12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 464. 



It must not be supposed that there was no opposition to 

 this movement in favor of public parks when it first began. 

 Indeed, the vigor of the movement can only be estimated 

 by the opposition it created at the outset. When, after long 

 argument, the land for Central Park was acquired, good 

 people feared that it would simply be a field for the devel- 

 opment of riot and license among its frequenters, and even 

 after the enterprise was well advanced a leading news- 

 paper in this city pronounced it " all folly to expect our 

 country to have parks like old aristocratic countries.'' 

 It was argued that reputable gentlemen and ladies would 

 never consent to associate themselves with rowdies and 

 nursemaids, and eminent citizens declared that no gentle- 

 man would ever resort to it or allow his wife and daughter 

 to visit it. Lawyers affirmed that it would be impossible 

 to police so large a space, and one wealthy gentleman pro- 

 tested against the extravagance of its construction, and 

 asserted that the designs were quite fine enough for his 

 own private grounds. Fortunately, the Park Commis- 

 sioners were men of nerve and intelligence, and they were 

 clothed with extraordinary powers, so that they rushed 

 the work, employing thousands of laborers at once to get 

 it beyond the reach of those who were bent on stopping it. 

 It need not be added that it required only a few years' 

 experience to demonstrate that the influence of the park 

 was refining instead of degrading, and that the fourteen 

 million dollars which it originally cost was one of the 

 most fruitful investments the city ever made. 



We no longer hear objections of this sort against park- 

 building, but there is another danger that ought to be 

 shunned. It is not enough to secure a certain number of 

 acres wherever they can be had with least cost and trouble. 

 In the first place, the land should be wisely selected and 

 its boundaries intelligently determined. Design for its 

 improvement must be made by competent artists and 

 executed with skill. When completed, pleasure-grounds 

 must be maintained with care, for, if left to uncontrolled 

 nature and unpoliced, they may become repulsive desola- 

 tions. To secure a good design we need a school of land- 

 scape art, for, although such a school will never create a 

 great artist, it can teach him the history of what has been 

 done, point out to him what tools he needs and how to use 

 them, and show him how he can most directly reach his 

 end. Graduates of such a school, with added instruction 

 in horticulture and engineering, ought not to commit any 

 gross offenses against good taste in Landscape Art. 



Mrs. Robbins' article includes an interesting sketch of 

 the park enterprises in many of our great cities, and 

 although all readers will not be convinced by its optimistic 

 tone that the millennium of pure art is at hand in America, 

 it will be found instructive and stimulating. 



Classification of Varieties of Peaches. 



THAT there are well-defined types of Peaches which behave 

 differently in different latitudes is well known, and some 

 knowledge of the classification of varieties as affected by 

 climate is necessary, not only to the practical grower, but to 

 the scientist as well. The Peach has been so modified by cli- 

 matic influence and crossing of the different types that it is 

 difficult to devise a system which will include all varieties and 

 not be subject to some criticism. But if a system can be de- 

 vised by which one can distinguish a large number of varieties 

 and predict within a reasonable degree of certainty which 

 types are likely to succeed in a given section, a long 

 step is made in the direction of most valuable knowledge. 

 The one based upon the presence or absence of glands 

 on the foliage is of considerable value in distinguishing 

 varieties in the nursery before they fruit. But we have 

 varieties which bear different glands upon the same tree. 

 Seedlings from a given variety may bear entirely different 

 ones, and vary also in the adherence or non-adherence of flesh 

 to the pit. And this is true even when the variety has been 

 fertilized by its own pollen. 



There are types coining from China, Japan and Java, and 

 others which are now being built up in the southern part of the 

 United States, which the above points do not distinguish with 

 clearness. We have seedlings from the Honey Peach which 



came from China in 1854; seedlings from the Peen-to, which 

 came from Australia in 1863 ; then, again, there are seedlings 

 of the Spanish or Indian type ; all ot which are adapted to more 

 southern latitudes than those of the Persian strain, which con- 

 stitute the bulk of northern orchards. These new types are 

 proving valuable along the Gulf states, where the Peach has 

 not been grown as successfully as it has farther north. It is 

 important now that the botanical characteristics of each type 

 (which we shall call race for a better term) should be recorded 

 with clearness, and the climate in which each grows best be 

 pointed out. 



