PARK AND CEMETERY. 
2Y0 
BEAUTY AND VARIETY IN ORNAMENTAL PLANTING 
God loves the ornamental, for He has 
given the world and the whole universe 
so much of it. Infinite skill, art and 
taste have been lavished on our grand 
old earth. 
When it comes to fruits, God might 
have given them the somber color of the 
cobblestones — but no. One of the fin- 
est pictures on earth is the orchard in 
autumn with its great, luscious burdens 
wrapped in envelopes of red and gold. 
The cherry tree is made beautiful — a 
bouquet of white in early spring and 
later you see the mingling of the red 
with the green one of nature's fair- 
est pictures. The strawberry — God's 
climax — is more valuable because of its 
superlative beauty. Fruits are not ready 
for delivery until they have their wrap- 
pings done up in colorings no artist can 
reproduce. 
How endless the varieties of the trees 
with their different forms and foliage. 
What a family of shrubs He has given 
us. One hundred and fifty kinds of lilacs, 
with the power to produce more till we 
may run them into the thousands. These 
stretch the time of blooming from early 
spring till the first of July. In the West, 
we have not the full assortment of 
shrubs for our trying climate which they 
have in the moister and milder East, and 
yet, we have the power and skill for 
producing more. Our own “Wizard of 
{Extracts from a paper read by C. S. 
H.arrison of York, Nebraska, before 
the Nebraska Horticultural Society.) 
the North,” Professor Hansen, has 
brought out of the unknown, a cross of 
Prunus Pissardi and Besseyii, one of the 
most beautiful shrubs I ever saw, sym- 
metrical in form, with foliage of deepest 
crimson purple. Back in the unknown 
land there are other forms of loveliness 
which we trust his skill will drag forth 
to light. 
The charming, family of the Philadel- 
phus or Syringa is a numerous one and 
new types are being constantly added ; so 
v\ith the Spiraeas and these with the vi- 
burnums and other shrubs are all the 
while being improved. 
When we come to flowers, we are in 
a land filled with the very fascinations 
and astonishments of loveliness. The 
rose, the peony, the phlox, the canna, and 
the dahlia with hosts of perennials show 
the love of the beautiful on the part of 
the Creator. But this is not all ; the 
native flowers are but the beginning of 
things. They are mostly single. He 
gives man the skill to make them double 
and to increase their beauty many fold. 
What stupendous changes have been 
made with the phlox, the peony, the dah- 
lia, and carnation, so marked, so diver- 
gent from the parent source their own 
mother would not recognize them. 
When a carnation sells for $30,000, 
and -that is but its beginning, when a 
Festiva maxima grows to be worth 
$100,000, when other floral gems reach 
such high values, than it pays to explore 
that unknown land. 
Do some Home Missionary work for 
yourself in the evangel of beauty. You 
need it badly enough. Do something for 
your neighbors. You can not live down 
here long, at best, but leave a worthy 
trail behind you to let people know you 
passed this way. A single farm, put to 
its best, would be a Mecca for Pilgrims 
in search of the beautiful, A whole sec- 
tion of rich prairie would be like a sec- 
tion of paradise let down to earth. A 
whole township improved as it might be, 
would make earth so attractive that the 
best Christian would be willing to stay 
out of heaven awhile to enjoy it. Such 
surroundings would lengthen life and 
prolong a stay on earth. Home would 
be delightful memory to children in after 
years. 
Cattle, horses, hogs, corn, and wheat 
are all right in themselves. They have 
given you competence so you can now 
fi.x up and you will find there are other 
things fully as attractive and beautiful as 
the hog, and yet, what farmer gives his 
front yard as much attention as he does 
his pig pen ? 
SUN DIAL IN GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO 
A handsome memorial sun dial has just been formally un- 
veiled in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It was presented 
to the park and city by the National Society of Colonial Dames 
resident in California, in honor of the first three navigators 
to the Pacific Coast. These are Fortuno Jiminiez, Juan 
Rodrigues Cabrillo and Sir Francis Drake. 
The base of the dial is of Utah stone, consisting of four 
overlapping slabs, the bottom one being one foot thick and 
12 feet square. From this foundation rises a round fluted 
column of pure white California marble five feet high and 
20 inches in diameter, around the top of which has been 
carved a handsome garland of flowers and fruits ; and also 
an appropriate inscription. 
The dial is of bronze in the form of a half-globe resting 
on the back of a large bronze turtle, emblematic of the slow- 
ness of the flight of time. On the face, or inside of the half- 
globe, above the figures marking the time, are medallions of 
the three navigators thus honored, while beneath the figures 
is the inscription: “Hora ne Sole nolente Negro,” meaning 
“I tell not the hour when the Sun will not.” On the reverse, 
or outside of the half-globe, is a relief map of the Western 
Hemisphere. The work was designed and modeled by M. Earl 
Cummings, the young California sculptor. The total cost 
was about $1,.500. 
SUN DIAL, GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO 
M. Earl Cummings, Sc. 
