THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERIC. 
3 ( >7 
ing the driveways have witnessed man)- stirring 
events. In Ante-Bellum days when the code of honor 
compelled personal combat more frequently than 
nowadays, the oaks in City Park furnished the requi- 
site amount of cover and privacy for the combatants. 
The land was then used as a plantation, and was situ- 
ated several miles from the present city limits. 
City Park was acquired by the municipality in 1894, 
and the work of converting the grounds into a public 
park was undertaken at once. A series of artificial 
lakes and lagoons were dug, adding much beaut}- to 
the natural attractiveness of the place. A peristyle 
fronting one of the lakes was modelled along the lines 
of a Grecian temple, and presents an imposing ap- 
pearance. The Delgado Art Museum adjoins the park 
grounds, and the eastern limits are marked by Bayou 
St. |ohn. an extremely picturesque waterway of the past 
century. 
Plans are now being considered by the people of 
New Orleans for the construction of a sea wall and 
driveway along the East Shore of Lake Pontchar- 
train, an arm of the Gulf of Mexico, near the city. It 
is proposed to reclaim several hundred thousand acres 
of land, and to resort to landscape gardening in beau- 
tifying the driveway. This work will open up a large 
residential section along the lakeshore to accommo- 
date the constantly increasing population of the city. 
Louisiana boasts of many specimens of water flow- 
ers, and the rivers, lakes, bayous and lagoons of the 
State are covered with a kaleidoscopic mass of color 
during the summer months. The growth of the water 
flowers is so rapid in the smaller bayous, that the 
boats are used especially for the purpose of clearing 
passageways for vessels. The Louisiana magnolia is 
though by some to rival the pristine beauty of the 
lily, as it emerges from its covering late in the after- 
noon to contribute its delightful perfume to the dew 
i if the evening. 
It wotdd take the keen perception of a trained hor- 
ticulturist to dilate upon the variety and beauty of 
the flowers of Louisiana. They grow in such pro- 
fusion as to elicit the praise of the residents and the 
wonder of the stranger. The lover of nature can find 
unlimited joy in viewing their beauty and inhaling the 
scent of their delicately tinted petals. 
A Typical Court Yard 
THE MEANING OF HARDINESS. 
*~p HE word hardiness is perhaps the most misleading 
*■ word the nurseryman has to contend with, says 
The National Nurseryman. He describes a plant as being 
hardy in the proper meaning of the term, but is very 
often interpreted by the customer in a very different way 
to that he intended. The average person seems to think 
that if a plant is described as hardy it will stand all sorts 
of conditions and abuse and if it fails in the winter they 
immediately think the nurseryman has misrepresented it. 
Every plant grower knows that the term when applied 
to a plant means, that given the proper conditions ii is 
hardy enough to stand the cold in a given locality, but 
the term may be equally well applied to heat, drought, 
fungus, or any other condition that may have a bearing 
on the welfare of a plant. It is a well known fact that 
as many garden plants succumb to summer conditions as 
Scene in New Orleans. 
to winter conditions or winter conditions or severe cold 
and very often a plant will fail in the winter in the 
latitude of Philadelphia, while it will come through un- 
injured in the latitude of Boston. 
Every plant has its own particular isothermal line 
which more or less governs its geographical limit when 
growing wild. This can very often be extended when 
brought under artificial conditions and properly cared 
for. 
The word adaptability is really a much better term to 
use in connection with plants. The trailing arbutus is 
hardy enough as far as cold is concerned but how many 
succeed with it under cultivation? The same is true of 
the American Holly. Even in localities where it grows 
wild it is not an easy plant to bring under cultivation. 
These two are extreme cases but the same is true to a 
greater or less degree in all plants. 
