December 14, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest, 



591 



locks and Cedars add to the charm of the spot in winter-time. 

 The largest Canoe Birch in the state stands at the foot of the 

 bank, not far from the stone bridge, and there is a fine variety 

 of shrubbery scattered about the place in pleasing- groups. 



Upon the borders of the Seekonk River, in the hilly eastern 

 portion of Providence, a beautiful little promontory, contain- 

 ing about five acres, has been presented to the city by two 

 citizens, iVIr. W. P. Vaughan and IVIr. Moses B. Jenkins. This 

 wooded bluff, still wild and uncultivated and abounding in 

 Oaks, fronts upon the Seekonk River, and commands a de- 

 lightful view of that broad stream and its banks. It is called 

 Blackstone Park, and a drive along the shore is in contempla- 

 tion, which, when developed and extended past the spacious 

 grounds of the Butler Hospital, which kindly consents to the 

 use of its long river-front for this purpose, will furnish a most 

 attractive promenade for carriages, bicycles and pedestrians. 

 This parkway, called the Eastern Boulevard, will be a mile 

 and three-quarters in length, and is to be two hundred feet wide, 

 the central portion to be ornamented, and on each side a drive- 

 way forty feet wide. Through the ornamented portion a 

 cable-road will be run, and provision rnade for foot-passengers. 

 This drive, it is hoped, will be extended by Pawtucket, to 

 whose borders it leads, for a corresponding distance through 

 its own territory. In summer little steam pleasure-boats can 

 easily run along the river to Field's Point, now belonging 

 to the city, which is at present an uncultivated sandy cape 

 running out at the point where the Seekonk, otherwise known 

 as the Blackstone, empties into Narragansett Bay. This point, 

 when properly planted and laid out as a pleasure-ground, will 

 form a healthful and cool resort for the crowding inhabitants 

 of the south-eastern poition of the city, and is separated from 

 the Roger Williams Park additions by only a short drive, that 

 could readily be made available as a parkway. It commands 

 a fine view up the river and down the broad bay. 



Numerous squares of one or two acres are scattered about 

 the city as welcome breathing-places for the tired inhabitants, 

 but the public-spirited gentlemen who have done such good 

 work in the past have still more comprehensive schemes for 

 the future. The Public Parks Association, with the enthusias- 

 tic and energetic head of the Friends' School, Mr. Augustine 

 Jones, as its President, are urging the purchase of a great open 

 space on the north of the city, formerly occupied as an encamp- 

 ment by the French in tlie time of the Revolution. Here are 

 thecellarsof the dwellings they once occupied, and, as Rocham- 

 beau Park, this fine tract with its wild landscape, is capable of 

 becoming by cultivation a worthy monument to our old allies. 

 On the north-west side of the city is a stretch of young timber 

 of some seventy acres, known as the Bradley Woods. Among 

 the young and thrifty trees are some venerable specimens of 

 the former forest, and here it is hoped that the city will acquire 

 another park which will be found already provided with a care- 

 fully tended forest of some fifty years' growth. From this 

 point a fine view is to be obtained with a far-away hilly back- 

 ground. 



Not satisfied with this even, the Park Association is agitating 

 for the acquirement of a hill called Neutaconkanut, which is 

 the end of a high promontory of land, projecting to the south 

 from a range of hills into the large plain which surrounds 

 Providence on the west and south. This hill is about 300 feet 

 above tide-water, and at its base flows the foaming Pocasset 

 River at a higher elevation, making the mean height above the 

 upper plain about 200 feet. This hill was mentioned in the 

 original deed from the Indians to Roger Williams as "Ye 

 greate hill of Notquonchanet on the north-west," and was one 

 of the bounds of the purchase, so that it is of classic interest to 

 the Rhode Islanders. It is already a popular resort for thou- 

 sands, who make excursions thither for the sake of the noble 

 view which it commands, and to enjoy its fine natural advan- 

 tages of trees and rocks and rills. There are three summits to 

 the hill, and from the highest of these the eye stretches away 

 south-westward over the closely clustered villages of the little 

 state. Thornton and Cranston, Natick and Pontiac and West 

 Greenwich, with their neighboring hills, are visible, and far- 

 away Cowesset Bay, and the white sails in the West Passage, 

 with the islands scattered here and there. On a clear day New- 

 port itself is visible, and the whole extent of the island of 

 Rhode Island. To the east are more villages, and Providence 

 River in its whole brief extent, from Rocky Point to the city, 

 with the mill-covered hills of Fall River in full view. Then 

 more hills, and Providence itself, with its extended suburbs, its 

 busy factories, its lofty spires ; while northward the view is 

 bounded by other ranges of hills, until we are conscious that 

 we are looking upon one-fourth of the area of the thriving; lit- 

 tle state, and have in view the homes of seven-eighths of its 

 swarming and prosperous inhabitants. From the other sum- 



mits one can see an equally striking spectacle of beauty and 

 prosperity, one of the most pleasing being that of the fertile 

 Pocasset valley, with its hundreds of acres of cultivated land, 

 its farms and farm-houses and tiny villages. Through this 

 valley winds a road which divides it, and bounding it on the 

 west rises a darkly wooded range of hills stretching from 

 north to south. 



