454 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 187. 



Correspondence. 

 The Boston Public Garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — There are some questions that I should he glad to have 

 answered with regard to the floral decorations of the Boston 

 Public Garden. 



We who live in the neighborhood of the Modern Athens 

 naturally go there for our ideas about gardening, as well as 

 other things, and we feel as if the Public Garden, which, next 

 to the State House and Faneuil Hall, is an object of legiti- 

 mate pride to that city, ought to furnish for the million the 

 best sort of example. 



That its directors, whoever they may be, understand their 

 business no one ventures to doubt, but do they not make a 

 mistake in trying to popularize the garden by introducing ob- 

 jects not in the best taste ? 



Is it conceivable, however the pure Greek artistic sense dis- 

 played itself in gardens, that Pericles and Aspasia would ever 

 have encountered, at the foot of Mars Hill, such a horticultural 

 construction as that which causes the bosom of the Modern 

 Athenian to dilate with civic pride— Item, a spread eagle with 

 a glass eye, complicated with a design of anchors, coiled 

 ropes, and the shield of our country, surmounted by the letters 

 U. S. N., painfully manufactured, at enormous expense, of 

 minute plants of the requisite colors, and resembling nothing 

 so much as those feats in worsted-work rugs which are the 

 glory of agricultural fairs ? 



Would the Attic idea of color and form have found expres- 

 sion in floral hearts and rounds, aces of spades, crescents and 

 likenesses to half-eaten doughnuts, brought out in shades 

 that swear at each other in the loudest tones ? Pink and 

 yellow, deep crimson and scarlet, orange and rose-color, 

 sometimes all six together in one bed, seem to be a favorite 

 combination, to the defiance of harmony and repose. 



Boston delights in sending missionaries of its somewhat 

 Philistine civilization to Japan, why does it not occur to the 

 philanthropists of the Flowery Kingdom to send it a few in 

 return, missionaries of taste, whose " oriental eye " should 

 educate it to a comprehension, if not of subtleties of color, at 

 least to reticence in its use, and teach it, once for all, that the 

 desire to mix crimson Coleus with scarlet Geranium is a temp- 

 tation of the devil to be strenuously resisted. 



Might it it not be well, too, that the same apostle should direct 

 the curves of those labyrinthine paths, so that, however sinuous 

 their course, they may lead somewhere, and not necessarily 

 force you to come out, like the well-known parliamentary 

 speaker, at the same hole you went in at. 



Is the confusion of effect desirable or necessary ? Is there 

 not some way by which we could be given masses of color, 

 and yet an element of repose ? It is not that one objects to 

 formal gardening, but to the lines on which that formal gar- 

 dening is laid down. Certain ideas have occurred to me which 

 I venture to submit for your approval, asking for correction if 

 they seem unreasonable. And what especially strikes me is 

 the thought of the great amount of money and labor necessary 

 to maintain the grounds in their present condition, which, 

 perhaps, might be expended to better advantage. 



The Public Garden is in itself a lovely spot, well shaded, 

 refreshing, with agreeable variety of shrubbery and grass, 

 around a pond of shining water, that is a comfort to. the eye 

 and a means of amusement to innumerable children. With 

 some few and inexpensive changes and some guiding taste, it 

 seems as if it might readily be made the thing of beauty that 

 it ought to be, to comport with the elegance and charm of the 

 picturesque city of which it should be a thoroughly artistic 

 ornament. 



It is now conducted on an unnecessarily costly scale. The 

 elaborate and doubtful floral designs once banished, with the 

 Palms and Tree Ferns, money would abound for more pleas- 

 ing adornment. The paths should, in the first place, be recon- 

 structed, so that they would lead from one point to another 

 without maddening turns upon themselves. The restricted 

 patches of greensward should be combined into broad 

 stretches of almost unnhroken lawn, shaded and cool, with 

 borders and vistas of shrubbery that should seclude, and, at 

 the same time, seemingly increase its extent. 



Geometrical flower-beds and formal gardening need not be 

 given up, but they should be confined, as in the great pleasure- 

 grounds of Europe, to a central parterre in the neighborhood 

 of the leading walk across the bridge, while the rest of the 

 garden should be kept simple and restful. 



