September 5, 1SS8.] 



Garden and forest. 



327 



if open and grassy, in either case ought to appear to be 

 a part of the larger surface of turf, unless tliere was some 

 obvious reason to the contrary. In making a steep slope 

 on the downhill side of a road, there ought to be, if possi- 

 ble, a nearly level space between the edge of the road and 

 the beginning of the steep slope of from five to fifteen feet, 

 partly to satisfy the eye as to a sense of danger of acci- 

 dentally driving down the slope and partly to make it 

 appear as if the road had been built upon a natural shelf 

 or terrace. The latter reason applies equally to a slope 

 on the uphill side of a road. In either case, the distance 

 and shape of the slope should be varied from time to 

 time, taking advantage of the configuration of the adjoin- 

 ing ground, or of the existence of rocks or trees, as sug- 

 gestions for determining where to widen the space be- 

 tween the slopes and the road, or to make them more 

 gentle. / C. Olmsled. 



Brookline, Mass. 



July on the Shores of Buzzard's Bay. 



COMPARED with central and western ?ilassachusetts, 

 this south-eastern portion of the state is, of course, 

 deficient both in striking landscape features and in trees 

 of noble size. One goes to Berkshire, not to Plymouth 

 County, to find beautiful views, in the popular sense of the 

 word, and finely developed specimens of trees of many 

 species. Yet the true lover of landscape beauty, as well 

 as the lover of nature's minor productions, does not fail of 

 satisfaction here. Ours hardl)^ looks like a sea-shore — it 

 wears rather the aspect of the shore of a great quiet lake, 

 for beaches are few and narrow, and almost everywhere 

 vegetation comes close down to the salt water. But pret- 

 tinesSj' if not grandeur, results from this fact ; and even 

 when the water is out of sight there is a great deal of 

 charm in our moist meadows and sandy heath-like tracts, 

 our thick, low-growing forests everywhere encircling tiny 

 ponds or larger lakes, our ubiquitous, picturesque stone 

 fences, and the low, unpainted .gray cottages, which harmo- 

 nize so well with them and with the character and tone 

 of the landscape in general. 



Our trees are few m number, and the two which are 

 most prominent in the more westerly parts of Massachu- 

 setts — the Sugar Maple and the Elm — are wholly wanting, 

 in a wild estate. White and Pitch Pines, Scarlet Maples, 

 the northern Oaks, Gray Birches, a few Tupelos, an 

 occasional Sassafras, and shrub-like Junipers — these are all 

 we have ; and few of them are of large size, for the woods 

 are almost altogether "second growth," and in some 

 places clearly show by the lines of overgrown stone-wall 

 which intersect them that they cover what were once 

 cultivated fields. Yet here and there one sees White Pines 

 of grand build and no inconsiderable height forming stately 

 groves devoid of undergrowth ; and in all other places 

 the young trees compiensate by their graceful habit and 

 felicitous intermingling for whatever they may lack in size. 



The real richness of the district lies, however, in its 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants. The Heath Family rules 

 in the land and to say this is to say enough in its praise. 

 The place of the long-vanished Mayflower is not un- 

 worthily filled in July by the Wintergreen. Huckleberries 

 and Blueberries of many sorts, from the tallest to the 

 lowest, hung out their exquisite white bells by myriads all 

 through the first part of the month, while, as the season 

 has been a late one, the Andromeda is but just past its 

 prime. Mountain and Sheep Laurel have both been 

 blooming in great abundance, and the latter — after a fash- 

 ion which many flowers have hereabouts and which Air. 

 Burroughs once remarked upon — has been deep and bril- 

 liant in color to a degree seldom seen elsewhere. The 

 White Azalea is going, after having filled the swamps for 

 weeks with its incomparable perfume, but Clethra is fast 

 getting ready to fill its place. Several Pyrolas are now in 

 bloom, the most abundant being the Shin-leaf; the two 

 Chimaphilas are flowering ; and those who like the corpse- 

 like Indian Pipe may find it in abundance. 



