SEPTEMBER l6, 189I.] 



Garden and Forest. 



435 



fine relief to the groups of flowers and ferns that cluster at 

 the base of the pool. 



In such a situation nothing showy should find place, 

 but only those things which might naturally grow around 

 a forest-spring. The little Cresses along the brook, the 

 tender Forget-me-nots, the fine small Grasses, the water- 

 weeds and ruby Lobelia, that have been wisely set here to 

 enjoy the moisture, add to the wild-wood charm of the pool 

 with its tinkling water. 



Taste has gone hand in hand with nature and produced 

 a lovely picture, delicate in detail, fine in color and group- 

 ing, harmonious in general composition. Minute the space 

 is, almost as a Japanese garden, but the effect is dignified 

 and poetic. It is not mere prettiness that charms, but the 

 true artistic feeling with which the idea has been conceived 

 and executed. The little scene touches and captivates, 

 while gratifying all the senses with sound and sight and 

 color, and soft touch of ocean breezes and of waving leaves. 



The plate fails to show what is another feature of the 

 real picture, a second semicircular terrace below, with 

 Clematis-clad wall, to which one clambers by another flight 

 of steps hewn in the rock to find more flowers and more 

 lovely weeds and grasses, and a second space of well- 

 mown turf, with a fine outlook on the tossing sea. From 

 this a rugged path leads by devious ways to the beach 

 below, Where are boats and a yacht riding at anchor, and 

 .the wide stretch of the great deep, with white sails upon 

 the surface and whiter clouds overhead. 



A Fine Road. 



ALTHOUGH in years gone by Chicago allowed a rail- 

 way to be run along the lake-shore in the southern 

 part of the city, there seems no danger that the mistake 

 will be repeated, and, indeed, eastern cities might well 

 emulate the care Chicago is now taking to make proper 

 use of her water-fronts. The most noteworthy of recent 

 improvements is the "Sheridan Road," which, starting 

 from the end of the Lake Drive at the northern outskirts of 

 the city, extends to Fort Sheridan, on the bluffs some 

 twenty-five miles away. A correspondent of the American 

 Architect and Building News recently wrote : 



When first mentioned, this road was scarcely more than an 

 idea, while by utilizing, to a certain extent, existing roads and 

 condemning property, the general outlines of the scheme are 

 now practically completed. The plan is to keep much of the 

 picturesqueness of the country road, while a few of the con- 

 veniences of a city drive will be connected with it. The ditches, 

 which heretofore have bordered the old road in many places, 

 will have to disappear ; in fact, have partially disappeared 

 already. Drains are laid, the ditches are filled in and then 

 sodded over, so that while the actual drive-way will not be 

 made any wider than it is at present in many of the old roads, 

 ample accommodations will be given for an occasional crowd 

 upon the turf on either side. Space is gained in this way, and 

 the amount of area liable to become dusty is lessened. Con- 

 crete sidewalks are being laid along the way, and before many 

 years will, very probably, be laid most of the way to Chicago. 

 . . . Where the original country road skirts the bluff quite 

 closely, it has been converted into the Sheridan Road, but in 

 places where it leads away from the lake new' routes are being 

 surveyed for the proposed drive. In tracts already opened up 

 by it in the vicinity of Chicago marked advances are noticea- 

 ble in the price of real estate, as well as a considerable amount 

 of building. This growth has been gradual and healthy, and 

 the homes being erected along' the shore of the lake are of an 

 extremely good class. . . . There is nothing wild or rugged 

 about this shore of the great lake, but for quiet beauty this 

 northward stretching coast has nothing to equal it in any way 

 in the near vicinity of Chicago, and this locality must assuredly 

 be destined to be the site ot the finest summer houses around 

 the city. One feature of this lake, which few realize who do 

 not live by its side, is the immense size and amount of the 

 shipping which passes daily up and down its northern shore. 

