33° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 496. 



monious lines of other plantations are interfered with. But 

 if the lawn is so large that a few trees or bits of lower 

 foliage will not spoil it, and if no special reasons prevent, 

 then the best places for them will be in association with 

 any rocks or stones that may exist. The existence of these 

 as alien objects in the spread of turf gives a logical reason 

 for the presence of others. And the effect of both stone 

 and tree will be enhanced by the association of the two. 

 The Japanese understand this truth very clearly. There is 

 nothing to which they give closer attention than to the 

 grouping of trees and stones. Often, indeed, the rock or 

 stone itself is introduced to complete an effect which 

 seemed incomplete without it; and sometimes the desire 

 for a stone appropriate for association with a given tree 

 leads to its importation from some distant part of the 

 empire. To such subtleties of artistic endeavor we have 

 not yet attained. But two at least of our American land- 

 scape-gardeners — Mr. Olmsted and Mr. Vaux — have thor- 

 oughly understood how much beauty may be gained by 

 the proper combination of vegetable and lithic forms. The 

 result of their combined work may be studied in the Central 

 Park. No features of this beautiful and individual pleasure- 

 ground are more beautiful or more individual than its 

 groupings of stones and foliage. And although some of 

 its most admirable results in this direction were obtained 

 by clothing existing rocks with foliage, in other cases the 

 stones as well as the plants were deliberately selected and 

 placed. The more " natural " their effect the less sure can 

 the observer be that there is anything really natural about 

 them, for he instinctively applies the word to those things 

 in Central Park which are to-day most beautiful, while only 

 the student who has inquired into its genesis can guess 

 how often these very things are altogether the products 

 of art. 



If, therefore, a rock or stone breaks the uniformity of a 

 lawn, the advisability of planting something in connection 

 with it may well be considered. Of course, its size and 

 shape and situation must determine how many plants 

 should be set beside it, and of what sort and size they 

 should be. If it is itself of large size, a goodly tree may 

 overshadow it. A smaller stone will demand a smaller 

 tree, or one or two graceful shrubs. And a ledge which 

 spreads near the surface of the ground may demand only 

 a prostrate shrub or some creeping plant. Vines may 

 always be introduced, in moderation ; but whether with 

 vines or with larger plants, moderation must always be 

 practised. The last thing that should be done with a 

 n.irturesque stone is to cover it up. Its character should 

 ue enhanced and completed, not overshadowed or con- 

 cealed. It should not be "planted out" by thick tall 

 masses of foliage, nor allowed to disappear beneath heavy 

 wreaths of trailing or creeping things. An harmonious 

 group should be formed in which, as a rule, the stone 

 itself should be the most conspicuous feature, or at least, 

 speaking artistically, the central feature. How this should 

 be done Nature will teach, if her own works are lovingly 

 studied. The planter who has tasks of this kind before 

 him cannot do better at this season than drive along the 

 country roads, or wander through old meadows and open 

 woodlands, and see with what combinations of foliage 

 Nature adorns her huge rocks, her smaller boulders, and 

 her low out-cropping ledges of stone. 



The Dalles of the St. Croix, Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota. 



FOR some years a movement has been on foot to secure 

 a reservation of about 1,550 acres on the picturesque 

 banks of the St. Croix River for an interstate park. The 

 nucleus of this park is a tract of one hundred and fifty 

 acres already acquired, including some of the most pictur- 

 esque scenery of that wild region which received its name 

 from the early French voyageurs. The French word Dalles 

 signifies flagstones, and the term was here applied on 

 account of the peculiar stratification of the rocks of this 



part of the St. Croix River, which, owing to their post- 

 glacial undermining by the water and the action of frost, 

 have fallen down in great blocks and slabs, separated along 

 their natural, almost upright planes from the rock walls 

 which border the stream. 



A gloomy grandeur characterizes this part of the river, 

 which contrasts delightfully with the cheerful sparkle 

 of the upper rapids, the quiet beauty of Thaxter's Lake and 

 the sunny intervale with its scattered shade-trees, which 

 are also features of the scene. The hills on the Wisconsin 

 side are lofty, and the Minnesota gorges precipitous, and 

 a fine old forest forms a boundary between the stern 

 scenery of the embattled rocks and the quiet farm lands 

 toward the west. Should the whole tract desired by the 

 park commissioners be set apart by the legislatures of the 

 two states it will include a most interesting variety of land- 

 scape, ranging from the broad lawn-like expanse of the 

 intervale to the savage features of the shadowy gorges 

 through which the whirling stream tumbles and foams. 

 The hope is to maintain the wild, natural features of this 

 scene, and to preserve and enhance its native distinction 

 by protecting it from the devastating hand of the settler, 

 the woodcutter and the manufacturer. 



Some account of the strange formations which charac- 

 terize this region may prove interesting. An admirable 

 report, published recently, contains papers by scientific 

 men and the landscape-gardener of the park, Mr. F. H. 

 Nutter, and furnishes numerous valuable details concern- 

 ing the reservation. From this report we learn that the 

 Dalles of the St. Croix River, situated in Chisago County, 

 Minnesota, at the head of navigation, with certain adjacent 

 lands, were acquired by the appropriation of $6,000 by the 

 Minnesota legislature in April, 1895, and ten days pre- 

 viously the Governor of Wisconsin approved a bill to 

 obtain lands in Polk County of that state, along the east 

 bank of the St. Croix, and commissioners were appointed 

 to examine the lands and report concerning them. Since 

 the purchase of the first 150 acres, bills have been pending 

 before the legislatures of the two states to secure about 

 300 acres additional in Minnesota and 1,100 in Wisconsin, 

 and it is to be hoped that political influence will not pre- 

 vent the carrying out of a scheme so important to the 

 welfare and enjoyment of future generations. Active- 

 minded citizens have been working hard for this desired 

 consummation, and great interest has been shown by the 

 local press. A series of lectures at Taylor's Falls, Minne- 

 sota, was arranged for, to which eminent speakers gave 

 their services, and the adjacent railways aided also. The 

 commissioners worked with zeal, the ladies of the Twin 

 Falls cooperated with the aldermen to help them, and the 

 work was pushed along and public interest aroused so 

 that it is to be hoped the future of the Interstate Park is 

 practically assured. 



The peculiar and unique character of the Dalles entitles 

 them to be preserved from spoliation forever. The rocks 

 which compose them are the trap or basalt which, when 

 upheaved in vast masses and left to cool slowly under 

 pressure, forms regular columns like those of Fingal's Cave 

 or the Palisades of the Hudson. Here, however, where they 

 were thrown up in lighter masses and cooled without great 

 pressure, they form irregular angular heaps with smooth, 

 almost unbroken cleavage. Their color is beautiful and 

 varied, owing not alone to their mineral composition, but 

 to the growth of minute lichens upon their surfaces, which 

 vary in color with the dryness or moisture of the atmosphere. 

 Sometimes they are sombre gray, and again iridescent with 

 opaline tints. The rock angles are sharp, their faces as 

 unworn as if they had not weathered thousands of years of 

 storms, and they are especially remarkable for the freakish 

 forms in which they rise into columns or monumental 

 piles, and for the strange outlines of human faces which 

 one detects in their irregular shapes. Holes, called wells, 

 some of which are thirty feet in diameter, and others only 

 a few inches wide, are found here, formed by the churning 

 of bowlders during the cascade period through which the 



