September 5, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



351 



P A R n R M A IV Pi T* O D C Q HT the trust is t0 acce P t from P rivate owners of property gifts 



Vj /\ 1\ LJ C, 1 > /\IN1_/ PLJlAJDO I . which can only be made when there is a perpetual custo- 

 dian and administrator, and it will be incorporated under 



published weekly by the Joint Stock Companies' Act, and endowed with special 



privileges in consideration of its responsibilities. The 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. Standing Committee of the Massachusetts Board suggests, 



. „ „. apropos of this action, that though Massachusetts pos- 



Office: Tribune Building, New \ork. „ i_ • i_ -l ■ x _: 1 a ..,-, 



sesses no such rich historical treasures as are to be found 



. in England, "she still does possess great wealth of beauti- 



Conducted by Professor c. s. Sargent. ful '. though now threatened, natural scenery, and an inter- 

 esting, though rapidly disappearing, store of archaeological 



and historical sites, such as Indian camps and graves, bor- 



entered as SECOND-CLASS MATTER at the fost-office at new vork, n. y. der forts and colonial or_ literary landmarks," which ought 



• to be acquired. A preliminary, but incomplete, list is an- 



— nexed to the report of those who have given lands for pub- 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1894. lic reservations in Massachusetts up to this time,. showing 



that since the formation of the society in 1891 it has re- 



== ^ ===== ceived bequests from more than eighty-four donors, a 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. most encouraging exhibition of the public spirit which ani- 



page. m ates individuals in the Bay state. The fact that eighteen 



Editorial article :— Public Holdings in Massachusetts 35 i of the early settlements in Massachusetts set apart " train- 



^ta^pS«ngKra"!.V;/.///i:'V/.lV.V//.:iV//.;:V^w; : ^^: HI ing-fields," which have survived as public reservations 



Foreign Correspondence:— London Letter...... W. WaUim. 353 until the present day, shows the Wise forethoueht of the 



New or Little-known Plants:— Nymptuea Sturtevantn. (With figure.) c , K. , J - , , . » 



y.N. Gerard. 354 founders of those towns, a forethought which we trust will 



CotxU^^TM^T^^ 357 be Sl ? ared ^ tll0Se W] },° "°T h ^ VS the °PP° rtUnit y t0 



Eremurus robustus iv. e. Endiutt. 357 acquire property at small cost for the benefit of the future 



Kniphofias E. O. Orfei. 358 nnniilatinn 



China Asters P. 358 population. 



Dewberries £. p. p. 358 Some of the duties of the original Board have now passed 



Correspondence :— Prickly Lettuce and some other Weeds in Iowa, . - .. re ■ ,1 n/r 1 i'i t» i /-• • 



Professor l. h. Pammd. 358 over to its offspring, the Metropolitan Park Commission, 



The Kentucky Coffee-tree ....R. c.McM. 358 which body, endowed with a right of eminent domain, and 



Hovema dulcis Joseph Meehan. 359 . '.■> -it- j 11 , ■,. , I 



Meetings of Societies:— American Forestry Association.- II -.359 equipped With a million dollars to Work With, has been 



Recent Publications ................ ^. ................. .. 359 engaged in securing great forest-reservations in the Blue 



Illustration •— Nymphsea sturtevantii— reduced. Fig. 57 355 Hills and the Middlesex Fells, and it is understood that a 



=^^=^==1^^== large part of Revere Beach will also be obtained by it. 



nil- tt 1 i- -mi 1 ti This Commission, with the Hon. Charles Francis Adams at 



Public Holdings in Massachusetts. its headj has by hs extended powers been able to accom . 



THE third annual report of the Trustees of Public plish what the Trustees of Public Reservations could only 



Reservations in Massachusetts shows that the pre- suggest. Outside of the range of the Metropolitan District 



vailing financial depression has prevented that body from the latter Board is the only ready instrument through which 



receiving any new trusts during the past year, and confines the admirers of any beautiful and historic spot can provide 



itself, therefore, to drawing attention to the gradual en- for its preservation and perpetual care, where there is no 



croachments of private owners upon commons, shores and existing local park commission. 



other property which ought to be protected by the tow.ns Many towns are unwilling to accept bequests, so that it 



to which they belong, and preserved for the use and is of great use to the public to have a legal opportunity to 



pleasure of the people. bestow property which the owners or would-be purchasers 



It also shows that the example of the Massachusetts so- desire to safely convey for the general benefit of a com- 

 ciety has attracted attention in England, and that in Octo- munity which may be too short-sighted to avail itself of a 

 ber, 1893, an article was published in the English Spectator gift. It was only with great reluctance that Plymouth 

 descriptive of the powers and purposes of the "Massachu- could be induced to accept the generous gift from Mr. 

 setts Trustees of Public Reservations," followed by several Nathaniel Morton and others, of the park which is now its 

 letters indicating a desire for the establishment in the pride, but for which this year it has refused to make any 

 mother country of an organization endowed with powers appropriation. A similar difficulty was experienced in 

 similar to those possessed by the Board here. One of Lynn, and as it takes years sometimes to educate a com- 

 these letters suggests that it would be quite as much to the munity it is fortunate that during the process there is a pro- 

 purpose for the British Government to expend money in tector of the property at hand. 



buying natural scenery as to spend thousands in purchas- The report on the shore-towns of Massachusetts, com- 

 ing pictures for the National Gallery ; and that if there were piled by Mr. H. B. Hastings, the agent of the society, is 

 a body furnished with an annual grant and empowered to a melancholy chapter of public lands sacrificed and public 

 purchase property of national interest, it could often ac- rights neglected and lost. In former volumes of Garden 

 quire places of note at a moderate cost. This letter further and Forest a full account of the public holdings along the 

 states that the waterfall of Lodore was in October adver- shore of the state was given, together with the history of 

 tised for sale ; that Snowdon had been in the market shortly the steps by which a large portion of them has passed 

 before ; and it represents that fine scenery is apt to go at under private or corporate control, so that the people are 

 extraordinarily low prices from its having no agricultural fenced away from the beach and only permitted to enjoy 

 value, as it is usually mountainous and wild, and worth the companionship of the sea by sufferance or for a fee. 

 little op nothing to the farmer. The story, as revised up to the present time in this report, 



In December an American newspaper paragraph reported is one of an inheritance squandered through lack of appre- 

 the organization in England of "The National Trust for ciation of its value. Of course, the condition in some 

 Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty," with the towns is worse than it is in others, but there is no need 

 Duke of Westminster, Lord Dufferin, Lord Rosebery, Sir here to state special instances. One cannot read of high- 

 Frederic Leighton, Professor Huxley, Miss Octavia Hill and ways closed, of grounds dedicated to public use to which 

 other persons distinguished in art, letters or practical affairs, the public is now denied admission, of so called water- 

 as members of its provisional committee, for the purpose parks turned into dumping-grounds, of unresisted encroach- 

 of acting as general trustee for all property intended for the ment upon public lands everywhere, without some indig- 

 use and enjoyment of the nation at large. The function of nation. And yet this practical stealing of the public land 



