38 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 21, iS 



possible 

 scenery, 

 scanty. 



of the Park to such a use would mean its utter ruin ; or 

 who, if he does comprehend this, entertains the belief that 

 the plain people who would be permitted to sit on a bench 

 by the road-side and see him drive by, would, in this way, 

 drink in a delight which would more than counterbalance 

 any loss or pain, caused by a destruction of the pastoral 

 beauty of the Park. 



Now, the only reason which justifies the setting apart of 

 so large an area for a park in the heart of a city like New 

 York is, that on ground less spacious, it would be im- 

 to secure any broad, reposeful examples of rural 

 As it is, the limits of Central Park are all too 

 The triumph of its designers' skill lies in the fact 

 that a narrow strip of land, broken and folded into ridges 

 of rock, has been turned into a series of tree-bordered 

 meadows, each one giving glimpses of what promise to 

 be still fairer and more quiet fields beyond. It is this 

 pastoral scener}^, and its restful, healing influence upon 

 the minds of those who are worn and wearied with the 

 strained and artificial conditions of city life, which gives 

 the Park its value. This is the fundamental purpose of the 

 Park ; and the roads and paths and bridges are only of 

 value as they help the visitor to obtain the refreshment 

 offered b)'' its quiet prospects. 



The gentlemen who are able to possess fast horses, do 

 not stand in need of this refreshment as much as some of 

 their less favored fellows. Their winters are passed in the 

 sunshine of the South and their summers in villas at Lenox 

 or cottages by the sea. But to the poor and the children 

 of the poor the Park offers the only glimpse of greensward 

 that greets their eyes from one year's end to the other. It 

 seems a cruelty to destroy these pictures of peace that a 

 wise forethought has prepared for them simply to enable a 

 few "opulent citizens" to enjoy their chosen pastime for a 

 few weeks in the Spring and Autumn. And this is espe- 

 cially true, because the Park and its scenery add nothing to 

 the enjoyment of these horsemen, who find in the driving 

 itself its own exceeding great reward. Some of these gen- 

 tlemen have famous picture galleries, and all right-minded 

 persons would sympathize with their horror and distress 

 if some vandal hand should cut out a strip from the border 

 of one of their favorite landscapes. But the living picture 

 is just as truly a work of art as the painted one, and the 

 cutting away of this broad stretch of verdure and substitut- 

 ing for it something entirely incongruous with its motive 

 and purpose would be an outrage quite as brutal. 



It is discouraging that elementary principles like these 

 need to be stated now after the Park itself has been for 

 thirty years pleading its own excuse for being. But there 

 are men who do not hesitate, when their minds are filled 

 with the clamors of a controlling passion, to argue in favor 

 of some encroachment upon the Park that "it was made 

 to use and not to look at." The notion at the bottom of 

 this is, that the only legitimate use to which land in a city 

 can be put is to be built upon or trampled over, or in some 

 way " improved" or occupied. Even a Park Commissioner 

 who had a scheme to fill up one of the fairest vales of Cen- 

 tral Park with cheap carpentry once justified his purpose 

 by calling the spot " a piece of unimproved land." So long- 

 as it is not recognized as a principle of action that beauty 

 may be in itself of the highest use ; so long as it is not un- 

 derstood, that from the most practical, common sense 

 view, the primary "use" of a pleasure ground like Central 

 Park is "to be looked at," just so long every urban park 

 in the country is threatened with destruction. 



There is no need therefore to state here the special ob- 

 jections to this speed-road. There are difficulties in law 

 to be urged by those who have the right to enter the Park 

 and cross this track. There are enormous difficulties 

 in the way of its construction. There are difficulties which 

 would destroy its value as a track for fast driving even if 

 it could be built. But these special objections might not 

 hold against the next threat of invasion ; and one encroach- 

 ment will certainly be followed by another, for there are a 

 hundred classes of people — each with a claim upon the 



city's pleasure ground as valid as that of the fast drivers — 

 and every one will feel encouraged to pre-empt a quarter 

 section here or there for the special business or pleasure in 

 which its members are chiefly interested. 



What is needed most is intelligent opinion as to the pri- 

 mary uses and purposes of well-planned and planted parks. 

 Their value as breathing spaces, as aids to purify the air, 

 as places for exercise, is constantly and properly urged ; 

 but it is only when their higher function, their healthful 

 influence upon the mind, is universally appreciated, that 

 the foundation is laid for the strongest resistance against 

 attacks upon their integrity. 



Ghent Azaleas. 



GHENT Azaleas, as they are gen"erally known in hor- 

 ticultural literature, are a race of garden hybrids 

 produced in the first place by crossing Azalea Ponlica with 

 different American species, especially A. calemiidacea, A. 

 viscosa and A. nudiflora, and then impro^'ed b}^ selecting 

 the best varieties raised from the seed of these hybrids. 

 They are, perhaps, when in flower, the most beautiful of 

 all our hardy shrubs. They are equally beautiful when 

 massed in great beds or when grown singly. Their bril- 

 liant, deliciously fragrant flowers range in color from crim- 

 son and pink, through orange and yellow to almost white. 

 No plants bloom more freely and few last longer in 

 bloom. These Azaleas flourish in good garden soil, but 

 like the evergreen Rhododendrons, they cannot bear lime, 

 and the region where they can be grown in the United 

 States therefore is not very large. Although the plants 

 are all perfectly hardy, the blossom buds of some varie- 

 ties are killed in severe winters and some grow less vig- 

 orously than others. 



The following varieties, selected for a large collection, 

 are hardy, vigorous and free blooming, their flower buds 

 never suffering in the most severe winters : Henry Waterer, 

 Belle Merville, Heureuse Surprise, Madame Baumann, 

 Fama, Gloria Mundi, Astreans, Grand Monarque, Pallas, 

 Beaute Celeste, Prince Plenri de Pays Bas. 



Plardly inferior in beauty to any of the varieties of 

 this garden race is our native Azalea calendulacea, and 

 one of the great sights of this continent for the lover of 

 flowers is the slopes of the Southern Allegheny Moun- 

 tains when they are blazing in June with the great flame- 

 colored masses of this splendid plant. 



But these hybrid Azaleas can, perhaps, be still further 

 miproved, or their blooming period, at least,, greatly ex- 

 tended, by mingling with them the blood of Azalea arbo- 

 rescens, a very late-blooming, hardy species, with white, fra- 

 grant flowers, from the Carolina Mountains, and of the 

 Californian A. occidcntalis, another late blooming species. 

 Their further improvement offers an inviting field of ex- 

 perimen't. 



These plants are spoken of here as Azaleas : in reality 

 they are all Rhododendrons, for Azalea only differs from 

 Rhododendron in its deciduous leaves, a view now accept- 

 ed by botanists, but, in speaking of them from a cultural 

 point of view, much confusion will be saved by retaining 

 .Azalea, the name by which they are universally known in 

 gardens. 



Landscape Gardening. — IV. 



IT has been said that though the landscape gardener 

 works with Nature's own materials and processes, he 

 does not lack those opportunities for self-expression, which 

 alone make art a possibility. His task is to produce beau- 

 tiful compositions — beautiful pictures. Nature supplies him 

 with his factors — always gives him vitality, light, atmos- 

 phere, beautiful colors and charming details, and often 

 lovely or imposing forms in the configuration of the soil ; 

 and she will see to the perfect finishing of his design. But 

 his design is the main thing and must be of his OA\-n con- 

 ceiving. 



