328 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 229. 



the land belonging to the park amounted to 2,791 acres, a 

 larger acreage than that of any park in this country. In 1876 

 the park was the site of the Centennial Exhibition, and to pro- 

 vide for the buildings and otheraccommodationsforsogreat a 

 number of people, many topographical changes were necessi- 

 tated. The buildings were afterward removed, with the ex- 

 ception of those mentioned above, and the grounds, as far as 

 might be, restored to their original condition, though some of 

 the modifications of the surface were permanent ; but it is 

 claimed that these changes were rather to the advantage than 

 the disadvantage of the park. Not long since the house occu- 

 pied by William Penn, during his life-time, was removed, brick 

 by brick, and rebuilt within the park, where it is an object of 

 much interest to visitors. 



One of the men most closely associated with the organiza- 

 tion of the park was the venerable Eli K. Price, who con- 

 tinued in his office of Commissioner till after the age of eighty, 

 furthering its interests always with assiduity and wisdom. As 

 Chairman of the Committee of land purchases he had much 

 to do with the acquisition of the valuable country-seats that 

 were incorporated in its domain, and his sound judgment in 

 matters of business enabled the commissioners to purchase 

 while property was low, so that, vast as was the expenditure, 

 it was still reasonable compared to the actual value of the 

 land acquired. Over seven millions of dollars were expended 

 in the mere acquirement of the property, which shows the 

 admirable public spirit of Philadelphia, which is always to be 

 depended upon in matters of real moment. In a report 

 written by Mr. Price in 1878, at the age of eighty, occur the fol- 

 lowing pregnant sentences: 



"The worth of life to us all is to live it and prolong it in 

 health and enjoyment, and it is by thus doing that we best 

 show our gratitude to the Giver of life. Conceive of our ap- 

 proximate million, and coming millions, as being without 

 f airmount Park, can any human imagination begin to esti- 

 mate the sum of human health and happiness that would be 

 lost to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the world ? Who could 

 make the trial to run the parallel of the value of ten million 

 dollars as the price of the park invested, and running at in- 

 terest for the city, with the successive generations of her 

 millions of people without the culture, and fiealth and hap- 

 piness of the park, and not feel humiliation, and without 

 being shocked at the meanness of the suggestion. Money 

 is a sacred trust indeed for its potency for good, but life, health, 

 happiness, and gratitude to God are worth more than all 

 hoarded wealth. We have and will keep this park; we will 

 improve and love it ; it shall be our pride and perpetual en- 

 joyment; it shall be for us ' a thing of beauty, and a joy for- 

 ever.' " 



A city in the breasts of whose citizens beats so patriotic a 

 spirit as this may well be proud of them, and of the boon 

 they have received at their hands, and well may they 

 glory in the magnificence of this immense park, with its 

 forests of venerable trees, its stately and charming rivers, its 

 picturesque glens, its fine old homesteads, where but the 

 great Oaks survive, its splendid and varied outlooks, its wild 

 romantic resorts, and rolling hills clad in verdure. There is 

 a wealth of vegetation upon this rich well-watered soil that 

 makes cultivation not so much a struggle with nature, as a 

 work of pleasure in directing it, and the long existence upon 

 the spot of many venerable groups of trees gives a dignity 

 and permanence to the aspect of this fertile park that is lack- 

 ing in those of more modern construction. Indeed, the middle 

 states, with their longer season, their greater depth of soil, can 

 boast of finer trees than New England shows, except in its 

 most favored sections, as in the Connecficut valley, for in- 

 stance ; and the whole effect of Fairmount Park was to me 

 most lovely and impressive even before the summer had 

 clothed it with its greatest weight of foliage. 



One can well imagine the relief of its cool shades to the 

 citizen baked in the brick oven of the level city throughout 

 the torrid heats of a Philadelphia summer, and bless the fore- 

 sight of those wise and generous men who provided for them 

 this gentle and cool retreat, which must mean life itself to 

 millions in the future. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



Midsummer Shrubbery in Nortli Carolina. 



T N a neighbor's yard stands the largest plant of Vitex Agnus- 

 *- castus (the Chaste-tree) I have ever seen. It is fully fifteen 

 feet high and twenty feet across the top. Just now it is 

 covered all over with its clusters of blue flowers. The books 

 all call the flowers of this shrub " pale lilac," and so they are 

 under glass, but out-of-doors there is only the faintest tinge of 

 lilac to distinguish them from pure blue, and at a little distance 



the effect of the mass of bloom is clean blue. It is strange that 

 more use has not been made of this plant here, as the tree I 

 have mentioned is the only one I have seen in Raleigh. A 

 profuse flowering shrub with blue flowers is a rarity at any 

 time, and particularly at midsummer. 



