38 



THE GRBBNING PICTORIAL 



College and School Grounds 



0 



Artistic Landscapes and Botanical Gardens 



" One impulse from a vernal wood 

 May teach you more of man, 

 Of moral evil and of good, 

 Than all the sages can." 



SO wrote Wordsworth long ago ; so believes everybod)- 

 to-day. " Back to nature "' is now the educational 



slogan. 



We know now, if we know anything, that real 

 education consists in knowing the things that touch our 

 lives, the things of every day — the common things of our 

 work and play. The best university education is merely 

 an extension of the kindergarten idea — for are not men 

 but children of a larger growth? Blessed be Froel)el ! 

 He builded better than he kncAV ! 



And in harmony with this idea a number of educa- 

 tional institutions have established school gardens where 

 the boys and girls become acc|uainted with the nature of 

 flowers and \'egetables by the actual care and cultivation 

 of a small plot of ground. This is a grand and splendid 

 step forward ; but so far not much more has been done 

 than the annual distribution of seed. Some of the more 

 progressive school directors have gone a step further and 

 established botanical gardens for the benefit of the natural 

 science class ; so that within a small compass there is 

 l)rought together a large collection of trees and shrubs and 

 perennials to be studied, text-book in hand, under the teacher's 

 direction. This method gives a far more intimate acquaintance 

 with plants and their habits than the old way of merely memoriz- 

 ing names. Other schools have gone a step beyond this, and with 

 the aid of our landscape service have laid out their grounds in an 

 artistic way, seciu-ing at once the double purpose of beautification 

 and nature study. It has been found that students with such 

 surroundings are more submissive to discipline, and school at- 

 tendance has become a delight as well as a duty; whilst above and 

 beyond all this is the iDeautiful fact that yoimg men and young- 

 women have become more responsive to the social amenities. 



The Greening Landscape Company is in full sympathy with 

 this educational movement, and the attention of school boards is 

 especiall)- called to the fact that we render all three branches of 

 landscape service. We make the plans, fiu-nish the stock and do 

 the ])lanting, all in the most artistic and workmanlike manner, and 

 we i)Ostively guarantee satisfaction. There is no disappointment' 

 with tlie Greening System. 



Plate 36 



BOSTON IVY FOR COVERING WALL 

 Ampelopsis Veitchii or Boston Ivy on a wall of St. Mary's College, Monroe, 

 Mich., showing the regular overlapping of the foliage. Very effective to cover and 

 tone a blank expanse of wall. Turns to beautiful crimson and purple tints in the 

 fall, and is covered with clusters of small elderlike berries all winter. 



There is an unfounded fear that the school children, especially 

 the boys, will abuse the trees and shrubs and disfigure or destroy 

 the gardens. The facts are exactly the other way. The ideals of 

 children have changed in the exact proportion that we have relaxed 

 our rigid discipline. We have found out at last that love is the 

 only reforming force and the rod has been laid away with the other 

 instruments of savagery to be seen no more except in the show- 

 case of antiquities. We now treat om^ children with love and 

 kindness and bv surrounding them, at home and at school, with 

 beautiful flowers they are sacredly guarded by the better angels 

 of their own natures. Without exception where school gardens 

 have been planted the boys and girls regard themselves, individ- 

 ually and collectivel}^, as the especial conservators of their beauty 

 and woe betide anyone who would mar or molest them. It is 

 tlie story of Tom Brown at Oxford told over again, with slight 

 modifications. Love is stronger than fear. The love of trees 

 stimulates the imagination, refines the feelings and deepens the 

 affections. Friedrich Froeljel, the guardian angel of children, 

 was a forester's apprentice at fifteen. 