 ... At the terminus of the drive is Fort Sheridan, which, for 

 the last three years, has been slowly assuming a somewhat set- 

 tled aspect, till now this brand-new United States army fort is 

 looked upon as one of the sights worth seeing in avisit to 

 Chicago. It is situated on bluffs seventy-five or eighty feet 



above the lake, and with its winding ravines has at least much 

 natural beauty to help out whatever improvements the Gov- 

 ernment may see fit to lay out on it. To reach the long 

 Government pier a road was necessary, and, fortunately for 

 the picturesqueness of the place, a more accessible one could 

 be cut through one of the beautiful ravines, where a more 

 gradual ascent could be made than up the steep bluff. This 

 fine drive-way leading to the pier is now one of the features of 

 the place. 



Not only scattered semi-country homes, but "model vil- 

 lages," are already growing up along the Sheridan Road, 

 laid out with broad tree-planted macadamized streets and 

 controlled with a disregard of mere private eccentricity in 

 taste, and a demand for general neatness and harmony of 

 effect and for common comfort to which, one might have 

 thought a few years ago, no Americans would ever sub- 

 mit. But, in truth, Americans are quick to appreciate im- 

 provement in any direction, even when it somewhat limits 

 individual impulses, and there is no happier sign for the 

 future well-being of our communities or the future aspect 

 of our land than such carefully ordered villages as those 

 which, in more than one of our western towns, are taking 

 the place of those old-fashioned outskirts which have 

 made the term suburban residences a by-word of re- 

 proach and a symbol of uncomfortable living in so many 

 of our older localities. Such enterprises as the Sheridan 

 Road prove, of course, the immense material as well as 

 aesthetic value of a fine highway, and supply examples 

 which can be used with telling effect elsewhere. 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXVII. 



THE number of changes in the names of our arborescent 

 Leguminoscz, made necessary by the restoration of 

 the oldest specific names, is not large. 



The Clammy Locust is generally known as Robinia vis- 

 cosa, the name given to it by Ventenat and published in 

 1803 in the "Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu 

 Connues Cultivees dans le Jardin de J. M. Cels," but it 

 had been described, two years earlier, in England in the 

 Botanical Magazine (t. 560) as Robinia glulinosa. This last 

 name, which has every claim to priority, was taken up by 

 Koch in his " Dendrologie," but has been neglected by 

 other authors. 



The character of the buds of Robinia is not explained in 

 any of the published accounts of these trees which I have 

 read, except in the "Flore Forestiere" of A. Malhieu, who 

 hints, in his third edition, published in 1877, at their struc- 

 ture and arrangement. Sir John Lubbock, who has re- 

 cently published the result of his observations on the de- 

 velopment and uses of the stipules of a number of plants, 

 says that "the winter-bud of Robinia Pseudacacia is pro- 

 tected by three short, brown, triangular-pointed scales" 

 {Jour. Linn. Soc, xviii., 228). In reality, there is not one 

 but three or four superposed buds under each petiole, and 

 they are not covered individually by scales, but are sunk 

 in the cavity under the base of the petiole and covered 

 collectively by a thick scale-like coat which is lined on the 

 inner surface with thick rusty brown tomentum, and 

 which, in early spring, splits open to allow the growth of 

 the upper and larger of the four buds, which is the only 

 one that develops, although, if this is injured or destroyed, 

 it is, no doubt, replaced by the next bud below it. The 

 parts into which this bud-like covering splits remain on 

 the base of the branches during the season. The sub- 

 petiolar buds are often accompanied by a supplementary 

 supra-axillary naked bud, corresponding to the supra- 

 axillary bud in Gleditsia which develops into a spine. 

 In Robinia this supra-axillary bud, late in the season, some- 

 times produces a feeble branchlet, especially on vigorous 

 shoots, which, probably, does not survive the first win- 

 ter The apparently superfluous number of buds and their 

 careful protection enables Robinia to pass uninjured through 

 periods of excessive winter cold, and accounts for the 

 ability of these trees to inhabit regions many degrees 