During the past four years the Peach has been one of my 

 special studies. Our experimental orchard contains 190 varie- 

 ties. Large experimental orchards have been studied near the 

 Gulf and over a thousand miles farther north. From what I 

 have thus learned it seems to me that what is known as the 

 " Onderdonk classification" is the best. An outline of this 

 scheme appears in the report of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture for 1887, page 648. Some of the distinctions 

 made in this classification cannot be noticed with decisive 

 clearness a few hundred miles farther north, but in the semi- 

 tropical climate of the coast region the characters are striking. 

 This at once indicates that the different races originated in dif- 

 ferent degrees of latitude and at different altitudes. These facts 

 are further substantiated by botanical characteristics. We divide 

 the Peaches now cultivated in the United States into five races : 

 (1) Peen-to, (2) South China, (3) Spanish or Indian, (4) North 

 China, and (5) Persian. By race is meant "a variety so fixed 

 as to reproduce itself with considerable certainty by seed." 



Seed Characteristics. — The shape, size and corrugations 

 of the seed are so well marked in the more distinct repre- 

 sentatives of the different races that after a little practice one 

 can distinguish them apart bv this means alone. This can be 

 readily seen from the figure (see page 13) from a photograph. 



It will be seen that the seed of the Peen-to is nearly round, 

 much compressed at the ends, corrugations small and some- 

 what rounded. The seed of the Honey is oval, with apex slightly 

 recurved, corrugations slight, prominent flange on one side. 

 Seed of Spanish is large, oval, nearly fiat, apex prominent, cor- 

 rugations very long and wide, at the base they run more longi- 

 tudinally than in any other race, flange on one side olten 

 prominent. Seed of North China is nearly round, very thick, 

 corrugations rather slight and irregular, apex rather promi- 

 nent. Seed of the Persian is somewhat round, more flattened 

 at the base than any other, corrugations prominent toward 

 apex, but very seldom extend to base, apex more or less prom- 

 inent. A resemblance can be seen between the Spanish and 

 Persian, and as there is no definite history in reeard to the origin 

 of the Spanish it is probable the types had the same origin. 

 The Indian type of the Spanish can only be distinguished from 

 the Persian in many cases by the heavy down on the fruit, 

 which is characteristic of the Spanish. 



THE DIFFERENT RACES AS AFFECTED BY CLIMATE. 



I. Peen-to (Prunus platycarpa. Decne.) Tree rather large ; 

 branches vigorous, willow-like, branching at an angle of about 

 forty degrees; flowers large, opening early, frequently in Jan- 

 uary in the Gulf states, often at a low temperature and very 

 irregularly ; leaves narrow and long, inclined to be evergreen ; 

 fruit much flattened; skin white and mottled with carmine; 

 flesh white ; flavor sweet, with peculiar almond tang. It is 

 adapted to the northern part of the Citrus belt, in which climate 

 it ripens from May 1st to June 1st. It has a tendency to sport, 

 and some valuable varieties are now coming from it for the 

 extreme southern part of the Gulf states where other races will 

 not grow successfully. 



II. South China Race. — (The parent of this race is the 

 Honey Peach, Prunus Persica. B. & H.) Tree medium-sized ; 

 branches leaving the trunk at an angle of about fifty degrees and 

 curving upward ; buds quite prominent ; flowers always large 

 and very abundant, with greater resisting power against cold 

 than any other race tested in this climate ; has borne crops 

 annually during the past four years, when many other 

 varieties belonging to different races failed ; foliage small, 

 slightly conduplicate, distributed all along the limb, color dark 

 green, in fall slightly tinged with red ; requires short season of 

 rest; fruit rather small, somewhat oval in shape, slightly flat- 

 tened, suture very deep at basin, but does not extend more 

 than one-third the way down ; apex long and recurved ; flavor 

 peculiar, honey sweet. Supposed to have originated in south- 

 ern China, from which the seed came. This race is adapted 

 to more southern climates than any other, except the Peen-to. 

 Honey seedlings are proving very valuable for the southern 

 Gulf states. 



III. Spanish Race. — Tree very large, except in Indian type, 



