206 
PARK AND CE/AETERY 
The Himalayan Pine. 
Among the numerous members of the pine fam- 
ily, it would be difficult to find one more beautiful 
and useful than the Himalayan, Pinus excelsa, also 
known as the Bhotan pine. There are but few 
others possessing the many good points of this one, 
and it is no wonder that it is such a universal favor- 
ite. The one shown in the picture is one of several 
in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Beautiful as it 
is, it is yet comparatively a young tree, being about 
BHOTAN PINE. — Piiius excelsa. 
twenty feet in height, and *as it becomes fully de- 
veloped there is rather more of a drooping tendency 
in the branches, and it is this, with its beautiful 
needles, which gives it such a charm. In color the 
needles are of a glaucous green, slender and soft, 
drooping so much that it gives to the tree a weep- 
ing character. On large grounds it is much in place 
in certain positions, and for cemetery planting it is 
unequaled. When it gets to some age it bears 
cones, which, while modeled after those of our nat- 
ive white pine, are very much larger. These cones 
are by no means unattractive, especially when they 
open in late summer. Although pines with rigid 
needles are indispensable for certain positions on 
ones grounds, my preferences are always for pines 
with soft foliage, such as this one has. As is the 
case with most all pines, as the tree gets large the 
lower branches become decumbent, and, sweeping 
the ground as they then do, present the tree in a 
shape in which it is usually much admired. As 
mentioned already, the cones resemble the white 
pine very much. The resemblance does not stop 
there. The silvery green foliage and the general 
appearance also reminds one of that species, only 
that this one, excelsa, is infinitely better. Mr. 
Chas. H. Miller, the park landscape gardener, re- 
marks that it is one of a few pines which transplant 
better than others. Here again is something which 
seems to bespeak some relationship to the white pine. 
Both sorts have a great many more small roots than 
pines usually have, and all large planters are aware 
that there is no common pine can be transplanted 
with fewer losses than the white. 1 have seen lots 
of over a hundred each and five to six feet high 
transplanted many a time, wiih but the loss of a 
tree or two, and yet with no extra precaution in 
the niatter. Had it been, say Scotch or Austrian 
pine, there would have been the loss of many more, 
for these kinds are in the class with those that make 
but a few forked roots. The pliotograph is of a 
tree which is in a portion of the park lying between 
Horticultural Hall and George's Hill, a favorite 
place for the thousands who throng the park on 
favorable days. The pretty cottage is the one 
erected by Ohio at the time of the Centennial in 
1876, and it is still the Ohio Building by the resi- 
dents of the city who remember its erection. The 
fine oak which appears almost to embower it is the 
Quercus tinctoria. The shrubbery in front is com- 
posed of a great variety and nestling in the midst of 
it are a few of the Scotch broom. Genista scoparia, 
which hereabouts is quite hardy. The airy looking 
deciduous tree to the left, across the path, is wild 
cherry, Cerasus serotina. 
Joseph Meehan. 
Public Parks and Reservations. 
The Interstate Park Commission of Minnesota 
is taking active steps to awake public interest in 
the Interstate Park at the Dalles of the St. Croix. 
As a means of arousing this interest lectures have 
been provided, from one of which delivered at 
Taylor’s Falls by Mr. Frank H. Nutter, Landscape 
Architect, Minneapolis, Minn., the following ex- 
tracts from advance sheets are given. The author 
first gave at length a history of parks and their 
treatment from early times, and then said: 
But you may ask, what bearing may these facts, 
interesting or not as they may be in themselves, 
have on the project in which we are more directly 
concerned? I think a very direct one in that they 
go to show that these parks and reservations are 
called for more and more as the years go by, to 
meet a want that is tangible and making itself in- 
creasingly felt among the people, and they are not to 
be relegated to the domain of fancies as some of their 
