42 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 310. 



looked that the forest area of the Catskill region is three- 

 fifths as large as that of the Adirondacks. Of this wood- 

 land the state already owns about 50,000 acres in scattered 

 lots, and it is in every way desirable that this should be 

 made a solid tract by the purchase of additional lands, so 

 that the whole could be brought under systematic forest 

 management. The Commission thinks that it would be 

 advisable for the state to acquire one hundred thousand 

 acres of forest lying near the territory which it already 

 owns, and they have presented a bill which includes pro- 

 vision for this purpose. 



It is greatly to be desired that this Catskill forest should 

 be secured at once. Divided counsels, repeated changes 

 of plan and endless delays have left the Adirondack prob- 

 lem a more difficult one to grapple with every year since 

 Horatio Seymour wisely urged the state to take possession 

 of it, and every succeeding year there has been less forest 

 to preserve, and what remained has been less worth pre- 

 serving. It will be a cause of lasting regret if this effort 

 to secure a Catskill Forest Reserve should only prove the 

 beginning of more discussion, more postponement, and 

 more half-hearted and shifting purpose. That policy has 

 been tried long enough already. 



The Megalithic Humboldt Monument in Berlin. 



THE city of Berlin, although not among the oldest of 

 the great capitals of Europe, is growing with a 

 rapidity that rivals the giant cities of America. This con- 

 tinual expansion means, on the one hand, the destruction 

 of countless old and beautiful gardens, and, on the other, 

 a longing to plant new ones wherever this is possible. 

 These changes bring sadness as well as pleasant anticipa- 

 tion, for, certainly, it is not an unmixed pleasure to live in 

 an epoch of perpetual demolition. Buildings can be quickly 

 reconstructed, but when groves and shrubberies are swept 

 away their restoration is the work of years, still it is com- 

 forting to know that public parks and gardens are multi- 

 plying now in front of the gates of the capital of Germany. 



Among suburban places of recreation our old and match- 

 less Thiergarten shows the fresh beauty of the present and 

 the majesty of the past. Its essential elements are Nature's 

 own. Art has embellished its great forest-features, but it 

 has not largely altered them. Moreover, being the only 

 park adjacent to the richest quarter of the city, it is con- 

 spicuously preferred by society as a place for its prome- 

 nades. On the other hand, to the northward of the city, is 

 the Humboldt-hain, still young, but full of promise for the 

 future. From day to day this garden of the people is grow- 

 ing into new beauty. Its vast verdurous expanse, less 

 fashionable than the Thiergarten, but more artistically con- 

 ceived and enriched with a larger number of botanical 

 treasures, was established by the Berlin municipality for 

 the especial purpose of providing an outdoor place of 

 recreation for the working-classes at the very door of their 

 homes. This park was designed and planted by Meyer, 

 who died about ten years ago. In his soul the genius 

 of a Puckler seemed to have been born anew, and in the 

 service of one of the great municipalities of Europe a 

 career was opened to him which gave free scope to his 

 talent. 



The name chosen for this park is an evidence that the 

 greatest naturalist of his century still lives in the memory 

 of his fellow-citizens. To this day the splendor of his 

 name adds lustre to his natal town, and for the stranger 

 Berlin will always remain the city of Humboldt. Some 

 doubt exists as to the exact spot of his birth, but his bap- 

 tism took place in Berlin, and he always regarded himself 

 a true child of that town, and during his whole life held it 

 in unalterable affection. Berlin really owed him, therefore, 

 the tribute of its gratitude, and in giving his name to its 

 recently established north park the city not only honored 

 the man who is venerated in two hemispheres, but also 

 honored itself by demonstrating that, in spite of the prevail- 



ing power of military traditions in Prussia, it never ceased 

 to congratulate itself on having added this star of the first 

 magnitude to the galaxy of science. 



Nevertheless, it was fated that, a short time after his death, 

 the popularity of Humboldt should pass through a season 

 of apparent eclipse. Was it because his convictions, too 

 liberal for the friends of a king, were posthumously pub- 

 lished through the indiscretion of a friend? Was it because 

 of a total reversal of public opinion consequent upon three 

 consecutive wars? Under the device, " Blood and Iron," 

 a different form of hero-worship seemed to prevail, but 

 Berlin remained unshaken in its prediction. Holding a 

 position that was delicate in many ways, the administra- 

 tion of this royal city gave a fine proof of its independent 

 spirit, by identifying itself with the traditions of the spirit 

 of liberty, creating a park consecrated at once to the people 

 and to the memory of so enlightened a soul as Humboldt's. 



This courageous civic act was approved by the best cit- 

 izens of Berlin. The new park was in itself a significant 

 monument to the genius who had given it his name. And, 

 moreover, by tardily erecting a statue in front of the court 

 of the University, official Prussia had canceled a debt of 

 honor which had remained too long unpaid. But the ardor 

 of Humboldt's admirers was not yet contented ; it aspired 

 to something beyond the powers of the sculptor's art. At 

 the end of that triumphal street, Under den Linden, this art 

 had done its best to immortalize the great man. It seemed 

 as though Nature had consciously reserved to herself the 

 power to give him a still more original and more appro- 

 priate monument than the chisel could accomplish, and 

 imagination boldly conceived of something which should 

 resemble the granite cromlechs of prehistoric times. 



The idea for this second Berlin monument to Humboldt 

 took form in the mind and under the hand of one of the most 

 distinguished citizens of the town. It was Ernest Friedel, 

 municipal counselor, who gave the impulse, and then, 

 acting with energy, put into execution, on a soil predes- 

 tined by the name it bore, the plan for the new shrine. 

 The Marsh of Brandenburg is situated in a vast plain, far 

 from any mountains. No minerals exist there except scat- 

 tered boulders — those "foundlings" which were trans- 

 ported to us by the disturbances of the glacial epoch. 

 Nowhere do the foundation-rocks pierce the soil to recall, 

 amid these sands and meadows, the hills and ridges of 

 other lands. Even the great isolated stones are becoming 

 rare, having been used in the construction of buildings 

 and highways. But where they still exist they attract at- 

 tention all the more strongly on this account. 



It was by the use of these accumulations of boulders 

 that the tumuli of very ancient times were built — monu- 

 mental sepulchres of forgotten generations — "Graves of 

 the Huns" or menhirs — in front of which to-day civilized 

 man pauses in wonder, and disturbs only with regret. The 

 idea was quickly conceived that the memory of Humboldt 

 should be honored with a prodigious cairn. Unchiseled 

 stone was appropriate for him, since he began his career as 

 a miner and geologist. The archaeological studies of Herr 

 Friedel pointed toward the same end, and I had the happi- 

 ness to assist these slowly ripening projects with my most 

 ardent sympathy. At the outset the intention was to con- 

 struct the cairn with stones picked up on all the sites, in 

 every part of the globe, which Humboldt had visited, or, at 

 least, which were connected with his studies. The aurif- 

 erous quartz of the Ural was there to meet the dolomite of 

 the Tyrol and the obsidian of the Peak of Teneriffe ; the 

 basalts of the banks of the Rhine were to be associated 

 with the lavas of Vesuvius and of Chimborazo. This plan 

 was not without its attractions, and with more perseverance 

 there would have been nothing impracticable about it ; 

 but, in spite of offers of assistance from every side, it was 

 finally abandoned, and, perhaps, not to the disadvantage 

 of the monument ; for, from an aesthetic point of view, it 

 would have been a mixture of very heterogeneous elements 

 that would have violated the geological conscience of 

 Humboldt. Certainly it was better to confine the material 