The taste that demands eagles, and anchors, and designs 

 drawn from the poker-table should be ignored, and an effort 



made to educate the public to an appreciation of something 

 better. The instinct for beauty is strong in our people ; though 

 often misdirected, it can be easily influenced in the right direc- 

 tion by proper example in those public places which they fre- 

 quent, and from which they bring away new ideas. The harm 

 done by setting a false standard for imitation is incalculable. 



The Public Garden should, above all things, be made a unit, 

 and an intelligent design should animate the whole, and the 

 varying parts be made interdependent. A pleasure-ground of 

 this description is not a botanic garden, where it is necessary 

 to exhibit myriads of incongruous things. Harmony and grace, 

 and beauty, and continual bloom there should be, but not vio- 

 lent contrasts nor inharmonious groupings. There are numer- 

 ous brilliant and beautiful flowers which could be kept pro- 

 tected in winter at a less cost than the great tropical things, 

 that look so out of place when the east wind is whistling 

 about their elephantine ears, and which would really render 

 the grounds far more gay and charming and delightful to the 

 popular eye. 



The opportunities of the pond are wholly neglected, and we 

 see none of those interesting groups of Lotus and Water Lilies 

 that prove so attractive in New York, both in Central Park and 

 in Union Square. If it is objected that the boats are incom- 

 patible with the Lilies, why could not some portion of the lake 

 be set apart "for their cultivation, and still leave room for the 

 amusement of the children ? The people all love these deli- 

 cate flowers, which shows that they do not demand incon- 

 gruous groupings for their satisfaction. 



Why not make the Public Garden a school of appropriate 

 floral design, rather than a museum of curiosities ? The best 

 intelligence and the subtlest perception are none too good to 

 devote to it, since it should be properly regarded as a great 

 educator. What people see here they imitate in their ceme- 

 teries, in their gardens, on their lawns. If purple and scarlet 

 are seen combined in the Public Garden, you will find the 

 same enormities repeated in handsome country places, whose 

 gardeners think they have imported a brilliant idea. Canons 

 of elegance must be laid down ; beauty must be inculcated by 

 a positive standard ; teach what is lovely and of good repute, 

 and education conquers even bad taste. How are we to know 

 the evil from the good but by some striking example of loveli- 

 ness and harmony to which all can repair for new inspiration ? 

 Such an example it is the duty.of the Public Garden to set. To 

 know a thing is wrong is easy ; to know how to set it right is 

 another matter ; and nothing can be more idle than criticism 

 which fails to suggest a remedy. This garden is a boon we 

 all appreciate ; the plants in it are remarkably well grown 

 and healthy ; we all desire that it should be perfect in beauty, 

 and we ask nothing better than to be shown the paths of beauty 

 that we may walk therein. Knowledge of plants is far more 

 common than a proper sense of their artistic distribution, and 

 it is for these we need the canons and the guiding hand. 



Our Japanese apostle might find us unwilling listeners to the 

 preaching of his crusade ; but in his land, generations of cul- 

 tured taste have made the very infants adepts, while the lan- 

 guage of their subtle art is still foreign, and hard for many of 

 us to learn. But its restraint, its simplicity, its delicate effect, 

 we can study and practice in our clumsier fashion, until the 

 lessons of ages shall have trained us, too, to a larger, a more 

 subtle sense of what is alike beautiful and befitting. 

 Newton, Mass. Sidney Hyde. 



Plants for Shady Places. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Will you kindly inform me whether Daphne Meserewn 

 would thrive on the north side of a house, where the sun shines 

 about two hours in the morning and perhaps a little longer in 

 the late afternoon ? 



Millbrook, N. Y. / . / ■ D. 



[Few plants can flower successfully on the north side of 

 buildings when they are shaded during the greater part of 

 ever}'' day. For such positions plants like the Periwinkle 

 or the Ivy, whose chief beauty consists in their evergreen 

 foliage, usually give greater satisfaction. — Ed.] 



Periodical Literature. 



In an article called "Woodlands," recently published in the 

 Nineteenth Century, Mr. Herbert Maxwell reviews the extent 

 and condition of the forest of Great Britain, and discusses the 

 report of the committee of the House Commons which was 

 appointed to investigate this subject in 1885, and formulated 

 its conclusions two years later. This committee declared 



