January 3, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



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. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — The Preservation of Washington's Birthplace i 



The Origin of the Purple Beech 2 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter '. W. Watson. 3 



New or Little-known Plants : — Fraxinus Eungeana. (With figure.). .. C. S. S. 4 



Cultural Department : — Field Mice and Bark Destruction J. G. Jack. 6 



Seasonable Notes IV. H. Taplm. 6 



Hardy Plants on New Year's Day J. N. Gerard. 7 



Winter Care of Trees. In the Shrubberies R. A. 7 



Correspondence : — Winter Notes from Missouri Lora S. La Mance. 7 



Roses at the Waban Conservatories T. D. Hatfield. 8 



The Catalpa for Forest-planting Robert Douglas. 8 



Recent Publications 9 



Notes 10 



Illustration : — Fraxinus Bungeana, Fig. 1 5 



The Preservation of Washington's Birthplace. 



SOME time ago the sum of $30,000 was appropriated 

 by Congress for the purchase and preservation of 

 Washington's birthplace. This, as too many Americans 

 may not remember, is a plantation, now called Wake- 

 field, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, bordering for about 

 half a mile on the Potomac, and some sixty-five miles 

 below the city of Washington. Here the first President's 

 great-grandfather, grandfather and father spent most of 

 their lives, and here his own childhood was passed. Noth- 

 ing now remains of the plain square wooden house, which 

 had only four rooms on its lower floor, excepting the brick 

 foundations, even the chimney having fallen within recent 

 years. The old family burying-ground is in a sadly neg- 

 lected state, and the whole property, of about twelve hun- 

 dred acres, is in an unattractive condition. Five thousand 

 dollars were asked for it when Congress decided to pur- 

 chase it ; a landing-pier, making it accessible to the public, 

 will cost some ten thousand more ; and it is estimated that, 

 after certain incidental expenses are likewise deducted, not 

 more than thirteen thousand dollars will be left to be ap- 

 plied to desirable commemorative purposes. Commenting 

 upon these facts, the American Architect and Building Ncivs 

 recently said : 



This sum would not go far in providing a monument, or 

 other similar memorial, large enough not to look ridiculous 

 in the middle of so extensive a tract, and, unless the appropria- 

 tion could be considerably increased, we would suggest that 

 an effective way of using the small sum available would be to 

 spend it, under Mr. Olmsted's direction, in beautifying the 

 plantation by purely natural means. The remains of the house 

 and the family graves should be secured from further decay 

 by proper shelter, but, beyond this, our idea is that the object in 

 view should be to secure, using trees, shrubs and grass as the 

 medium, the utmost possible effect of appropriate sentiment. 

 So far as we know, such an experiment has never been tried 

 on anything but a very small scale. In fact, there are very 



few men in the world who could handle trees and shrubs as a 

 painter does his colors, with a knowledge of the effects pro- 

 duced on the mind by their combination, but Mr. Olmsted is 

 one of them, and it is hardly too much to say that an entirely 

 new field of art might be opened by such an essay. The cir- 

 cumstances would be particularly favorable. There is land 

 enough to carry out an idea without having it spoiled by the 

 intrusion of discordant neighboring objects ; the Virginia at- 

 mosphere has naturally a tender haziness which lends itself to 

 sentiment, and Mr. Olmsted knows the form, color, mode of 

 growth, and, one may say, the expression, of every plant in- 

 digenous to that region. There would be no need of changing 

 the topography, or in any way altering the general appearance 

 of the plantation from what it was when Washington's childish 

 eyes looked over it ; everything would be done by planting, 

 and a great deal of planting could be done with thirteen thou- 

 sand dollars, with the additional advantage, that, when the time 

 came for spending a hundred thousand or so on a more arti- 

 ficial memorial, what had already been done would be so much 

 additional attraction to the place, while an insignificant monu- 

 ment would be only fit to be dug up and thrown away. 



We are glad to reprint this advice, not only because it is 

 the best which could be given with regard to the special 

 case in view, but because it is a cheering proof that correct 

 ideas as to the relation between monuments of any kind 

 and their surroundings are rapidly gaining ground among 

 members of the architectural profession, where, as we have 

 often said before, their prevalence is especially desirable. 

 It is also a renewed proof of the esteem in which the art of 

 landscape-design is held by the best architects and of the 

 growing spirit of cordiality and co-operation between the 

 two professions. ■ 



THIS movement to preserve the birthplace of Washing- 

 ton suggests once more the necessity of general laws 

 for securing and holding property which is worthy of reser- 

 vation for public use. In this particular instance the Legis- 

 lature of Virginia can pass an act enabling the General 

 Government to acquire this tract of land in fee-simple, 

 for, without the permission of the Government of a state, 

 the Federal authorities cannot acquire land within its 

 boundaries. But there are places in every state which ought 

 to be preserved on account of their historic associations or 

 their natural beauty, and yet in very few of them has any 

 provision been made by law by which such places can be 

 rescued from destruction. It was by special enactment 

 that New Jersey acquired the beautiful old colonial man- 

 sion and grounds at Morristown, where Washington once 

 had his headquarters, and in the same way Pennsylvania 

 secured the camp-ground at Valley Forge. The example 

 of Massachusetts cannot be too often commended for the 

 act incorporating "Trustees of Public Reservations," which 

 enables them to acquire by gift or purchase, and to hold 

 forever, for public use, bits of impressive scenery or places 

 identified with honored names or great deeds. There are 

 public-spirited people all over the country who own beau- 

 tiful tracts of land which they would be more than willing 

 to have maintained in their original beauty if there was any 

 body with the authority to hold them and the character to 

 ensure a wise guardianship. We cannot too often insist on 

 the value of contact with quiet rural beauty as a refresh- 

 ment for the people who are crowding into cities in greater 

 numbers every year. The acquisition of open spaces to which 

 the thronging laborers in manufacturing towns can escape 

 for a breath of fresh air and the enjoyment of the calm delights 

 of natural scenery, is coming to be more and more a necessity 

 every year, and while it is now admitted as a practical 

 truth that the influence of such scenery is refreshing and 

 uplifting, it must also be recognized as equally true that 

 places which are rendered sacred by historic association 

 make a direct appeal to our nobler impulses and generous 

 passions, and in this way minister directly to the mental 

 and moral health of the people. 



We are apt to think that in the older civilization of 

 Europe considerations like these have a wider and pro- 

 founder sway. With a much longer history there are many 

 more places in the old countries than in our own which 



