131 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
LANDSCAPE ART IN THE SEATTLE EXPOSITION 
In the administration of exposi- 
tions various interests are given a 
voice and unless certain of its pol- 
icies are in the main fully agreed 
upon in advance there are apt to 
appear strong conflicting views with 
attending unfortunate results. With 
especial conspicuousness does admin- 
istrative harmony display itself in the 
buildings and grounds at Seattle. 
Whatever the prearranged plan 
may have been it is clearly notice- 
able that there was no conflict in the 
designing nor in the execution of the 
physical elements of the general 
scheme of buildings and grounds. 
One of the first acts of the gov- 
erning body of the exposition was to 
call upon Mr. John C. Olmsted for a 
general plan and the outcome has 
been that there the arangement of 
buildings is such as to provide ade- 
quate necessary conveniences of ap- 
proach, exit and circulation of vast 
congregations of people without les- 
sening the pleasures of any nor yet 
injuring that beauty and effectiveness 
of prospective view of buildings when 
disposed in groups. Moreover, com- 
plete control of the design shows 
itself in the complement of buildings 
to grounds and vice versa. 
Novelty was virtually eliminated 
throughout; no attempt was made to 
introduce the abnormal, the whimsi- 
cal or any features of questionable 
taste. Based fundamentally on ripe 
judgment as to necessary require- 
ments, adapting them in a straight- 
forward fashion to the practical pos- 
sibilities of site and enabling it all to 
appear as a scheme at once chaste, 
rich, lively, orderly and ornate is the 
outcome and endorses the creative 
capacity of the , originating mind. 
No attempt has anywhere been 
made to adopt that peculiar axial ar- 
rangement noticed at St. Louis; a 
Mrs. Areford Price, Rochester, 
Mich., has a unique combination of 
plants, unlike anything I have ever 
seen, that certainly is very hand- 
some. 
The center of the group is an Ar- 
bor Vita (Thuja occidentalis), wrong- 
ly called in the north “white cedar,” 
while grouped about the base in 
dense masses, one species on each 
side, are two species of plants, of 
equal hight and in flower at same 
cascade is in continuous operation, 
indicating that neither the volume of 
water nor the pumping capacity were 
designed without practical knowledge 
of the reasonable; the low interior of 
the main axial arrangement offers a 
view of a wide expanse of the most 
impressive portion of the entire 
scheme. 
Everywhere are the hallmarks of 
singleness of purpose, the absolute 
control of relationships, intensifying 
here and subduing there all to the 
common end that the whole shall be 
harmonious. 
Centered on a peak of one of the 
distant mountains the grand court 
looks out over falling land to rich 
lawns and formal gardens flanked 
with tall verdure. 
Cream colored are the exteriors of 
buildings. The domed building at 
the apex of the grand court is at the 
highest point from where the dash- 
ing waters of the cascade flowed 
down to a round pool below. Between 
the buildings and the cascade bright 
colored flowers are massed, and in 
this particular especially are the 
boldness and success of the planta- 
tions evident. Thousands of gerani- 
ums, tens of thousands of pansies 
and other choice flowering plants are 
planted with a lavish hand and con- 
tinue to give life and vivacity in a 
neighborhood where light hearts and 
gladsome feeling of visitors prevail. 
This arrangement is by contrast a 
strong reminder of how easy it is to 
fritter away opportunities in high 
color arrangement; without motive, 
support or accent the best of schemes 
fall flat. An abundance of highly col- 
ored flowers supplemented by rich 
green turf is judiciously disposed to 
enliven the grounds and lend en- 
chantment to the whole. 
In the general scheme especially 
does the real merit of the design 
time, each remarkable for its dense 
foliage forming an excellent back- 
ground for very pretty flowers. 
On the west side of the tree is a 
dense mass of Lily-of-the-Valley, 
which every one knows, and hence 
need not be described, extending 
about feet from base of- tree. 
On the east side closely joining 
with the Lily-of-the-Valley is an 
equally as dense, high and wide mass 
of the Lowland or Smooth Yellow 
appear and this is not a little due to 
the sympathetic carrying out, even to 
the minutest details, of a practical 
color arrangement. The strength 
and richness of the plantation phase 
of the work is highly meritorious. 
After the general plan had been 
devised, Mr. Dawson and Mr. Koehler 
lived on the ground for eight or ten 
months, and their ingenuity in de- 
vising ways and means to consum- 
mate it has been successful. 
As we are informed, the landscape 
architects were given a free hand, with 
the result that a high class, excellent 
work exists: indeed we recall no ex- 
position since that held at Chicago 
where landscape design was more im- 
portant to the entire scheme, or 
where cleverly and meritoriously con- 
trived it has brought such excellence. 
Seattle’s exposition may be note- 
worthy for its exhibits, but above all 
it is most impressive and acceptable 
for the high order of its landscape 
development — its beauty. It is neither 
an exhibit of buildings with some 
landscape furnishings nor yet a gar- 
den with some buildings, but a good 
example of both features effectively 
arranged to create the best possible 
combined effect — a good example of 
high class landscape design rather 
than one feature of it or two parts 
of it with one developed at the ex- 
pense of the other. 
Horticulturally many unique meth- 
ods are used to insure continuity of 
bloom, maintaining on steep slopes, 
replacement of blooming stock and 
the like, but as to that it is unnec- 
essary to speak; it is the idea not 
the method of the main essentials 
that is worthy of note. 
During the night the electrical dis- 
play, especially as seen from the 
water was very good. 
Emil T. Mische. 
OF PLANTS 
Violet (Viola Scabriuscula), a flower 
known to but few, even among bot- 
anists — this combination strikingly 
demonstrating its merit as an orna- 
mental. 
It may not be generally known 
that there are five specimens of vio- 
lets with yellow flowers in the east- 
ern half of the United States of 
North America, as they call our 
country in South America and in Eu- 
rope, one stemless, acaulescent — the 
A BEAUTIFUL GROUP 
