November 25, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



553 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Eoitoriai. Articles :— How a Village Gained a Park 553 



The New Grant Monument in Lincoln Parle, Chicago 554 



The Shrubbery in November Mrs. Danske Dandridge. 554 



Filices Mexicanse.— IV. (With figure.) George E. Davenport. 555 



Plant Notes :— Our Native Nelumbo. (With figure.) 556 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watson. 556 



Cultural Department :— The Grape Crop E. Williams. 558 



Fruits and Topography T. H. Hoskins, M. I\ 558 



Notes on Chrysanthemums J. N. Gerard. 559 



Fertilizers for Tomatoes 56° 



A Chrysanthemum Blight Processor Byron D. Halsted 560 



The Vegetable Garden W. F. Brown. 560 



Correspondence : — In the Shore Towns of Massachusetts. — III. . J. B. Harrison. 560 



The White River Forest Reservation George H. Parsons. 562 



The Specific Name of the Texan Cercis Professor Edward L Greene. 562 



The Acorn Crop Joseph Meehan. 563 



Periodical Literature 563 



Notes 563 



Illustrations :— A Pond in Southern Illinois, covered with the Water Chinqua- 

 pin (Nelumbo luteum). Fig. 87 557 



Pelleea Pringlei, n. sp., Fig. 88 559 



How a Village Gained a Park. 



E^E many of the very old towns lying near the great 

 cities which cluster about the harbor of New York, 

 the village of Jamaica, on Long Island, has a reputation 

 for staunch conservatism. During the present year, how- 

 ever, it has been the theatre of a progressive movement 

 which is worthy of being placed on record as an example 

 of public spirit and prompt activity. Last winter a lady 

 who lives in the village organized a society known as the 

 Linnean Club, which had for its objects "the diffusion of 

 botanical knowledge, the encouragement of floriculture, 

 and the preservation of our native plants, shrubs and 

 trees," and to promote these worthy objects the founder of 

 the club gave "little talks," as she modestly called them, 

 every other week, alternating with another member, who, 

 like the founder, was a member of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club of this city. These meetings proved attractive, and, 

 what is better, they proved instructive and stimulating, and 

 soon the club numbered some forty members. The idea 

 of cultivating wild flowers and American plants suggested 

 the advantage of a public place to grow them in, and this 

 thought soon germinated into a conception of the neces- 

 sity of something like a botanical garden or park for the 

 Linnean Club and for Jamaica. The club could own no 

 real estate, but advantage was taken of the law in this 

 state, which was passed in May, 1888, to meet such emer- 

 gencies, and to which we have often alluded before. This 

 act enables any fifteen or more citizens, under certain re- 

 strictions, to secure lands for parks and playgrounds inde- 

 pendent of municipal authority. These corporators can 

 acquire property, by gift or otherwise, to the amount of half 

 a million dollars, and such additional amounts as may be 

 authorized by the Mayor and Common Council of any city 

 or the Supervisor of any town in which it is proposed to 

 establish such parks, and they are clothed with the power 

 to employ officers for enforcing order and compliance with 

 their rules. Fifteen members of the Linnean Club, there- 

 fore, incorporated themselves under this act as the High- 

 land Park Association, so that they could take possession 



of the land which they had determined to secure, and two 

 weeks ago a deed for this land was formally delivered to 

 the corporators as a part of the festival exercises at the first 

 flower-show of the Linnean Club — and the first flower-show 

 ever held in Jamaica. 



Jamaica lies justsouth of the range of hills which forms the 

 backbone of Long Island and gives character to its scenery. 

 Twenty years ago these highlands were well clothed with 

 tree?, but the forest-growth has gradually been swept away 

 and the slopes have been turned into streets and building 

 Tots. On the summit of the range, just opposite the cen- 

 tral part of Jamaica, lies a pond, which has been called 

 from time immemorial the Goose Pond, because its shape 

 had a fancied resemblance to the outline of that bird, 

 where the village boys used to skate in winter, and swim 

 and gather Pond Lilies in the summer. This pond, with half 

 a dozen acres of land at one side of it, was the park area 

 coveted by the new association, who wished to preserve 

 from being covered over and blotted out the most inter- 

 esting feature of natural scenery near the village, and to 

 save for the boys and girls of the future the grounds where 

 the boys and girls, who are nov men and w >men hid 

 been free to gather nuts and wild dowers. Fortunately. 

 the owner of the land was generous, and. being a native 

 of the village, he held his birthplace in affectionate remem- 

 brance, although he now lives in a distant state. He. 

 therefore, not only placed a low valuation upon the land, 

 but subscribed half the sum needed to purchase it. The 

 club went energetically to work to raise the other half, 

 and gave all their neighbors the opportunity to help ac- 

 cording to their means, the individual subscript! >ns rang- 

 ing from two dollars and a half to a hundred dollars, and 

 now Highland Park is public property, held in trust as a 

 pleasure-ground forever by the fifteen corporators and their 

 successors. 



Of course, much remains to be done. The park would 

 be worth a great deal more if additional land could be 

 purchased, enough, at least, to include the entire shore of 

 the pond within its boundaries. The time will come when 

 there will be some grading needed for the playground, 

 and, as the old trees are all gone, there must be some 

 planting, or, at least, some care of the saplings which have 

 already sprung up upon the tract ; but the townspeople can 

 be trusted now to improve their pleasure-ground and keep 

 it in order, and their interest in it and affection for it will 

 grow with the care they bestow upon it. The fact upon 

 which the people of Jamaica are to be congratulated pri- 

 marily is, that this area, at least, is rescued and held for 

 public use, and their successors a century hence will hold 

 in grateful remembrance the public-spirited women who 

 have preserved this little section of the hill's crest to show 

 the original conformation of the land. 



Two or three phases of this work seem to us to deserve 

 special mention. In the first place, the Linnean Club is 

 composed entirely of women. The fifteen corporators who 

 have acquired this park -property by purchase are all 

 women. It is not strange that the need of a public gar- 

 den should have made its first appeal to the finer sensibili- 

 ties of women, but no association of business men could 

 have carried the work through with greater effectiveness 

 of organization or promptness of execution. Let us hope 

 that it may occur to the women in many another town 

 that they can accomplish as much in the way of local im- 

 provement by co-operative effort as their husbands and 

 brothers can. 



Again, it is to be observed that this was not originally a 

 movement for a park, but it was an effort to increase the 

 love of natural objects, and yet it was distinctly out of this 

 that the conception of the need of a public park grew. 

 Here is another hint of the value of organization for en- 

 couraging the study of nature out-of-doors and at first- 

 hand. Such study is wholesome in a general way ; it 

 opens the mind to good influences, it draws away the 

 thoughts from what is artificial and gives freer play to 

 those elementary instincts which attach us to the soil and 



