2l8 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 4, 18 



conclusion announced is simply that the scheme, the requir- 

 ed outlay for which had been almost entirely made before 

 that time, has been abandoned; and that the Commis- 

 sioners have built a permanent music-stand under the 

 shadow of a trimmed-up old natural wood, in a part of 

 the park to which the original design provided no suitable 

 approaches, having in view the maintenance of the se- 

 cluded sylvan character which it originally possessed. 

 The construction which the Commissioners have here 

 erected combines, they state, the purpose of a storage 

 house, of a music-stand, and of a battle-monument, the 

 latter being realized liy giving its basement the semblance 

 of a fortification. 



The noble plaza outside the principal entrance of the 

 park is described by the Commissioners in their report as 

 a " great failure, suggestive of Siberia in winter and Sahara 

 in summer, " and it is suggestetl to convert it into a gar- 

 den after the fashion of the Public Garden in Boston. It is 

 evident that the Commissioners do not understand the 

 motives which led to the creation of the plaza, which is 

 really one of the great features of the park, and which pro- 

 vides, among other things, a proper place in which great 

 public meetings can be held outside the park itself To 

 those who have seen the effects of public meetings upon 

 the London parks, the establishment of this broad paved 

 plaza will seem a wise provision indeed. It greatly facili- 

 tates, too, the entrance of carriages into the parli as the 

 currents of street traffic approach here upon lines coming 

 from six different directions, which without the plaza 

 would create hopeless confusion. 



But it is not necessary to cite other examples of the 

 mental condition of these Park Commissioners as displayed 

 in this remarkable report. 



Enough has already been said to show how great the 

 danger is which constantly threatens not only Prospect 

 Park, but all our public jiarks. and how great is the neces- 

 sity that the people who inhabit our cities should fully ap- 

 preciate and understand the real objects for which parks 

 are created. Until the public is educated in all that 

 relates to parks, and until its interest in them can be 

 stimulated and maintained, it seems impossible for an ar- 

 tist to make a design for a public ground, with any hope 

 that his plan will be realized. Let the motives of such a 

 design be studied and adapted with the greatest care; let 

 them be elaborately discussed and illustrated and explain- 

 ed; even if the public appro\'es and endorses them for years 

 and millions are expended in putting them into execution, 

 the time will come, as it has now come in Brooklyn, 

 when a body of men, with no higher claims upon the con- 

 fidence of the public than their predecessors, will enter 

 upon their duties, either in utter ignorance of what those 

 duties really mean, or with the purpose of ignoring the 

 original motives which governed the construction of their 

 trust, and of seeking for excuses to build a new park upon its 

 ruins. This is a matter of more than local significance 

 and importance. Every park in this country, great and 

 small, has suffered from the causes which are now 

 threatening Prospect Park, and every park must inevi- 

 tably suffer from the same causes, until public interest 

 and public intelligence is so educated in these matters 

 that the prevalent conception of the responsibilities ot 

 Park Commissioners shall be much more serious and 

 enlightened than it is at the present time. 



The Artistic Aspect of Trees. I. — Form. 



MANY persons profess themselves lovers of trees and 

 find much real delight in shadowy forests, varied 

 plantations, and well-developed isolated specimens. Yet 

 most of them would be surprised if they were asked 

 whether they had ever studied the aspect of trees from the 

 artistic standpoint, and very few give proof that they have 

 held this standpoint even unconsciously to themselves. 

 Nevertheless it is only by studying trees, whether con- 



sciously or unconsciously, from the artistic point of view, 

 that we can arrive at a realization of the peculiar character 

 and beauty of one species as contrasted with others, or of 

 the individuals of a single species when seen under dif- 

 ferent conditions. Only thus can we learn really to ap- 

 preciate trees, though science may teach us how to un- 

 derstand them ; and only when we really appreciate them 

 can we thoroughly enjoy them or use them to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



From the artistic point of view trees have three charact- 

 eristics which ma}' be separately considered — form, texture 

 and color. It is of form only that we shall speak just now. 



The first element in the form of a tree is its general 

 outline, its contour, the silhouette it makes when relieved 

 against the sky or against masses of trees of other kinds. 

 The outline peculiar to a given species may vary a good 

 deal, of course, in different individuals ; but in all full- 

 grown and well-grown individuals it will be so nearly the 

 same that the typical shape of the species may often be 

 expressed in a very simple diagram on paper. An isosceles 

 triangle with a broad base, for instance, gives the typical 

 outline of the Spruce ; a similar figure, but with swelling 

 sides, gives that of a freely developed Hemlock ; the White 

 Elm would fill a vase-like figure supported by a straight 

 line for the stem, the Hickory an elongated oval, the 

 Sugar Maple a much fuller oval, the White Birch a very 

 long and slender oval, and the Oak a figure approaching 

 more nearly to a circle. In other cases the form of the head 

 is more irregular, as with the Silver Maple, for instance, 

 the typical shape of which would require to be expressed 

 in a diagram of broken outline. But even in such cases 

 this shape may be easily imprinted upon the memory, and, 

 once imprinted, the pleasure of looking upon a new speci- 

 men of the tree is greatly increased by one's knowledge 

 of hoAv nearly it coincides with, or how far it departs 

 from, the typical form of the species to which it belongs. 



But a tree's general outline is by no means the only 

 thing which determines what an artist would call its 

 form. Its structure is almost of more importance than 

 its outline in determining this, as within comparatively 

 narrow limits its structure does not vary, while its outline 

 may be greatly affected by a hundred accidents of position 

 and experience. The branches of a tree may droop as in 

 the Spruce, or spread at right angles as in the Cedar of 

 Lebanon, or sharply ascend as in the Lombardy Poplar, 

 or weep as in the White Elm ; and between these ex- 

 tremes almost as many variations in branch-direction will be 

 found as there are kinds of trees to examine. Each varia- 

 tion gives a tree a different form, the peculiarities of which 

 are increased, of course, by such other facts of structure as 

 the greater or less number of branches giving greater or 

 less density and uniformity of surface to the head. And 

 each of these differences of form means a difference in 

 the expression of a tree — a dift'erence in the character of 

 its beauty, and, therefore, of its appropriateness to a given 

 situation. A tree of regular, formal outline has beauty of 

 a sort wholly unlike that of a tree with an irregular, bro- 

 ken outline ; and the same is true when we contrast one 

 that has many main branches dividing again into many 

 minor ones, and, therefore, a dense, compact head, with 

 one that has fewer branches and a more open and broken 

 surface. 



The average size to which the trees of a given species 

 are apt to grow is, of course, another element to be con- 

 sidered in studying tree-forms. This is so obvious a char- 

 acteristic than even the least artistic eye will note it, the 

 most thoughtless planter will take it some\\'hat into ac- 

 count. But if we may judge by the results we see all 

 around us in places where an intelligent landscape gar- 

 dener has not been employed, few persons pay any atten- 

 tion to other characteristics of form. As an English writer 

 said not long ago, it is lamentable to see how even the 

 most enthusiastic amateur lovers of trees ignore those 

 considerations which are " the commonplaces of the land- 

 scape gardener. " Mere chance or at most a thoughtless, 



