January 27, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



3i 



( 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



E.jitorial Article : — The Need ot More Public Pleasure-grounds 



Notes of Mexican Travel.— XI I C. G Pr ingle. 



The Winter Solstice at Madeira M. Grabham. 



Nectria on Currant Canes George F. Atkinson. 



New or Little-known Plants: — Mespilus grandiflora. (With figure ) 



Cultural Department : — The Watering of Plants T. D. Hatfield. 



Greenhouse Plants in Flower Robert Cameron. 



Vegetable Notes IV. N. Craig. 



Correspondence : — Trees in Public Parks Charles Eliot. 



Pollen-bearing vs. Plant Vigor Maurice G. Kaitis. 



Recent Publications : — The First Account of Some Western Trees. — II . . C. S. S. 



Notes 



I llustration : — Mespilus grandiflora, Fig. 6 



AGE. 



3 1 



32 



33 

 34 



The Need of More Public Pleasure-grounds. 



DURING two or three years past several local societies 

 have been formed in England for the purpose of saving 

 from defacement or desecration places which have some 

 special beauty, which command some attractive scenery 

 or which appeal to patriotic feeling by some historical or 

 legendary association. Representatives of these societies 

 now point out that a suitable way of commemorating the 

 fact that Queen Victoria has worn the crown longer than 

 any of her predecessors would be to dedicate pleasure- 

 grounds to the enjoyment of the people forever in various 

 parts of the kingdom. Of course, this scheme is not con- 

 fined to large towns and cities, but embraces all parts of 

 the country. While localities of historic interest or spots 

 which have some especial charm of landscape are spoken 

 of as preferable selections, the leading purpose is to secure 

 a public pleasure-ground and call it the Queen's Field, or 

 the Queen's Park, or the Queen's Garden, or whatever name 

 would be most appropriate. Hill-tops which command 

 broad views, bits of woodland, stretches of water, still or 

 flowing, cliffs and downs, old castles and other historical 

 remains are all suggested. It is pointed out in the memo- 

 rial that even in the distinctly rural districts of England 

 there are many counties with no recreation-grounds, no 

 village commons or greens, no playgrounds for children. 

 Instances are given where grounds thrown open to the 

 public, even in remote and solitary places, are no longer 

 solitudes, but are thronged with men, women and chil- 

 dren. In speaking of this proposal, The Outlook for last 

 week says : 



England is rapidly becoming so crowded that even in out- 

 of-the-way places the need of breathing-places for the people 

 is beginning to make itself felt. It would be difficult to imagine 

 a more practicable or charming commemoration of the length 

 of the Queen's reign than that presented by this committee, 

 and it is a suggestion worth careful consideration in this coun- 

 try. No American village ought to be allowed to extend rap- 

 idly without retaining some place for a pleasure-ground. 

 Beautiful views in this country are often to be seen only from 

 private property; the places from which they are obtainable 

 are inaccessible by proper paths, and when one reaches them 

 there are no seats or other provision for comfort. In Germany 

 there is always a well-worn path leading to any beautiful view, 



and there is generally provision for enjoying the view when one 

 reaches the point. We need in this country a national endeavor 

 to protect our fine scenery and to open it up. We need count- 

 less footpaths running from the main roads to points of out- 

 look, and we need provision for rest at these points. All this 

 involves very little expense ; it is distinctly educational ; and 

 it would go far to ease the pressure of hard conditions on the 

 host of people who now feel that they are cut off from the 

 common enjoyments of life. Beautiful views ought to be pub- 

 lic property, for no man owns the landscape, however the 

 fields may be divided among individuals. American commu- 

 nities everywhere could not do better for their citizens and for 

 the future than to cast about for places which, by dedication to 

 public use, may become the pleasure-grounds of the people. 



Readers of this journal do not need to be told that we are 

 in full sympathy with these views. It is not mere sentimen- 

 talism that has prompted wise men in every generation to 

 put themselves in close contact with the beauty of the out- 

 door world. It is a recognized truth that communion with 

 nature is an effective agency in establishing a sound mind 

 in a sound body. We, therefore, believe that natural beauty 

 is a possession to be prized and cherished by a commu- 

 nity, and we repeat what we have before said, that "the 

 reckless destruction of this beauty is a blow, not only at 

 one of the highest and most satisfactory pleasures of the 

 people, but at the public health and wealth." We believe 

 that it is one of the inalienable rights of man to enjoy nat- 

 ural scenery and the pure delights it offers, and that it is, 

 therefore, one of the duties of society which has inherited 

 this beauty to transmit it unimpaired to posterity. We 

 believe that it should be protected not only against the 

 advertising plague, but against the heedless assaults of 

 business enterprise, for the men who build railroads, sink 

 oil wells and open mines, naturally take no thought of the 

 desolation they make, because no one esteems land- 

 scape beauty as one of the vital necessities to the mental 

 and spiritual health of the people. A few forward-looking 

 citizens are protesting against the stripping of the forests 

 from our mountain tops because this impairs the natural 

 and needed supplies of timber and water. Why not pro- 

 test with the same energy against the destruction of the 

 woods because it mars the beauty of the landscape, which 

 is just as truly an inheritance to be cherished as wood and 

 water? If the moral sense of the people were educated to 

 its proper level the wanton defacement of natural scenery 

 would not only be a misdemeanor in law, but it would be 

 considered an offense againstcommon decency, and the man 

 or corporation who heedlessly and needlessly defaces the 

 beauty of the world would be classed among the enemies 

 of society. It is not only such marvels as Niagara, 

 the Palisades, The Dalles of the St. Croix, the Yosemite 

 Valley and the great gorge of the Colorado which ought 

 to appeal to us as a special charge for which our civili- 

 zation is responsible, nor is it only places of such notable 

 historic association as Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge 

 and Missionary Ridge which should be held sacred. There 

 is in almost every town some spot invested with a poetic 

 charm, or with some traditional interest which each com- 

 munity ought to feel bound to preserve for its successors. 



The scheme for county and township parks like that of 

 Professor McBride, of the State University of Iowa, which 

 we advocated last year, is one that ought to attract atten- 

 tion both in the east and the west. The time may come 

 when wooded parks, if of considerable size, can be made 

 useful as object-lessons in forestry, although this period 

 may be too remote to be seriously considered as an argu- 

 ment for their establishment. In the more recently settled 

 regions of the west such public holdings would be most 

 interesting from the fact that they might preserve the 

 original flora of forest and field before it is laid waste. 

 There is not a town in the east which would not be 

 richer for a few acres of its primeval woods in which 

 were preserved some of the original animals now almost 

 totally exterminated. The bolder features of the land still 

 remain to show something of its primitive form and beauty, 

 but the Hemlock groves which darkened its glens are gone ; 



