LONDON TREES AND GARDENS. 
143 
consideration or awaiting execution. Sixty-seven recreation- 
grounds, many of them disused churchyards, have been laid out, 
an extent of 89 acres, at a cost of nearly ^29,000 — and a large 
number of other open spaces have been secured and maintained. 
Tree-planting has been undertaken on a large scale, and seats 
have been placed in a number of places. School playgrounds 
have been opened on Saturdays ; grants have been made to 
gymnasia ; and the Kyrle Society and similar bodies have 
received gifts of money from the Association. The Report 
costs only 6d., and besides a description of the work undertaken 
and in hand, with interesting details, contains a list of the 449 
burial grounds existing within the Metropolitan area, the prin- 
cipal “Open Space” Acts of Parliament ; and a list of trees 
and shrubs suitable for planting in London and the suburbs. 
London Selbornians will do well to send to 83, Lancaster Gate, 
W., for this Report, and to support the Association by their 
subscriptions. 
We venture, however, to suggest to the Association the 
desirability of keeping in order the work already undertaken, 
and for this purpose it should be visited at least annually by 
some official. At present, even in places where its operations 
are especially needed, little or no supervision seems to be 
exercised. Some years ago, three plane trees were planted by the 
Association on the Triangle, locally known as “Flat-iron Square,” 
in Union Street, S.E. One of these is still flourishing ; two are 
dead (one has been so for years, the other has long been mori- 
bund and succumbed last year), and these are a receptacle 
for rags and rubbish of v'^arious kinds. There are few neigh- 
bourhoods where the brightness which trees bring is more 
needed than in this gloomy corner of the Borough ; yet no 
attempt has been made to establish fresh trees. The south side 
of the river, it is evddent from the Association’s excellent map, 
hardly receives its fair share of attention, and it is thus the 
more important that what is done should be duly attended to. 
We do not know how far an improvement of the v'arious 
spaces which lie off such thoroughfares as the Kennington Road 
come within the scope of work undertaken by the Association, 
but there is ample room for it. Walcot Square, for instance, 
is at present almost treeless, and the proprietor would probably 
not object to plant trees if they were given him, even if he did 
not choose to do so at his own expense. A much larger space, 
in which a ten years’ residence gives us a personal interest, is 
\\ est Square, off the St. George’s Road. Here no attempt is 
made to plant fresh trees, and the old ones are steadily dying ; 
the grass is not renewed ; no flowering shrubs are planted ; the 
only attempt at beautifying this large space is the planting 
annually in a central bed a certain number of geraniums ; and as 
the inhabitants have no access to the square, a distant view is all 
that can be obtained of these. There are 55 houses in this 
square, and each pays 13s. annually for keeping it up, making 
