September 23, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



447 



the aid of a seated statue, to furnish not merely a fitting- 

 base, but some sort of a canopy or roof which will miti- 

 gate the impression that it ought not to be out-of-doors. It 

 would be interesting to know just how the Greeks and 

 Romans treated this question of seated statues ; it almost 

 seems that they must have preferred to place them under 

 porches or colonnades rather than boldly beneath the sky; 

 but, in any case, our climate is not the climate of Greece, 

 and a statue sitting placidly with its lap full of snow does 

 not produce a very fortunate effect. 



Finally, the question of treating the ground around the 

 base of a monument should be given due attention. The 

 equestrian statue of Washington in the Public Garden at 

 Boston is excellently placed, near the boundary of the 

 pleasure-ground at the intersection of its main paths. But, 

 this summer at least, it has had a curiously inappropriate 

 look which, upon examination, was seen to result from 

 the wide bed of tall, ornamental plants encircling its base. 

 The profusion of these plants hid the connection of the 

 pedestal with the soil and thus deprived it of solidity of 

 aspect, while their freely waving leaves had no artistic 

 relation to its rigid lines. Did it rise naked from the 

 smoothly clipped grass it would look much better, but, 

 best of all, if partly draped in a closely clinging vine 

 which would not disguise its form, and, instead of sepa- 

 rating it from the ground, would more intimately connect 

 the two. Nothing is more beautiful than the way in which 

 the French use Ivy to drape the pedestals of their open-air 

 statues, and even where these stand, as we think they 

 should not, in the centre of open lawns, the mistake is 

 partly condoned by unifying creepers. So far as we remem- 

 ber, the French never surround a statue with a high growth 

 of foliage-plants or a wide pattern-bed of flowers. The 

 distinction between a right and a wrong method of treat- 

 ment is here perfectly clear and valid : the vines unite 

 themselves to the monument and unite it to the ground, 

 while the pattern-beds supply a third element which has 

 no vital relationship to either turf or stone. The good 

 effect of vines on pedestals may be studied in a few places 

 in this country also, as on the pedestal of the Webster in 

 the Central Park. One would like to see them planted 

 around the statues on the Mall as well, and, afterward, 

 carefully restrained from undue luxuriance. For such a 

 purpose, we need hardly say, the best possible creeper is 

 the so-called Japanese Ivy, which looks as though nature 

 had invented it to serve the architect's needs. The Ivy is 

 not so certain to prove hardy in our climate, and, though 

 the Ampelopsis loses its foliage in winter, even then its 

 beautiful net-work of delicate branches seems to tie the 

 stones to which it clings to the bosom of mother earth. 



Formally clipped plants, growing in simple but hand- 

 some pots, would sometimes be appropriate around the 

 base of a monument, especially if it were placed on a 

 terrace ; and in certain other cases a plantation of shrubs 

 may be desirable, though rather as a background to the 

 pedestal than encircling it. Such a background is posi- 

 tively needed by the Farragnt monument on' Madison 

 Square, and was, undoubtedly, contemplated by its 

 makers. It will look much better than it does now when, 

 from the rear, only the figure itself is visible. 



When we think of the variety in effect that might be se- 

 cured to our parks by monuments carefully planned for 

 given situations — as for niches in foundation-walls, for 

 the crowning of balustrades and bridge-parapets, the 

 adornment of drinking-fountains, the completion of rond- 

 points, and the lining of formal avenues — most of what 

 has been already done in these places seems unimagina- 

 tive and monotonous. The chief trouble has been that 

 we have thought too little of the question of site. When 

 we order a statue we are too indifferent as to where it may 

 go ; when we buy one already made, we are too careless 

 in its placing. Whatever thought we have thus far given 

 has been directed to the works themselves ; now we should 

 begin to think of them in a wider way, as chances for the 



architect as well as the sculptor, to give more care to the 

 matter of appropriate and helpful bases, and especially to 

 use the utmost pains and invoke the most skillful help in 

 their eventual placing. 



Northern Plants in Pennsylvania. 