These are by no means all our ErkacecB nor are the 

 Ericacea our only boast among blossoming shrubs. The 

 four species of Ilex — Holly, Black Alder, Ink Berry and 

 /. Icevigata — are just dropping their pretty white blossoms. 

 The Viburnums are covered now with green fruit which 

 will soon grow pink on its way towards blackness, and be, 

 for awhile, almost more effective than flowers. The But- 

 tonbush is in bud, mingling everywhere with the Alder 

 clumps. The day of the Elder-blossoms is not yet quite past 

 and we have them in abundance, while nowhere could 

 one find Wild Roses with flo\vers more thickly crowded 

 or richer and deeper in hue. Two Spiraeas — Meadow 

 Sweet and Steeplebush — are everywhere; and, in short, the 

 only shrub one misses for which one looks on the New 

 England coast is the Barberry, which, common further 

 north and also in Connecticut, seems to have passed us en- 

 tirely by in its welcome work of colonization. 



As for our herbaceous plants, maritime and other, their 

 list is too long to tell, even although August rather than 

 July is their time for flowering in greatest variety. One 

 of the prettiest is the Spreading Dogbane {Apocymini an- 

 droscsmi/oh'tim), with its blood-red leaf stalks, and drooping, 

 white, bell-shaped flowers. The Tall Meadow Rue is still 

 in bloom, and with it one occasionally finds the curiously 

 ill-scented form of the purple Thalictrum (var. cerifernni). 

 The Virginia Anemone occurs, but less finely developed 

 than further west. Lilium Pltiladelphicuni is just going 

 out of flower as the great Turk's Cap Lily is coming in. A 

 month ago the low grounds along the shore were blue 

 with two species of Iris, and their humbler cousin, the 

 Blue-eyed Grass. To-day they are spotted with the yel- 

 low Star Grass, and spiked with the tall white Aletris. It 

 is a great country for Milkweeds, for Compositse, for 

 Evening Primroses, for Potentillas, and, of course, for 

 Rushes and Sedges. Several Polygalas are now in blos- 

 som and the pretty little wild Flax. And as for Orchids, 

 we have just had meadows pink over broad spaces with 

 Calopogons, intermixed with which were spikes of the 

 still more graceful and hjvely pink Pogonia. Two or 

 three greenish Habenarias are coming into flower, and our 

 white one {Habenaria bleplian'glol/is, var. holopeta/a) will 

 soon be present in large quantities, together with, in lesser 

 quantities, both species of Goody era. 



There is nothing new or striking, I know, in this cata- 

 logue, and perhaps its greatest interest may lie in the fact 

 that I confess it so incomplete as to be hardly a catalogue 

 at all — for wha 1 1 wanted to show was that, unassuming 

 though our district is, there is good reason for our liking it 

 so well. The only thing I have to note which may be un- 

 expected, is that in addition to the common Green-brier — 

 Simlax rotundifolia — ^S. glaiica grows here in great abun- 

 dance, although by rights (I mean according to Dr. Gray) 

 it should not venture further north than southern New 

 York. Even this is hardly news, as the plant had already 

 been found by Mr. C. E. Faxon on Blue Hill, near Boston ; 

 and even if it were news I could not claim the credit of 

 the discovery. It would belong to a haunter of these woods 

 whose eyes are a good deal keener than mine. It may be 

 worth while to add that our Pines, which last year bore no 

 seed, are this year full of ripening cones — both the 

 White and the Pitch Pines. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



JMaiioii, Mass. 



A Bridge in the Thiergarten, Berlin. 



THE Thiergarten in Berlin is, without doubt, the finest 

 large public park in Europe, and it seems doubly 

 beautiful and valuable as it forms a veritable oasis in the 

 flat, sandy and generally treeless surroundings of the Ger- 

 man capital. It was laid out in accordance with the plans 

 of Knobelsdorf, the architect of Frederick the Great, about 

 the middle of the last century, and, in accordance with 

 the taste of the time, partly in a formal way. An open 

 space, peopled with many statues, ^^■hich was called "The 

 Star," because it was the meeting point of a number of 

 straight-lined alleys, formed its central feature. But the 



