PARK AND CEMETERY, 
1 99 
| -ft PARK NOTES. | 
A suggestion t s conveyed in the recent activity of the Need- 
ham Improvement Association, which held a public meeting and 
entertainment in the town hall of that Massachusetts town, at 
which Hon. Charles J. Noyes of Boston delivered an address in 
connection with a musical and literary entertainment. More or 
less money can always be raised in such entertainments when 
pleasure and profit combine as an incentive to liberality. And 
moreover, many prominent public men will gladly help a good 
cause when occasion permits. 
* * * 
One feature rather surprising to an American is that every 
park in Birmingham, England, is made lor use, says The Cen- 
tury. “There is no fear lest the grass may be injured, but in 
every ground adapted for them are cricket and football fields, 
picnic grounds, croquet lawns, tennis courts, bowling greens, the 
use of which is permitted for a merely nominal payment. Es^ery 
park, large or small, has one or more concerts each week during 
the summer, paid for by neighborhood subscription. Less need 
exists for large parks than in American cities of the same size, 
because the better class of houses all have ample gardens.” 
* * * 
Among the improvements approved by the New York Park 
Commissioners is the erection of a “pheasantry” forty by sixty 
feet, in connection with the menagerie, to cost about $1,500. 
The plans for the improvement of Poe Park have at last been 
adopted, and $10,000 are to be spent on the park around the old 
home of the famous author. A bronze tablet will also be placed 
near General Grant’s tomb on Riverside drive, with an inscrip- 
tion in Chinese and English to the effect that Li Hung Chang 
had a tree planted there to the memory of General Grant. 
* * * 
The advance in public taste is growing so marked that the 
necessity of placing all public improvements under the super- 
vision of competent commissions to insure the preservation of 
natural beauties, as well as to secure artistic harmonies in added 
ones, is becoming apparent on both sides of the Atlantic. Lord 
Londesborough in the London Times called public attention to 
the vandalism under the title of public improvements being 
perpetrated at Scarborough, England, on the beautiful Castle 
Hill in the construction of a road, in spite of the protests of citi- 
zens, and The Garden of London points to the curbstone edge 
to the river Thames at Richmond, marring so sorely that beau- 
tiful locality. 
* * * 
Notwithstanding the vigorous protests which have been 
made in the past against the destruction of the Palisades of the 
Hudson River by quarrying operations, the work goes on. By a 
recent explosion the crag once known as “Washington’s Head,” 
about a mile above Fort Lee, was shattered from top to bottom. 
As the Philadelphia Record says: “This assault upon one of the 
most picturesque features of the American continent is disgrace- 
ful, and should be stopped. The Hudson River has been not al- 
together unhappily styled the American Rhine, but the Pali- 
sades are even finer than the Rhenish cliffs. There ou 0 ht to be 
public spirit enough and energetic action enough in East Jersey 
and in the city of New York to stay the hands of those who are 
so ruthlessly tearing down the noble old ramparts.’ 
* * * 
It is a gratifying sign of the times and a harbinger for future 
development to find our noted park superintendents realizing 
the value of popular education in plant and garden cultivation. 
Superintendent William Falconer of Schenley Park, Pittsburg, 
Pa., whose work in the field of landscape gardening is so well 
known, has been devoting himself to creating a popular inter- 
est in the subject of cultivated flowers. He is now giving exhibi- 
tions, accompanied by talks on flowers, at the monthly meetings 
of the Western Penns)lvama Botanical Society, which are held 
in Science Hall of the Carnegie Library, the first Thursday of 
each month at 8 p. m. At a recent meefing a general exhibi 
tion of flowers in bloom was given, and especial attention paid 
to tropical water lilies and ornamental fruit shrubs. A great deal 
of interest is manifested, and there is no question of the power 
of such work in building up a permanent sentiment on the preg- 
nant subject of home and park development. 
* * * 
Preparations are making for the early construction of the 
buildings for the Botanic Gardens at Buffalo, N. Y.,and the 
plans and specifications promise a handsome plant. The center 
dome of the range of greenhouses will be sixty feet in height. 
Prof. Cowell is giving much attention to a complete rockery, 
the main idea being, a correspondent in the Florists' Exchange 
says, to place the plants in the most favorable situations more 
than the formation. The herbaceous border is being extended 
500 feet. The appreciation shown during the past summer has 
inspired Mr. Cowell to extend the area for this interesting class 
of plants. The majority are now past blooming, but I saw in the 
distance a showy bed of the blue verbena Venosa, its color of 
caerulean blue is most pleasing to the eye; the common aster is 
at its best. Of cannas, Papa is the favorite this season; it looks 
proudly over some handsome seedlings raised here. A border of 
Yucca filamentosa around the canna beds illustrates the good 
use to which this plant can be put. 
* * * 
To promote a more general knowledge of native trees and 
shrubs Prof. C. S. Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, 
has arranged a series of lectures and meetings to be held on the 
grounds, the first of which was given September 18 in the hall of 
the Bussey Institution. Mr. J. G. Jack is the lecturer. The an- 
nouncement of the proposed course does not propose to make it 
technical, but to instruct by comparison the easiest means of dis- 
tinguishing the common native trees and shrubs as they appear 
in that part of the country, and to recognize the for- 
eign species which have been introduced into our gardens. The 
ornamental and useful properties of these trees and shrubs, their 
habits of growth and other peculiarities may be considered; and 
particular attention will be given to their identification and gen- 
eral aspect as they lose their leaves and prepare for winter. As 
an indication of the methods pursued it may be mentioned that 
Mr. Jack in the lecture made use of numerous colored charts, 
diagrams, sections of tree trunks, branches, bits of bark, etc. 
The composite parts of trees, heart, sap and bark, were discussed, 
and it was explained how the age of a tree can be determined by 
the rings and how the branches always grow from the tip. He 
told how a hollow tree can be healthy, and that it would die if 
the outside is injured and the tissue destroyed from which its life 
comes. Other general charactetistics, such as the size, shape, 
color, taste, odor, etc., were alluded to, and it was shown how 
autumn is a more advantageous time for such field study as will 
be undertaken now than spring on account of the ease of identi- 
fication of varieties. The following dates have also been filled: 
September 22, maples and cherries; September 29, thorns, lo- 
custs and hollies; October 2, ashes and sumachs; October 6, wal- 
nuts and hickories; October 9, cornels and viburnums; October 
13, elms; October 16, oaks. 