In strong contrast with the Chaste-tree, the double-flowered 

 Pomegranates have been making a gorgeous display fornearly 

 a month. The brilliant scarlet flowers, as large as an ordinary 

 rose, scattered over the glossy foliage of a tree twenty feet 

 high, have a very pretty effect. There is in Raleigh one large 

 and old Pomegranate of the double-flowering sort that annually 

 produces flowers running all the way from pure white through 

 flesh-color, pink, white and scarlet striped, to the most brilliant 

 entire scarlet. I saw last week a superb bouquet cut from this 

 tree, which illustrated its sportive character well. 



White Oleanders, too, have begun their all-summer cam- 

 paign of bloom. The single white sort seems to be the hardi- 

 est, and stands our winters in sheltered places quite well, 

 while the pink-flowered sorts are invariably badly killed back 

 if not carefully protected. If allowed to make a mass of shoots 

 from the ground it is easy to protect any Oleander through the 

 winter here. 



But the popular shrub just now is the Gardenia, or Cape 

 Jasmine. The ladies wear great clusters, cut with long 

 stems and glossy leaves, and at the railroad-stations crowds of 

 boys offer the summer traveler huge bouquets of the fragrant 

 white flowers for ten cents. 



Of the hardier shrubs Spircea Billardii is now the most 

 attractive, with its feathery spikes of flowers, looking well 

 on account of its rarity here. The great evergreen Magnolia, 

 of course, is in bloom, and has been for a month. One flower, 

 with its big shiny leaves, makes a bouquet and perfumes a 

 whole room. 



I am planning a mass of shrubbery in which the white 

 Oleander is to be the centre-piece, Vitex Agnus-castus is to 

 surround it and kept slightly lower, then Cape Jasmines, all 

 around, and on the outside, as a guard and shelter, a row of 

 Spiraea Billardii. Massed closely in this way, and with Pine- 

 boughs stuck around in winter, to keep off the winter sun and 

 wind, I have no doubt that all will do well. 



The big Coral-plant (Erythrina crista-galli), of which I have 

 written heretofore, came through the winter finely under a 

 mound of sawdust, and now has a top six feet high and as 

 many through, and is a perfect glory of crimson bloom, being, 

 beyond all comparison, in advance of plants lifted and win- 

 tered under the greenhouse benches. From the hard woody 

 character of the stump of this plant I believe that this mode of 

 winter protection might be adopted at the north by making the 

 mound of perfectly dry sawdust, and then covering it with a 

 water-proof shelter like one of the corrugated paper hay caps 

 now used. The experiment is well worth trying northward. 

 Old plants of the Jerusalem Cherry (Solanum Pseudo-capsi- 

 cum), I think, could be wintered there in the same way. Here 

 I have an old plant of this Solanum that has stood for years 

 past under the south side of a building, keeping its load of 

 scarlet berries until Christmas, and never entirely losing its 

 foliage, which only gets singed for a few inches at the top. The 

 roots of Manettia bicolor came through, too, with a dry cover. 

 There is much to be learned yet in regard to winter protection 

 outdoors of half-hardy plants, particularly in mild latitudes, 

 and I shall continue to work in this line. 



Raleigh, N. c. W. F. Massey. 



Some Interesting Plants. 



"TPHE other day the youngest member of the family, who 

 -'■ had been on a botanical expedition, brought in some 

 flowers of a trailing vine which he had found growing in our 

 marsh. It had rounded heart-shaped leaves, and small five- 

 parted and wheel-shaped flowers of a dull purple. These soon 

 proved themselves unpleasant neighbors, as they emitted a 

 strong, disagreeable odor like that of rancid oil. The plant 

 was new to me, but it was plainly a member of the Milkweed 

 family, and a botanical friend identifies it as Gonolobus hir- 

 sutus. We examined with interest the short ovate flower-buds 

 of these comparatively rare flowers, the fleshy ring in the 

 throat of the corolla, and the waxy masses of pollen. There 

 were ten of these fixed in pairs to the five stigmas. The plant 

 is allied to the climbing Periploca Gragca, sometimes called 

 Virginia Silk-vine, which is occasionally seen in gardens, and 

 is not a native of Virginia, but of southern Europe. 



A few interesting shrubs are now beginning to bloom. One 

 of these is an early Hypericum, H. patulum, which is the earli- 

 est of the family to bloom here. This has showy yellow flowers 

 of good substance, about the size of those of the familiar 

 Mock Orange or Philadelphus coronarius. The plant is an 