'THAT part of the Appalachian Mountains between the west 

 *- branch of the Susquehanna and the Juniata, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, would be thought rather tame and uninteresting by the 

 lover of mountain scenery. Although erosive action lias been 

 enormous here, as in other mountain regions, the absence of 

 any but local glacial action has left a surface but little varied. 

 There are no lakes or ponds, and but few and small marshes, 

 while the low mountain-ridges, running north-east by south- 

 west, are frequently so close together as to leave only long 

 narrow valleys, or even none at all. 



But the interesting features in any region are always multi- 

 plied by search and careful examination, and if extensive sur- 

 face waters are here unknown, the great springs in the lime- 

 stone districts and the frequent sinks or disappearance 

 beneath the ground of streams of considerable volume are 

 sure to attract the attention of the traveler and excite his cu- 

 riosity and interest. 



Years ago I was told that somewhere in these mountains ice 

 accumulated so abundantly, and was so well protected from 

 waste, that it remained through the whole year. As time went 

 on, and no such place could be found, it was put down as one 

 of those exaggerations to which new-comers are so often 

 treated. But one day, picking up General Brisbin's "Trees 

 and Tree-planting," this astounding statement was found in 

 the introduction, where the natural features of this very dis- 

 trict were being described : " If we turned over a rock in the 

 mountain-side we found ice beneath it even in the hottest days 

 of August. " Having turned over a great many rocks on that 

 particular mountain-side, and never having found any ice in 

 August, the whole matter was cast out of mind as useless rub- 

 bish, when within a very short time an interesting botanical 

 discovery was made. Linncea borealis was found in a wood 

 which had been under close observation by botanical students 

 for a number of years, and yet I knew of no record that the 

 plant had been seen here before. Running over the back 

 numbers of the Botanical Gazette to see if this or other north- 

 ern plants had been recorded from this part of the state, an 

 interesting note was found (vol. ii., p. 8), from Mr. J. R. Lowrie, 

 of Huntingdon County, in which not only were such species 

 named, but their persistence in a given instance was credited 

 to the perpetual ice which was found among the rocks in late 

 summer about three feet below the surface. The precise lo- 

 cality was named, and visits to it have shown much of botan- 

 ical interest, besides confirming, in the main, what was said 

 regarding the ice. 



Spruce Creek is a small tributary of the Juniata running 

 parallel to Tussey Mountain for several miles. About three 

 miles above its mouth, near Colerain Forge, in Huntingdon 

 County, it cuts close in to the mountain-side, and by wearing 

 away the easily eroded Utica shale has exposed a nearly verti- 

 cal wall of the overlying Oneida sandstone. For ages this cut- 

 ting and scouring have been going on until at the base of the 

 wall, and running into the stream itself, lies a heavy talus of 

 broken rock from the undermined cliff. In the interstices of 

 these rocks ice forms readily in great quantity in cold weather, 

 and such is the protection afforded by the sweep of the moun- 

 tain itself as well as by the cliff, that but little direct sunshine 

 is received, andthat only in midsummer. Until then it is only 

 necessary to throw aside a few blocks of stone in order to 

 reach the ice, but as the season advances it retreats further 

 and further until late summer, when it is frequently, probably 

 commonly, so deep that it is inaccessible except by a great 

 deal of labor. But its presence is shown by the low tempera- 

 ture of the rocks and the surrounding air. Bending low in any 

 of these ice-holes one's breath quickly becomes visible, as on 

 a winter's day in the frosty air. No ice could be seen at the 

 date of my last visit, August 28th, but old residents in the vi- 

 cinity are quite positive that in some years ice has been taken 

 out during the entire season, although it was necessary to dig 

 deep for it during August and September. 



While a large part of this talus is completely bare, there are 

 portions of it which support a poor growth of the ordinary 

 trees and shrubs of the vicinity. But near its base are found, 

 particularly, our Mountain Ash {Pyrus Americana), Canoe 

 Birch (fietu/a papyracea) and Ribes p?'ostratum, none of which 

 are common elsewhere in the neighborhood, except at occa- 



