INI ARCH 4, 189I.] 



Garden and Forest. 



97 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted bv 



Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I'AGE. 



Edi roRlAi. Articles :— The True Function of City Parks 97 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China and Eastern Burma. — III., 



W. Dotting Ilemsley. 98 



. TheChoilas .... ..C. R. Orcutt. 99 



An Insect Pest of Cattleyas (Isosoma orchidearum). (With figure.) 



J. G. Jack. 99 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXIV Professor C. S. Sargent. 100 



New or Little Known Plants : — Lycium Chinense. (With figure.) 100 



Cnicus Hillii '■ William M. Canby. 101 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 101 



Cultural Department: — Iron-clad Seedlings T. H. Hoskins. 103 



Dieffenbachias W. H. Taplin. 104 



Brunsvigfcis W. E. Endicott. 104 



Snowdrops J.N. Gerard. 105 



Ms Bakeriana J. N. G. 105 



Phakenopsis Stuartiana F. Gould. 105 



Correspondence: — Orchids at North Easton, Massachusetts H. G. 105 



Wanted, a Tract on Forestry S. 106 



A Hand-book of Plants E. J. 106 



Primula obconica Professor W. A. Buckhout. 106 



The Owl and the Sparrow //. B. A, 107 



Recent Publications 107 



Notes _. 108 



Illustrations : — Lycium Chinense, Fig. 20 102 



An 1 nsect Pest (fsosoma orchidearum), Fig. 21 103 



The True Function of City Parks. 



THE Atlantic MontJUy for February contains an article 

 by Mr. Alpheus Hyatt entitled " The Next Stage in the 

 Development of Public Parks." What is interesting and 

 valuable in this paper is a plea for the establishment in 

 cities of more museums and a sketch of the principles on 

 which collections should be made and arranged so as to 

 serve the highest practical purpose. Mr. Hyatt urges that 

 at our present stage of civilization collections of the varied 

 forms of animal and vegetable life are as necessary as are 

 public libraries and universities. We have learned that the 

 highest education in the natural sciences is not acquired 

 from books — that is, by a study of what other people have 

 recorded — but by original investigation of the objects 

 themselves ; and public museums and gardens could aid in 

 this direction by supplying natural objects for the use both 

 of teachers and pupils just as libraries furnish books for 

 those who wish to read. A museum, according to this 

 view, is not a place of amusement merely — a collection of 

 natural curiosities or rarities to excite the wonder of the 

 ignorant — 'but a source of constant and adequate supply of 

 objects for investigation by persons who are engaged in 

 serious study. A zoological garden should not be a me- 

 nagerie for the sole display of animals which are large or 

 strange, but should include creatures of humbler structure, 

 creatures which are small indeed, but whose functions in 

 the economy of nature are of the highest importance to 

 man and his physical surroundings. This means that we 

 should have insectaries, where the various transformations 

 of insect life could be obseiwed ; aquaria for the exhibition 

 of marine animals and plants and sea birds, and fresh 

 water aquaria for the fish and other inhabitants of inland 

 lakes and rivers, together with such plants as grow in or 

 near the water. 



Of special significance are Mr. Hyatt's ideas with regard 

 to grouping the animals in zoological collections according 

 to the laws of geographical distribution as well as to those 



of specific relationship, and of supplying "a proper repre- 

 sentation of the flora of each great area or country in the 

 shape of some characteristic trees and flowers," in order to 

 furnish the animals with appropriate surroundings "and 

 give scientific and artistic completeness to these illustra- 

 tions of the fauna." But, perhaps, the most novel of his 

 suggestions is that, in addition to objects of study, teach- 

 ers should be provided, who would do more than a printed 

 guide-book in pointing out and naming and describing the 

 interesting forms in any collection. No catalogue can ever 

 keep pace with living and growing collections, and its 

 pages are never large enough to answer the inquiries 

 which every visitor is eager to make. Mr. Hyatt, there- 

 fore, would substitute for the catalogue educated men, 

 who would be present not only to satisfy all reasonable 

 curiosity, but to awaken interest, and, at the same time, 

 give instruction that would be of permanent benefit. 



All this is very attractive, and not impracticable. But 

 when Mr. Hyatt declares that a public park does not fulfill 

 its highest mission until it develops into a vast and multi- 

 form museum for popular instruction, he plainly ignores 

 the specific purpose for which pleasure-grounds like Central 

 Park, for example, have been created. Indeed, one may 

 read Mr. Hyatt's article attentively and fail to discover 

 whether he has ever cared to inform himself precisely what 

 that purpose is. The fact is that in popular language 

 there is no well-defined group of ideas suggested by the 

 word park, and it is applied to areas of ground which are 

 used for the most varied and incongruous purposes. To 

 one man it may mean a base-ball field ; to another a mili- 

 tary parade-ground ; to a third a place where racehorses 

 are used to facilitate gambling. Indeed, the danger of 

 assaults upon the integrity of city parks is constant because 

 of the lack of clear popular conception of their true func- 

 tions, and they never will be safe from attacks until their 

 primary purpose is universally understood, and until this 

 purpose is admitted to be of sufficient importance to justify 

 their existence and maintenance. 



We have some hesitation about stating elementary princi- 

 ples with which our readers are already familiar, but there 

 seems to be need of repeating pretty frequently that a park, 

 such as is now under consideration, should be primarily and 

 essentially a rural retreat — a place which will enable the peo- 

 ple of a city to visit the country without leaving the town — 

 and that its highest purpose is not to furnish instruction 

 norpure air nora place for exercise on foot or on horseback, 

 but to furnish that relief and repose of mind which natural 

 scenery brings to those who are wearied by city sights 

 and sounds. We need not inquire why this is so, but the 

 fact is universally known and recognized that rural scenery 

 has an intrinsic value in enabling us to resist successfully 

 the wearing influences of town life and to recover the 

 mental energy thus wasted. Every one is more or less 

 susceptible to the charms of scenery, and a city park has 

 a greater or less value for a city population, according to 

 the degree in which this poetic charm of scenery is pre- 

 served and developed. Of course, a park designed and 

 constructed with such a leading motive will not fail to 

 furnish pure air and a field for exercise and opportunity for 

 study, while if it is designed primarily with reference to 

 any of these subordinate uses its highest purpose will 

 not be reached. 



It is true that the highest authorities on these subjects 

 have made in some parks provision for boating, for tennis, 

 for skating, for music, for children's playhouses and the 

 like, but wherever such introductions have been success- 

 ful they have been incidental and subordinate to the con- 

 trolling motive of the park which has been steadily kept in 

 view. A botanical garden, a zoological garden or an 

 aquarium might well be placed in grounds adjoining a 

 park, but separated from it so as to avoid any tendency to 

 combine the ideas of a park and a museum, for the object 

 of a museum and the object of a park are utterly distinct, 

 and it is no more possible for a park to develop into a 

 museum than it is for a library to develop into a cathedral. 



