December 26, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



517 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUr.I.lSHEIl WEEKLY 11Y 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted bv 



Professor C. S. Sakgen r. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, il 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



HAGE. 



EunORiAi. Ariicl&s: — A Botanic Gnrden for tlic City of Nuw York. — Fruit 



and Vegetables Under Glass 517 



Christmas in the Pines Alis-Iilary Treat. 51S 



Florida Oranges A. M. Oii-tiss. 519 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter ....ir. IVaisoit. 519 



New ok Little Known Plants: — Syringa villosa (with illustration). ... C 5.5. 520 

 Cultural Department; — AutumnApples in New EnglaTid. T. H. Hosktns, M.D, 521 



A Garden of Chrysanthemums (with illustration) John N. Gerard, 522 



Ferns for Cutting IV. 52J 



Chrysanthemums — Haplocarpa Leichtlini — Tea Rose, Madame Hoste... 523 



The Forest;— The Forest Vegetation of North Mexico — X C. G. Pringle. 524 



Correspondence 524 



Recent Publications 525 



Periodical Literature 526 



Notes 527 



Illustrations ;— Syringa villosa. Fig. 83 521 



A Garden of Chrysanthemums 523 



A Botanic Garden for the City of New York. 



THE daily papers have been discussing- lately the pos- 

 sibility of establishing a botanic garden in this city. 

 The moveinent certainly has not been made too soon. 

 Botanical and zoological gardens form a part, and a very 

 important part, of the educational equipment of a great 

 metropolis ; and it is not creditable to the people of this 

 city that it is allowed to fall so far behind the other great 

 commercial centres of the world in this respect. A thoi'- 

 oughly well-equipped and well-maintained garden, carried 

 on upon the principles which should govern such an estab- 

 lishment, can e.xert a wonderful influence in developing 

 and stimulating the intelligence of the public, not only b}^ 

 increasing the knowledge of plants and plant-geography, 

 but of all that relates to horticulture and gardening. 



A good garden, however, is not an easy thing to estab- 

 lish. It must be something more than a mere collection 

 of growing plants ; it cannot serve its purpose, indeed it 

 cannot be administered, unless the living collections are 

 supplemented by a herbarium and library, without which 

 no garden is worthy of the name. A museum, too, in 

 which the products of all plants can be grouped, while not 

 essential for the administration of a garden, is an attractive 

 and valuable educational feature, which should be provided 

 for in any comprehensive scheme of this character 



There are two reasons why botanical gardens fail to ac- 

 complish what is expected of them, and why, from the 

 point of view of popular instruction, there are so very few 

 useful ones. Few persons realize what a very large sum 

 of money it costs to found and maintain a great botanical 

 establishment, and the gardens of the world which are 

 adequately supported with proper endowments may be 

 counted upon the fingers of one hand. The second reason 

 why such gardens fail is found generally in the difficulty 

 of securing men in whom scientific attainments are joined 

 to great administrative capacity to manage them. The 

 man who successfully conducts a botanical establishment, 

 capable of influencing the intelligence of a great metropol- 

 itan population, must possess qualifications of the highest 



order, and an enthusiasm for his work which will enable 

 him to resist the temptations of more lucrative employ- 

 ment, and the opportunity of more immediate influence, 

 which the attainments and character of such a man are 

 pretty sure to bring to him. The gardens at Kew, near 

 London, are what they are to-day — the finest botanical 

 establishment in the world — not because they have been 

 lavishly supported by the British government, but because, 

 through circumstances unprecedentedly favorable, they 

 have been controlled for three generations by men eminent 

 in scientific attainment and administrative ability. 



We call attention to these facts, not because we are not 

 heartily in favor of the establishment of a botanical garden 

 in this city, but in order that the people of New York may 

 realize that it is no easy matter to secure a good one ; 

 that a good deal of money will be needed to support it; 

 and that the proper man to direct the expenditure of this 

 money must be something more than a good gardener or 

 a successful florist, if the garden is to accomplish what is 

 expected of it. 



A garden, to be successful, like any other museum, must 

 be disassociated entirely from politics in order to secure 

 for it a continuation of management in the same hands. 

 This is essential. The botanic garden of New Yorkmust 

 be carried on without any reference to politics, and if this 

 cannot be done the scheme had much better be abandoned 

 at the outset. There is no need of any more botanical 

 gardens in the world run for the purpose of supplying 

 bouquets and dinner-table decorations for the politicians 

 who control the appointment of the managers; or to 

 serve as a means for advancing commercial or private in- 

 terests. 



The question of a site for a botanic garden in the city 

 of New York presents some ditficulties. There are certainly 

 nowhere in the Central Park thirty or forty acres that can 

 be spared for this purpose, or which are suitable for it. It 

 has been urged that a garden in one of the new parks 

 would be too remote from the great mass of population to 

 be useful, but it would not be more remote from the centre 

 of the city than the garden at Kew is from the centre of 

 the London population, which, during some pleasant after- 

 noons, is visited by more than a hundred thousand people. 

 There is an advantage, too, in having the garden as far as 

 possible from the dust and smoke of the city, which must 

 in time influence Central Park unfavorably, and which is 

 almost fatal to a good garden. It is probable, therefore, 

 that if New York ever has a botanical garden at all pro- 

 portionate to its size, it will have to be located in or in 

 connection with one of the new parks, and whether such 

 a garden is established in this century or not, a proper site 

 should be provided for it in any scheme which may be 

 adopted for their improvement. 



There seems to be no reason now why such a garden 

 might not be carried on under the control of a board ot 

 managers, in the same way that the Museums of Art and 

 Natural History are controlled, or by the trustees of Col- 

 umbia College, either independently or forming part of a 

 larger board. Columbia College already owns a very large 

 and valuable herbarium, and a very considerable botanical 

 library. These, in order to avoid duplication, might very 

 suitably serve as a nucleus for the new establishment. 

 The Museum of Natui-al History contains a special collec- 

 tion, the magnificent gift of a public-spii'ited citizen of this 

 town, which might well be the foundation of the new mu- 

 seum', and which would give to it at once a character 

 possessed by no other botanical museum in the world. 



But what the situation requires, if the desire for a botan- 

 ical garden really e.xists in this community, is that some 

 man^of wealth, influence and public spirit, fully alive to 

 the importance of making New York a metropolitan city m 

 the truest sense, should appear and gather together the mate- 

 rial already available, raise the funds necessary tor the estab- 

 lishment, and secure from the city a suitable location, and 

 such co-operation as may be necessary. When this has 

 been done, and the man who can organize and carry on 



