PARK AND CEA\ETERY. 
129 
In prairie sections there may be counties wlicrc 
every tree must be planted. In such counties parks 
will be more expensive, but such is their necessity 
that it seems to me only a question of time until 
the people will own such parks, whatever the cost. 
The sooner we begin to build, the sooner shall we 
enjoy. But in a vast number of cases all that is 
needed is such ownership as shall save from private 
spoliation, and such restrictions as to use, fires and 
the like, as shall transmit to those who come after us 
the natural beauty and restfulness of our land. 
Lily Ponds at Lincoln Park, Chicago. 
The present very general use of aquatics in 
Parks in the West followed their adoption in Lincoln 
Park in ’89, and their introduction there must be 
credited to the persistent 
efforts of Mr. J. A. Petti- 
grew then Superintendent 
of the Park and now of the 
Parks of Milwaukee. 
Previous to that time 
Mr. W. H. Chadwick, the 
President of the Chicago 
Horticultural Society, grew 
Zanzibariensis, and perhaps 
some other choice tender 
varieties of Nymphmas, in 
a small pond in his garden 
on Belmont and Evanston 
avenues. Lake View, Chi- 
cago, and Mr. Pettigrew 
had himself grown two 
plants of Victoria Regia in 
’82, in wash-tubs till the 
leaves were eighteen or 
twenty inches in diameter. 
They were raised from seed 
procured from the Curator 
of the Birmingham, England 
Botanic garden with a view of interesting Sec. Rey- 
nolds of the Exposition Company in them. And, 
in fact, he promised to build a tank for them in the 
conservatory annex of the old Exposition Building, 
but let the matter run on until too late, probably 
being doubtful of the success of the feature, and as 
Mr. Pettigrew says, “how could I persude him of 
their glorious beauty?’’ 
In the introduction of tender aquatics in the 
Park there were similar doubts to be dispelled, and 
it required strenuous efforts to secure an appropria- 
tion for purchasingthe plants and providing suita- 
ble quarters for them. The money was, however, 
finally forthcoming and a low swale among the 
sand dunes was selected. The spot was well adapt- 
ed for the purpose and being near the engine house. 
steam for heating the water was easily supplied. 
The plants met with various misfortunes and 
for a time the result was doubtfuk Indeed the 
ponds were facetiously referred to at this stage as 
“Pettigrew’s frog ponds.’’ But the plants finally 
redeemed themselves and beginning about July 12, 
the flowering of the Victoria was for some time 
announced in the evening papers and hundreds 
visited the Park to see the flowers by electric light. 
And by the middle of August the Nymphaeas also 
attracted crowds of visitors. 
But, while tender aquatics are charming, (and 
they are nowhere grown more successfully than they 
are to this day in Lincoln Park, Mr. Stromback, 
the well known Park gardener, being a painstaking 
expert who recognizes no such word as fail,) still 
LILY POND, LINCOLN PARK. 
the ponds of hardy water plants are really more 
attractive as a landscape picture and the flowers 
themselves are a dream of beauty. 
The ponds are larger than those that are warm- 
ed; their setting is naturalistic, and the planting 
along the shore adds much to the good effect. The 
stone bridge that spans the twenty-foot channel 
connecting the two ponds is a picturesque feature 
that is justly admired. It is thirty eight feet long, 
ten feet wide overall, and from the water to the top 
of the battlement is seven and one half feet. It is 
built of boulders and limestone, and it, together 
with the limestone stairs at the right, at the top of 
which the little girl stands to watch the camerist 
taking the photograph, was built by ordinary Park 
laborers at slight expense. 
