4IO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 236. 



The fruit of the western Shad-bush, like that of all the 

 plants of the genus, is sweet and of excellent quality, as 

 many travelers through the western wilds of North America 

 can bear testimony. Many a party of half-starved ex- 

 plorers and prospectors have been kept alive by Service- 

 berries, which have been always an important source of 

 food-supply to the Indians of the west, who visit every year 

 the localities where the plants are abundant, and gather the 

 fruit for winter use, first crushing it, and then, having dried 

 it spread out on stones or bark, packing it in sacks. 



As a plant with which to decorate our gardens Amelan- 

 chier alnifolia is less desirable than the larger-flowered and 

 larger-growing eastern Amelanchier Canadensis and its va- 

 rieties ; it is perfectly hardy, however, and, like all Amelan- 

 chiers, is easily raised from seed, the seedlings displaying 

 considerable variation in the size and quality of their fruit. 



A figure of the flowers and fruit of the western Shad-bush 

 was published in an early number of this journal (vol. i., 

 p. 1S5). The illustration in the present issue gives an idea 

 of the habit of the plant as it grows under the conditions 

 which most favor its development. It is from a photo- 

 graph of a cluster of plants growing in gravelly and rather 

 dry soil on a prairie, near Seattle, in Washington, for which 

 we are indebted to Mr. C. V. Piper, of that city. 



Water-towers in Massachusetts. 



IN another column, Mr. Sylvester Baxter, describing the 

 pleasure-grounds of Wakefield, Massachusetts, alludes 

 to the great architectural beauty of the distant water-tower 

 at Reading, a view of which can be had from the pleasure- 

 grounds at Wakefield. 



These water-towers are becoming marked features of 

 the Massachusetts landscape. Every town of any con- 

 siderable population has its water-works, and as the 

 sources whence water may be drawn by gravity are ex- 

 hausted, water-towers, or "stand-pipes," have become a 

 necessity. They mark the hill-tops of eastern Massachu- 

 setts in every direction and form notable landmarks, but, 

 with very few exceptions, they are not as beautiful as 

 they are conspicuous. They are usually plain cylinders 

 of iron thrust up into the air like enormous steam-boilers, 

 much elongated and set on end, or like very thick, un- 

 sharpened lead-pencils, and they disfigure the landscape as 

 a heavy, black perpendicular mark would deface a fine 

 painting. Perhaps there is none more conspicuously ugly 

 than that of Swampscott, the obtrusive presence of which 

 must be very irritating to the summer residents along that 

 beautiful and fashionable shore. Various other suburban 

 communities offend in a hardly less degree. Maiden, for 

 instance, has a particularly bad one, unique in these parts, 

 serving both as a tank and stand-pipe, and looking like a 

 gas-holder, perched upon the summit of Wait's Mount, a 

 fine rocky hill rising boldh^ out of the heart of the city. 

 The offense is the more aggravating because several acres 

 of the top of this hill have been reserved as a pleasure- 

 ground. It is much to the credit of Boston that care has 

 been taken to give architectural character to the several 

 water-towers erected upon prominent elevations in various 

 quarters of the city, the slender, white, minaret-like struc- 

 ture in Roxbury taking precedence in grace and beauty. 



All persons of good taste and public spirit should unite 

 in urging upon the local authorities the importance of true 

 proportion, at least, in these structures ; something which 

 might be obtained at little or no additional expense. We 

 condemn the Romans for their prosaic utilitarianism, as 

 reflected in their public works. Bui their aqueducts and 

 bridges had, at least, the merit of a simple grandeur, dignity 

 and true proportion, while, in this age of iron, our useful 

 constructions are apt to be obtrusivel)' ugly. 



It would be a wise reform to combine the monumental 

 with the useful in our public works. It is now the excep- 

 tion when either our monuments or our structures of utilit)'' 

 are constructed in accordance with sound architectural 



principles. There are very few out of the thousands of 

 "Soldiers," or "Soldiers and Sailors" monuments that have 

 been erected since the civil war, which, in after years, a 

 cultivated taste will not condemn. The useful and the 

 monumental have, in many instances, been united with 

 gratifying results in memorial halls, libraries, etc., and this 

 custom is happily growing. One of the best forms of a 

 memorial is a public pleasure-ground, and this idea is also 

 obtaining popularity in many directions. There are also 

 a few instances of memorial bridges — a most admirable 

 form of monument. 



If, however, either a community, or a beneficent indi- 

 vidual, desires to erect an architectural monument, what 

 better basis for such a structure could be found than that 

 of a water-tower.? Towers, pure and simple, have little 

 use nowadaj's, and their erection in connection with pub- 

 lic buildings is usuall)' a waste of money which might 

 otherwise be applied to much better advantage. But a 

 water-tower is, in many commodities, an indispensable 

 object. It could be either united with a public building, 

 or it might stand apart in the midst of a public square, like 

 an Italian campanile, or, erected upon a neighboring hill- 

 top — in a park for instance — it would serve as a fine lookout 

 point as welk In erecting monuments, merely as such, the 

 lack of means adequate to the purpose is apt to give them a 

 bare or scrimpy look. A water-tower must, of necessity, 

 have ample proportions, and this fact would assure dignity 

 and impressiveness if it were made the motive for a monu- 

 ment. Those communities which have monuments to 

 erect would therefore do well to expend the money at their 

 disposal for the purpose either to build a monumental 

 water-tower, or, if they already have the misfortune to 

 possess one of the ugly bare cylindrical monstrosities, to 

 turn the fact to account by enclosing it with a suitably de- 

 signed exterior of masonry — either of stone or brick, ac- 

 cording to their means — embellished with suitable decora- 

 tive work in the way of carving, sculpture and inscrip- 

 tions. A monument of extraordinary beauty, either simple 

 or elaborate in its decorative features, might thus be ob- 

 tained, and its place in the esteem of the public, together 

 with the honor accorded to the individual thus com- 

 memorated, would be heightened by the fact that the 

 structure was of constant service in distributing throughout 

 the community one of the most indispensable of life-giving 

 elements — the blessing of pure and abundant water. 



Civilizing Power of Floriculture. 



THE "flower mission" reaches further and is more wide- 

 spread in its effects tiian many comprehend. Nothing 

 interests me more than to note the flowers in the windows of 

 the houses of our working-people. Many of the women of 

 such families are able to achieve real wonders in the culture 

 of house and door-yard plants. They will very likely mispro- 

 nounce — even ludicrously mispronounce — their names, but 

 they surely have both common and artistic sense in manipu- 

 lating them — more, I often think, than is displayed by many 

 professional florists. What these unconscious artists know is 

 gained by experience and neighborl}' consultation. It is all 

 practical in the fullest sense of the word, and yet it all seems, 

 and in most cases I am convinced that it is, filled with a very 

 real sestheticism. 



These people, though so fond of plant-culture, and no doubt 

 strongly enjoying its successful results, are very generous. 

 They enjoy quite as much the appreciation of their pets by 

 others as they do the progress of their daily work in caring for 

 their window-gardens or small yard borders. There is never 

 a church meeting, fair or Sunday-school celebration to which 

 they do not freely contribute of their floral stores ; and in a 

 long experience as a judge at city and rural flower-shows, I 

 have never noted the existence of a keener appreciation of in- 

 telligent opinion upon the comparative merits of choice speci- 

 mens of cut flowers or pot-plants. 



Since the advent of the Tuberous Begonias, and the great 

 awakening of interest in Cactus-culture, these village and sub- 

 urban window-gardens have taken on a new interest for me. 

 It is a constant pleasure to observe the houses as I pass, in 

 winter and summer alike, and to notice the entrance of one 