" Probably no spot in Rhode Island," writes the President 

 of the Park Association, "equals this in those attractions which 

 are the essential requisites of a rural park. Few have a more 

 attractive outlook. Its beauties are natural, just as God made 

 them. Huge rocks crop out boldly in various localities. 

 Rocks, summits, hillocks, valleys and ravines seem to have 

 taken their places without order, yet are they the more pic- 

 turesque and varied. No building encumbers it, . . . thrifty 

 woods have sprung up over an extensive area of the hill. Pure 

 water flows from never-failing springs. The views from its 

 summits of cities, country, wooded valleys and shining sea 

 are far-reaching and grand. Add to this the great rocks and 

 lovely ravines running down the slopes of tliis hill, and the 

 whole combines in furnishing the natural beauties and essen- 

 tials of a unique and noble park." 



If the city of Providence avails itself of its advantages it will 

 soon be unrivaled as a possessor of desirable recreation- 

 ground. Its own singular beauty of situation demands the re- 

 tention of sucli open spaces as may command the lovely pros- 

 pect that opens about it in all directions. Prosperous, comfort- 

 able, growing with rapidity in extent and population, the chief 

 city of Rhode Island does well not to fall behind in the march 

 of taste and improvement which has begun in our land. 



Hingham, Mciss. M. C. RobbhlS. 



The Weeping Spruce. 



TT had been my desire for the last three years to visit the 

 ■•■ group of Weeping Spruce (Picea Breweriana) growing on 

 the summit of the Siskiyou Mountains, in Siskiyou County, 

 California, and having learned this year that the other conifers 

 in the northern part of the state were seeding I determined to 

 visit the grove and obtain seed, if possible. In company with 

 my father, Mr. Robert Douglas, of Waukegan, Illinois, we went 

 to Grant's Pass, Oregon, the nearest railroad station to the grove, 

 where we procured horses and drove the first day to Andersons, 

 abouttwenty miles from Grant's Pass. Owing to heavy rains we 

 did not reach Waldo until about four o'clock next day, where we 

 engaged a guide, saddle-horses and pack-animals, and left for 

 the trees early the morning after, reaching the " Big Meadows," 

 on the summit of the Siskiyous, about four o'clock, having 

 traveled about twenty-one miles in a horizontal direction and 

 more than one mile in altitude. Waldo is about 1,500 feet 

 above sea-level, and our camping-place was about 7,500 feet. 

 The trail over which we came was made by a Spanish packer 

 for the transportation of provisions from Waldo, Oregon, to 

 Happy Camp, a mining town in California. It is a fair trail for 

 such a rough country, but it is not a macadamized road. We 

 slept that night with some evergreen boughs under us and the 

 blue sky over us part of the night, and the most dense fog 

 I have ever seen for the remainder of the night. 



The next morning we walked up the trail about a mile and 

 a half to the few scattering Weeping Spruces, about sixty in 

 number, which had attained a height of twenty-five feet, at 

 which size they begin to bear seed ; but we found that most 

 of the trees under fifty feet had very imperfect seeds. The 

 cones are from two and a half to three and a half inches in ■ 

 length and three-quarters of an inch in diameter, of a fine 

 purplish color. They mostly grow on the extreme top and 

 ends of upper branches. The- beauty of the trees far sur- 

 passed my expectations. They have the true Spruce form, tall 

 and symmetrical, with horizontal branches, and a beautiful 

 green color. In their general features they resemble a well- 

 gTown Norway Spruce, but their distinguishing beauty is in 

 their long, pliant, pendulous branchlets, which hang straight 

 down from the branches to a length of six or eight feet on the 

 older trees, while they are no larger round than a lead-pencil 

 (see page 595). They have a stately grace in calm weather, but 

 their characteristic impressiveness is only seen when the long 

 flexible branches are undulating in a light breeze or streaming 

 before a gale. 



The bark of this Spruce is thin, smooth and reddish in color ; 

 the wood is white and very tough. The tree felled several 

 years ago by Mr. T. S. Brandegee for the Jesup collection 

 shows no sign of decay as yet. The largest tree in this grove — 

 if grove it can be called, where the trees are scattered over a 

 space of fifty acres, mixed with Firs and Incense Cedars — we 

 found to be by actual measurement 121 feet 6 inches high, 



