particular one is essentially vicious all 

 the way through. The whittling down of the forest-reserva- 

 tion is another serious attack on public rights which should 

 be strenuously opposed. Instead of diminishing this area, 

 other reservations should be established as rapidly as they 

 can be intelligently located and their boundaries judiciously 

 determined. The time will come when a broad and strong 

 current of public opinion will hold Congress to its duties in 

 this direction, but until then it is the duty of every one to 

 appeal to his representative and to any other member of 

 Congress with whom he may have influence to protect 

 from spoliation these few isolated remnants of our great 

 forest-domain which by a fortunate chance have been set 

 apart to be held forever as public property. In this way 

 alone can their permanent safety be assured. 



For nearly a month the proposed speedway in Central 

 Park has been a topic for animated discussion in the news- 

 papers of this city, and the writers for the press, called 

 upon to give a reason for the faith that was in them, have 

 found it necessary to pay studious attention to many of 

 the problems in the design, construction, maintenance and 

 management of public parks. We have often called atten- 

 tion to the vague and inconsistent views as to the true 

 functions of city parks which are held even by intelligent 

 persons, and therefore this discussion of first principles 

 has had a genuine educational value in the clearing away 

 of misconceptions. Only a few years ago the President of 



