278 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 225, 



which flow eastward from the Rocky Mountains, and 

 under favorable conditions grows to the height of one 

 hundred and fifty feet, and sometimes forms trunks eight 

 or nine feet in diameter. It is a beautiful tree with a tall 

 straight massive trunk, a spreading head and large lustrous 

 leaves, and of all Poplars is perhaps the most desirable as 

 an ornamental plant. The wood, like that of all the species, 

 is light and soft, but close-grained ; it is, however, very 

 difficult to season, and is apt to warp badly in dry- 

 ing. Of late years it has been somewhat used in the 

 Mississippi valley, where the Carolina Poplar is abundant, 

 for cheap packing-cases and other coarse work,, and it is 

 now probable that this tree is to play an important part 

 in supplying the country with certain low grades of 

 lumber. 



The second species of Cottonwood is confined to the 

 banks of the streams of the Rocky Mountain region, where 

 it is found from the Black Hills of Dakota to Colorado, 

 New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona. It is a small tree, 

 usually under sixty feet in height, and is distinguished by 

 its narrow entire leaves to which it owes its name, Populus 

 angustifolia. 



West of the Sierras of California, from the valley of the 

 Sacramento southward, the third species, Populus Fre- 

 montii, is found — a large tree not to be distinguished from 

 the eastern Populus moniliferti except by the structure of 

 its flowers and fruit, and, to untrained eyes, apparently 

 identical with it in habit, foliage and beauty. In the 

 southern part of California this tree is replaced by a well- 

 marked variety, still too imperfectly known, which is com- 

 mon on the borders of all streams in that part of the state 

 and in Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Texas and 

 northern Mexico, where it is the ordinary shade-tree of 

 city streets (see Garden .\ND Forest, vol. i., p. 104). Econom- 

 ically this last is a tree of great value as it furnishes the 

 fuel of the people living in the territory adjacent to our south- 

 western boundary, where it is planted near streams and ir- 

 rigating ditches, and every few years the large branches are 

 lopped oft" and supply all the fuel needed for cooking. 



In the forests of eastern America two other Poplars are 

 found, Populus grandidentata, so called from the cutting of 

 the leaves, a handsome small tree of the north, and Popu- 

 lus heterophylla, the River Poplar, a tree of no great size, 

 which inhabits deep, wet swamps in the eastern and south- 

 ern states, and the rarest of all our species, although it 

 can be found in two or three localities in the neighbor- 

 hood of this city, notably at Northport, on Long Island, 

 and on Staten Island, where a few years ago Professor 

 Britton made known its existence in considerable numbers. 



The General Design of the Columbian Fair Grounds. 



THE committees of the Chicago Commission, upon 

 whom has devolved the responsibility of selecting 

 the site and constructing the buildings for the Columbian 

 World's Fair, have proved that they appreciate the true 

 function of the landscape-gardener in works of that charac- 

 ter where gardening in its accepted sense plays a very sub- 

 ordinate part. They did not make choice of a site, select 

 places for the various buildings, and then invite the advice of 

 artists in landscape to devise some scheme of planting for 

 decorative eff'ect. The first experts consulted were Messrs. 

 Olmsted & Co. It was realized at the outset that the entire 

 work was to be treated as a unit ; that there was to be a 

 general design which should solve, in the most satisfactory 

 way, all the problems which might confront the organizers 

 of so vast an undertaking, so that the amplest facilities 

 should be offered to exhibitors and visitors, and that these 

 should be combined with the noblest artistic effect. 



It is no discredit to the architects who are doing such 

 splendid work in Chicago to say that in one sense their 

 individual efforts are subordinate to the general scheme — 

 that is, each building is really a detail of the design which 

 includes them all. Of course, it was necessary for the 

 Messrs. Olmsted to consult with Mr. Burnham, Chief of Con- 



struction, and Mr. Root, the Consulting Architect, as well 

 as with the designers of the separate buildings, but, after 

 all, it was the primarj'- and peculiar office of the landscape- 

 architects to discover all the possibilities of the site and 

 prepare the foundation and frame-work of the general ar- 

 rangement ; to estimate to some extent the proper size of 

 each building, and to place it in the best position, both for 

 convenience and beauty ; to study the grouping of them 

 all not only with regard to their practical relations to each 

 other, but also with regard to the impressiveness of their 

 appearance in combination. In this case, as in many 

 others where the counsel of men who stand in the foremost 

 rank of their profession is secured, apparent difficulty was 

 transformed into opportunity. The necessity of elevating 

 the swampy ground into terraced levels above the water- 

 line to make foundations for the massive structures left 

 excavations, which were turned into canals and water- 

 ways. These not only increase the facilities for convey- 

 ing visitors from one part of the ground to another by 

 making it possible to land them at any one of the build- 

 ings, but they heighten in a marked degree the beauty of the ' 

 scene. Verdurous shore-lines and bright stretches of water 

 are thus made possible, and the prevailing, stony effect of 

 the buildings is relieved from many points of view by 

 masses of foliage on the island which has been raised 

 above the lagoon, while the buildings themselves are 

 never as imposing as they are when seen from the boats 

 which float below the line of their bases. 



All this emphasizes the fact that the landscape-gardener 

 is not, as he is too often considered, a sort of mere outdoor 

 decorator and furnisher. His work is seriou.s, practical 

 and serviceable in the highest sense. Even in public 

 parks and pleasure-grounds, where architecture plays a 

 less important part than it does in the case we are con- 

 sidering, it is too often forgotten that a good design involves 

 the settlement of numberless questions of every-day prac- 

 tical availability apart from the development of its land- 

 scape beauty. Of course, it is not meant by this that 

 landscape beauty is sacrificed to what is commonly con- 

 sidered utility, for in such a case the beauty itself gives to 

 the park its highest usefulness. The problem is to pre- 

 serve and create beauty where it is possible, and at the 

 same time to provide for great numbers of people in move- 

 ment and at rest, to secure their distribution so as to pre- 

 vent overcrowding at special points, to supply the con- 

 veniences and comforts and amusements demanded by 

 different ages, sexes, conditions and tastes. Architects 

 who design dwelling-houses for private places are learn- 

 ing that they can be materially aided by expert counsel in 

 determining for such buildings the proper site, approaches, 

 aspect, outlook and other points in which they are related 

 to their surroundings. Such counsel is quite as useful to the 

 health and convenience of their clients as it is to the beauty 

 of the home picture. This means that true landscape-art, 

 like the best architecture, is the " decoration of a service." 

 Its real value is based on the fact that it adorns what is 

 useful. 



The Chicago Commission deserves the thanks of the 

 country, not only because it has secured for the great ex- 

 hibition the services of eminent architects, who are work- 

 ing together in perfect sympathy, but because this harmo- 

 nious labor was made possible by trusting to experts 

 to furnish a general design toward which they could all 

 work with unity of purpose. Besides this, an example so 

 striking as this ought to exert a wholesome influence in 

 helping to establish landscape-gardening in this country 

 in its proper position among the arts of design. 



The Botanical Club of Washington, District of Columbia, 

 at a recent meeting, unanimously adopted the following 

 report of the Committee on a Botanical Congress and 

 Nomenclature : 



" Resolved, That, while favoring the final settlement of 

 disputed questions by means of an international congress, 



