192 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 325. 



completed portion of which forms a local pleasure-ground 

 of inestimable value to the neighboring tenement-house 

 quarter — as a river-side boulevard as far up stream as the 

 river retains its character as a broad basin. The legislation 

 that authorizes this restricts filling in the rear of Beacon 

 Street to a width of 100 feet. As this limitation would 

 leave the unattractive back yards of Beacon Street abutting 

 on the esplanade, the joint board favors a creation of new 

 land that would permit the erection of an additional line of 

 houses or other buildings facing the river. The reason for 

 this is not only to give a worthy frontage on the basin, but 

 to furnish the means for meeting the cost of the improve- 

 ment by the profits on the sale of the new land. The com- 

 monwealth's real-estate operations of this character have 

 always been very profitable. 



This proposition has naturally met with intense antag- 

 onism from the residents of the water-side of Beacon 

 Street, whose celebrated river view would thus be cut off. 

 The excecution of this phase of the project is in doubt. 

 The grand basin has the capacity of making one of the 

 noblest features in the plan of Boston, and it is important 

 that the most should be made of it. If the new frontage 

 cannot be secured, then, if possible, in compensation for 

 retaining their privilege, the Beacon Street residents should 

 be required to give their houses an aspect on their water- 

 side worthy of the prospect which they so highly esteem. 



The landscape-architects consider the plan in three 

 divisions. First is the present " fresh-water section," above 

 the dam in Watertown. The stream here winds tran- 

 quilly through open meadows bordered by low bluffs. 

 The treatment here adopted is a parkway with drives on 

 either side of the stream, except at a few places where 

 local conditions break the continuity on one side or the 

 other. The middle division is considered as the "marsh 

 section." Here extensive areas of salt-marsh border the 

 stream. These marshes present good opportunities for 

 pleasure-grounds of considerable extent. Chief of these, 

 situated in the Brighton district on the Boston side, is the 

 celebrated Longfellow meadow — the spot where the 

 Charles is described in one of the poet's verses as writing 

 the letter S. This is in full view of the Longfellow man- 

 sion, over the Longfellow Memorial garden. Adjoining 

 the meadow is the spacious tract presented to Harvard 

 University as an athletic ground by Mr. H. L. Higginson, 

 and called the Soldiers' Field. Forming the south-easterly 

 side of the meadow, the plan provides for a speedway a 

 mile long, with a course straight and level, unbroken by 

 cross-roads, and easy of access. 



The third division is the "basin section," which begins 

 at a proposed new bridge near the present one from Cam- 

 bridee to Cottasre Farms. The discontinuance of the latter 

 is recommended. The new bridge would connect directly 

 with the new Boston parkway and the Boston park 

 system. This bridge, marking the entrance of the river 

 into the basin, would command a magnificent view down 

 the whole length of the basin to the State House crowning 

 Beacon Hill. Above this bridge the shores would be irreg- 

 ular and mantled with trees and shrubberies, except 

 where it might be desirable that the public should reach 

 the water at beaches or boat-landings. Below the bridge 

 the shores would be treated formally with low walls or 

 curbs of stone, broken by bastions affording water views, 

 landings for steam or electric passenger boats, docks for 

 row-boats and the like. These low walls are made pos- 

 sible by the exclusion of the tide and the practically 

 constant level of the water, which even in a freshet would 

 rise but a few inches. The effect above and below this 

 bridge may be compared to that of the lagoon and the 

 basins at the World's Fair. 



The landscape-architects well say that this project, so 

 far from being extravagant, is governed by considerations 

 of real economy. For nowhere west of the State House 

 can so much well-distributed open space be had for so 

 little money as on the banks of the Charles River. The 

 total area of the open water-way along the eight miles of 



the river from Waltham to the basin is about 300 acres. 

 Many cities have been compelled to pay immense sums 

 of money for open spaces no larger than that which 

 nature has freely bestowed upon the cities of the lower 

 valley of the Charles. If the crowded districts of the 

 valley care to reap the advantage of the free gift of nature 

 they have only to take possession of the banks of the 

 river. 



For damming the river the consent of the national 

 Government must be obtained. As it would improve the 

 navigation and make the arsenal at Watertown more 

 accessible, and as the harbor would not be injured, this 

 consent should be forthcoming. Without a dam the 

 improvement would be less satisfactory and more expen- 

 sive, but the landscape-architects urge at all events the 

 acquisition of a continuous river-bank reservation, whether 

 the river retains the character of a tidal estuary or not. 

 They, as well as the joint commission, consider the problem 

 from a broad, humane point of view which makes the 

 general public welfare paramount to all other consider- 

 ations, and emphasize strongly invaluable service which 

 the stream can render when developed to its best possi- 

 bilities as a drainage channel, an open space, a parkway, 

 a chain of playgrounds and a boating-course. 



Oaks in May. 



ELEVEN species of Oak and one or two hybrids are 

 indigenous to the vicinity of Chicago. Those men- 

 tioned in this article and the hybrid Quercus Leana are 

 found in the valley of the Desplaines River, where the 

 different kinds are most numerous within a limited area.* 

 Seven of them occur in a small piece of woodland at Willow 

 Springs, and the hybrid and the Chestnut Oak are found 

 but a mile or two away. The soil and other conditions are 

 here sufficiently varied for the trees to grow near each 

 other, and their proximity makes the comparison of their 

 characteristics easy. When the Oaks are putting forth 

 their leaves. and flowers, usually about the middle of May 

 or a little later, these woods are very attractive, the colors 

 of the foliage are less intense than those of autumn, but 

 the great range of tints and the varied aspects of the 

 unfolding leaves give a striking individuality to nearly 

 every kind. A little familiarity with the Oaks in early 

 spring enables one to readily distinguish the different 

 species. Then gray and silvery tones of color are added, 

 and impart to the foliage a delightful mellowness. The 

 surrounding air partakes of this softness, and the twigs 

 and tender leaves and flowers are enveloped in a misty 

 light. 



Some of the biennial fruited species are usually the 

 earliest to open their buds, and their leaves may be con- 

 siderably developed when some of the annual fruited ones 

 are starting. With the later forms the Hickories and the 

 Walnuts add their different shades of green, yellow and red 

 fire ; they flourish under conditions favorable to some of the 

 Oaks, and it is rare to find the Red Oak in any part of this 

 region without some of the Hickories near at hand. 



The young leaves of the Black Oak (Quercus tinctoria) 

 are usually red, the freshest of them nearly scarlet. The 

 foliage retains this tinge for some time, so that the tree is 

 now the most intensely colored of any of the group to 

 which it belongs. The deeply divided leaves are on 

 relatively long petioles, which are at first bent down, but 

 soon spread out from the branches. The fresh twigs are 

 yellowish green, some of them stained with red, and are 

 covered by a yellowish russet down. The leaves are 

 whitened beneath with a pale tomentum. The hairs are 

 often very dense on the upper surface, and the foliage 

 assumes a gray look, around which the misty light plays 

 with a beautiful effect when the trees are between the 



*In some of the maps of the early French explorers of this region, as those 

 of Charlevoix and D'Anville, the carrying-place between the Chicago River and 

 the Desplaines was called the Portage of the Oaks (" Portage des Chenes "), thus 

 seemingly recognizing the Oak as giving character to the landscape. 



