PARK AND CEMETERY, 
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PARK NOTES. * | 
Texas will make a park of the San Jacinto battle ground. 
* * * 
Plans have been completed for a mid-way park between Wa- 
terloo and Cedar Falls, Iowa. 
* * * 
The citizens of Tappan, N. Y., propose to create a park on 
the spot where the old court house stood at the time of the Rev- 
olution. 
* * * 
Herkimer, N. Y., voted in the affirmative on the appropria- 
tion of $2,500 to convert the old cemetery at the west end of Lib- 
erty street into a public park. The work will be carried out 
without delay. 
* * * 
In memory of her father, the late Judge Mark Skinner, of 
Chicago, Mrs. Henry J. Willing, of that city, has built a library 
building at Manchester, Vt.,and has filled it with io,oco volumes. 
It will soon be formally presented to the town. Mark Skinner is 
buried at Manchester. 
* * * 
The attention of park superintendents is called to the illus- 
tration in this issue showing a specimen plant of the Scotch 
Thistle. It is suggested that as this thistle is not at all trouble- 
some about spreading it might be used in the wilder parts of parks. 
Certainly it is a distinct and handsome plant and might be used, 
with good effect, in such locations. 
* * * 
An excellent floral combination not heretofore noted is this 
year seen in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis. It consists of a car- 
pet of Pholx subulata through which clumps of pansies rise at ir- 
regular intervals in orderly disorder. The result is charming in 
coloring and in general effect, and Mr. Gurney’s idea is herewith 
made public for the common good of our readers. 
* * * 
The project to establish a public park in Cambridge, Mass., 
on land adjoining the Lowell homestead, in memory of James 
Russell Lowell, should be a matter of speedy consummation. 
The sum required is $35,000. With the addition of the old home 
and grounds which may eventually be added, it will form a me- 
morial, beneficial to the people and more substantial in its me- 
morial aspect than any monument. 
* * * 
At the last meeting of the North Dakota Educational Asso- 
ciation held a few weeks ago, a committee wasappointed to pre- 
pare a catalogue of the plants of North Dakota. The attempt is 
the first in the history of North Dakoto to secure a comprehen- 
sive knowledge of the flora of the state. The members of the 
committee are prominent educators, well versed in botany, and 
will devote the greater part of the summer to their work. 
* * * 
So much discussion and criticism have attended the selec- 
tion of sites for the small parks of New York City, which were 
provided for in the Small Park act, that it was deemed prudent 
to select an advisory committee of representative citizens to take 
charge of the work. This committee was appointed by Mayor 
Strong last month, with ex-mayor G. S. Hewitt as chairman. 
New York City is permitted to expend $100,000 per year for 
breathing places for the people. 
* * * 
Delaware, O., has an ordinance in force calling for the 
trimming of shade and ornamental trees growing upon, over or 
into any street, avenue or sidewalk of that town, to a height of 
twelve feet from the ground. The work is to be done under di- 
rection of Mr. David Grinton, Supt. of Oak Grove Cemetery, 
and any failure to comply with the law within ten days of receiv- 
ing notice from the authorities, the work will be carried out by 
the superintendent and the property charged with the cost and 
collected the same as taxes. This should assure the work being 
done properly and the trees intelligently handled. 
* * *. 
A number of improvements are contemplated and in pro- 
gress by the Fairmount Park Commission of Philadelphia, es- 
pecially in roads and drives and the planting and seeding of bare 
unsightly spots. The spraying machine has been hard at work on 
the trees to their great benefit. Plans and specifications have 
been prepared for an attractive and convenient ladies’ public 
comfort building, proposed to be constructed at some convenient 
place in the East Park, possibly near the Diamond street en- 
trance. The Richard Smith bequest, for the great arch and also 
the childrens playground and building, is now claiming close at- 
tention. 
* * * 
The report of the National Sculpture Society to the Park 
Commissioners of New York City, recommends that the question 
of a site for the St. Gauden’s equestrian statue of the late Gen. 
William T. Sherman be kept open until the sculptor had de- 
voted further attention to the details of the work. The park 
commissioners denied the application, of Gen. Daniel Butterfield 
to place a monument, in memory of the officers and privates of 
the Twelfth Regiment who died on Southern battlefields, upon 
Mount Tom, in Riverside Park, “because the design of the 
monument itself is lacking in monumental character, and better 
adapted to a flat plateau than to a rocky eminence.” Both the 
monument and site were approved in the matter of the memor- 
ial to the late Richard Morris Hunt, and the question was re- 
ferred to the Municipal Art Commission. 
* * * 
The National Sculpture Society of New York has announced 
that “through the generosity of Mr. T. Kelly of New York it will 
offer a prize for the best and second best designs for a sun dial, 
to be competed for under its direction, the designs to be exhib- 
ited in the society’s exhibition in 1898, and the award to be made 
at that time. The prizes are $500 for the best design and $250 
for the second best, the competition to be open to sculptors only. 
The sun dial is to be placed out of doors on a lawn, free from 
buildings or other objects, and no restrictions are made as to cost, 
the prizes being for the models alone. The designs shall be sub- 
mitted in plaster models, uncolored, executed to a scale of three 
inches to the foot. The competition will be judged by a com- 
mittee to be appointed by the council of the society for that pur- 
pose after the end of February, 1898.” 
* * * 
In a communication to the president of Quincy, 111 ., Boule- 
vard and Park Association, speaking of a beautiful park site, Mr. 
O. C. Simonds, Chicago, sa>s: “We might say, with justice, 
that it would be unpardonable for the city of Quincy to lose the 
tract of land from the ccmeteiy along the bluff, south, to include 
the Indian mounds, through failure to improve the present chance 
of getting it. Such neglect on the part of your city would be 
equivalent to Chicago’s neglect to take advantage of its frontage 
on Lake Michigan. The citizeus of Quincy will be proud of In- 
dian park if they secure it and develop it in such a way as to en- 
able people to easily view the splendid landscape which stretches 
away from the southeast over Illinois around by the Mississippi 
river and Missouri to the northwest. The parks which you al- 
ready have, including Washington square and the Primrose 
tract, should of course be cared for so as to get the most from 
the special characteristics of each. If you have not money to 
develop Indian park along with the other parks which you now 
have, by all means secure the title to the land.” 
