June 22, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



289 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Ofkich : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



KNTKRHD AS SKCOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1892, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Artici.k : — The Plan of the Columbian Fair Grounds. (With map.). .. 2S9 



A Rural Cemetery Mrs. J. H. Robbtns, 290 



Weeds in Southern New Jersey Mrs. Mary Trfat. 292 



Mid-June in West Virg;inia Mrs. Danske Diindrrdsc. 292 



Foreign Corrkspondench : — London Letter W. W^atson. 293 



New or Little-known Plants: — Cape Ivy (Senecio macrot^lossus). (With 



figure. ) W. Watson. 294 



Cultural Department :— Notes on Shrubs J. G. Jack. 294 



The Wild Garden M. Bar/^er. ■2<js 



Flower Notes J. N. Ceraril. 296 



Hardy Plant Notes E. O. Orfct. 296 



Iris cuprea. Iris ochroleuca, or I. ^i^antea, Iris Angelica J. N. G, 297 



The FoRPiST: — The Woods of Minnesota H. B. Ayres. 297 



Correspondence: — Impressions of America. — I Cealia IVnern. 208 



The Wellesley Gardens M. Barker. 29S 



Albinos amon^ Orchids ?. .^- Collins. 299 



Preference of Birds for Certain Trees H. y. K. -Zi^i^ 



The Effects of the Winter 7. I'rooiit. 299 



Notes 300 



Illustrations; — General Plan, World's Columbian E.\position 291 



Senecio macroglossus. Fig. 53 295 



The Plan of the Columbian Fair Grounds. 



MORE than twenty years ago a design was prepared 

 by Messrs. Ohnsted, Vaiix & Co. for laying out three 

 tracts of land which were known together as South Park, 

 Chicago. One of these tracts is now Jackson Park, the site 

 of the Columbian E.xposition. Among the striking features 

 of this plot of land, as pointed out in the report accompa- 

 nying the plan alluded to, was its long frontage on the lake, 

 which, in the opinion of the designers, added an element 

 of such grandeur and sublimity that it compensated for the 

 absence of picturesque elevations of surface, while at the 

 same time it provided means of transportation by water 

 from the city, whose business centre was some seven miles 

 away. It was stated further that one-third of the surface 

 of this land lay below the high-water level of the lake, and 

 that a great part of the remainder was too low, too wet and 

 too cold to maintain upland trees, while adequate drainage 

 was nearly impracticable. It was suggested, therefore, 

 that excavations should be made in the more depressed 

 portions of this area and that the material taken out should 

 be used to raise the adjacent ground above the lake-level, 

 and that a free outlet should then be made through the 

 beach to admit the water of the lake into a central lagoon, 

 with various branches and ramifications, so that the ele- 

 ment of water would be the most prominent one in the 

 park. The commanding exterior feature would then be 

 the lake, with its storm-beaten shore, and within would be 

 the intricate and sequestered scenery of the lagoon, all its 

 parts connected together and with the lake by a continuous 

 stretch of water. 



When it was finally decided that the Columbian Fair 

 should be held in Jackson Park this scheme of inland water- 

 ways was taken as the fundamental idea of the general de- 

 sign. The ground was still unimproved, and it lay, as it 

 had lain for centuries, in a series of ridges and hollows as 

 the sand had drifted up in successive waves. The hollows 

 were spongy swale lands, and it was determined to dredge 



out enough of the light soil from them to make waterways 

 of sufficient breadth and depth for convenient transporta- 

 tion and wide enough to form a feature in the scenery, 

 while the earth which was removed would suffice to make 

 a fouiulation for the stately l)uildings to be reared on their 

 banks and lift thcin some ten or twelve feet above the high- 

 water maik of the lake. In working out this plan more 

 than a million cubic yard.s of earth have already been re- 

 moved. The interior waters have an area of more than 

 fifty acres, and provide a circuit of three miles for electric 

 omnibus-boats. 



The direction of the lake shore dictated the line of the 

 buildings, and, of course, controlled the direction of the 

 canals, and, in a measure, the shajie of the lagoon. The 

 largest building, that of Manufactures and Liberal Arts, an 

 immense structure, which is fully a mile in circuit, is placed 

 (see map on page 291) nearly on the centre of the lake- 

 front and directly facing it. Since the southern face of 

 this building forms a part of a great quadrangle, the other 

 buildings, whose fafades form the remaining part of the 

 enclosure, are built on the same parallel lines. Extending 

 from the lagoon and following the line of these buildings 

 is a walled-in canal, which opens into a larger basin of 

 the same formal character set at right angles with it. 

 This basin also connects with the harbor and occupies the 

 central and most important part of the quadrangle. The 

 quadrangle itself, which is 2,000 feet long and about one- 

 third as wide, is intended to serve as the grand hall or 

 court of entrance to the Exposition both for those who 

 come by rail and by water, and it is a magnificent archi- 

 tectural conception, and even now presents an imposing 

 spectacle. The cornices on the great buildings which 

 form its northern and southern boundaries are uniformly 

 sixty feet high, while toward the lake a double colon- 

 nade, or peristyle, of the same height as the buildings, will 

 carry on the corniCe line, and give the whole an impres- 

 sive unity. Toward the landward end of the Plaza the 

 Administration Building, which is the loftiest and most 

 strictly monumental building upon the grounds, rises from 

 a base 260 feet square, and is crowned by a dome which 

 reaches a height of 270 feet above the pavement. The 

 four-story pavilions at the corners of this majestic struc- 

 ture are carried to the same height as the faces of the other 

 buildings, making the cornice line sixty feet high continu- 

 ous about the Plaza. Visitors who come by rail would pass 

 through the arches of this stately structure into the quad- 

 rangle, where their first impressions of the Exhibition 

 will be received. A glance at the map will explain to 

 some extent this arrangement, and the magnitude of the 

 scale upon which the whole idea is worked out will be 

 understood when it is remembered that the basin contains 

 nearly nine acres of w'ater. 



This plan of- ushering visitors into the grounds through 

 a porch of such dignity and into a court surrounded by 

 architectural splendors, instead of letting them in through 

 some side-entrance, so to speak, seems to us one of the 

 finest inspirations of the design. No group of buildings 

 approaching these in magnitude or of equal ambition in 

 design, and related to each other so intimately, has ever 

 been constructed in the entire history of architecture, and 

 while the designers of the separate buildings have been 

 allowed certain liberties as to details of expression they 

 have worked together in perfect sympathy to secure a 

 single consistent and harmonious effect. Of course there 

 is little opportunity for anything like gardening in this 

 Plaza. The ground on either side of the basin rises in 

 successive walled terraces to the steps which descend from 

 the colonnaded fronts of the building. The promenades 

 are of sufficent width to accommodate the throngs of 

 visitors who are expected, but there are some stretches of 

 greensward in which are four sunken panels to be decorated 

 by large specimen plants or statuary, and there will be space 

 for shrubbery and flowers upon the lower terraces and 

 against the walls. There are ample ways for communi- 

 cation between this Plaza and the buildings on either side 



