PARK AND CEMETERY. 
91 
they may temporarily fill vacancies that will be occu- 
pied later by permanent material, and for clothing 
the lower part of woody vines that tend to sparse- 
ness of foliage at the base. Another acceptable way 
to overcome this defect lies in the use of two varie- 
ties of hardy vines together. For example: Tubers 
of the Cinnamon vine planted in the same opening 
that is to receive a Wistaria, or and perhaps still 
better, a good plant of Clematis coccinea with 
Wistaria, which latter vine has a tendency to bare 
stems. The Clematis is particularly good for the 
correction of this defect, which becomes more 
noticeable as the Wistaria grows old, for it exhibits 
quite the contrary characteristic of slender growth 
while young and increasing vigorousness in later 
years; in fact, it sends up more and stronger shoots 
each season, and after its second or third year, in a 
well chosen situation, it can be depended on to 
weave a generous garland that is charmingly 
decorated throughout the entire summer and 
fall with coral bells unique in shade and in shape 
as well as by almost equally attractive seed 
vessels. 
Climbers are adapted to varied uses and locations. 
Walls may be clothed by those that cling to any 
surface or by erecting a trellis, preferably of woven 
wire, on which almost any kind of vine will climb; 
they will closely cover the trunks of trees or climb 
industriously upward and drape the tree tops; they 
are pretty when grown on bare posts, which are 
thus transformed into pillars of green; they are 
invaluable for shading porches, summer houses, 
arbors, etc.; they will supply a cover for bare 
ground where grass can not be made to thrive; and 
they are never more beautiful than when allowed to 
scramble at will over tree and shrub, or clothe 
rough and barren banks. The foundations of wind 
mills and water tanks may be redeemed from their 
present unsightly estate by using vines; they should 
help to shield every outbuilding of every school 
house in the land; country and village churches all 
over the country would gain in attractiveness and 
probably in membership, by a general and gener- 
ous use of vines; and there can hardly be love in a 
cottage without them, while their proper use in 
this direction would doubtle.^s prevent all inclina- 
tion for its escape through the window. 
F. C. S. 
The discussion on small parks for our crowded 
cities is beginning to develop another form of 
philanthropy, that of opening private house grounds 
at regular and frequent intervals to the children of 
the locality. Under certain conditions of regula- 
tion and control this would be a helpful neighbor- 
hood agency for good. 
TREES IN COMPOSITION.* 
In the production of all artistic effects the art of 
composition is the rare and crowning skill. In the 
field of pictorial art nothing is more striking than the 
number of artists who can paint fine individual sub- 
jects, compared with those who can put this and that 
together and make a real picture. The studios are full 
of fine studies and it always seems as though the artist 
was on the very point of producing a great work. 
In the present instance there is little need of singing 
the praises of trees, which with grass, may be said to 
constitute the chief materials of the landscape archi- 
tect’s art. Yet we do not always reflect how abso- 
lutely dependent ordinary scenery is upon trees. There 
is a grand and singular beauty in the bare and many- 
colored rocks of Colorado. And the treeless prairies 
of the Dakotas have a beauty of their own, like the 
expanse of the sea. But it is what we call rural or 
rustic beauty that affects most of us with the greatest 
pleasure, and it is this beauty that we can do most to 
promote with our own hands. 
It may be roundly assented that the beauty of a 
small town is wholly dependent upon its trees. Watch 
yourself as you declare this or that village to be a 
beautiful place, and you will find that you mean simply 
that it has many and fine trv:es. Its beauty may be 
promoted by wide and orderly streets and by neat and 
tasteful buildings and especially by care of trees and 
grass, but if the trees are really fine it can scarcely be 
kept from being beautiful. New Haven, Brookline, 
Minneapolis, Madison, have good and interesting build- 
ings, but if the trees were removed they would have 
little claim to being mentioned here. The trees are at 
least an essential element of their beauty. Great cities 
try to join rustic to civic beauty by the formation of 
parks. 
In small towns it is not necessary nor desirable that 
there should be elaborate parks and boulevards. A 
village itself may be made practically a park by the 
exercise of taste and public spirit among its citizens. 
Let it be distinctly recognized that the beauty of a 
village is little dependent on its buildings. Give me the 
control of the trees, the grass and the grounds of a 
village and I will defy you to spoil it with bad build- 
ings. I would not say that its beauty cannot be im- 
paired, but certainly with abundant and fine trees, green 
grass, and well-kept grounds, the buildings of a village 
can scarcely be so bad as materially to damage its 
beauty. On a single street you may be able to crowd 
ugly buildings close upon the sidewalks, with ill-assorted 
colors and untidy architecture and so make an un- 
sightly spot, but allow me a row of fine trees upon each 
side and I will take the edge off even of this barbarism, 
and in the outlying and more open parts of the village 
I will more than make up for what evil remains. 
On the other hand reflection will show that no 
beauty in the buildings themselves will compensate for 
the absence of these beautiful adjuncts of nature, grass 
and trees. 
Picture to yourself a scattered village, destitute of 
trees, of the most beautiful architecture you can con- 
ceive, of Gothic cottages and Italian villas, fenced and 
paved as tastefully and elaborately as possible, with 
gold and precious stones, like the Holy City if you 
*Paper read at the Fourth Annual Convention of the American Park 
and Outdoor Art Association, Chicago, by W. M. R. h'rench. Director 
of the Art Institute. 
