172 
PARR AND CEMETERY 
Concerning the Decoration of Home Grounds 
There are some remarks about “The Decoration of 
Home Grounds” quoted in the November number of 
Park and Cemetery which should not be passed with- 
out comment. Not that they lack truth, but that, be- 
ing too general and sweeping, they are very mislead- 
ing. 
For instance, “Paths (through a wood) are always 
beautiful, while walks laid out by an individual sel- 
dom are.” Come, now ! Isn't that a little too hard on 
Repton, Downing, Olmsted and us, their descendants? 
Do we never lay down road or path lines that are 
beautiful in themselves, and develop their beauty by 
foliage? Is no path beautiful unless it resembles a 
woodland track, and is there no beauty in anything 
artificial ? Is there no beauty in all the finite and in- 
finite forms and curves of architecture and decora- 
tion, and in the no less really artificial lines of sculpture 
and all the other arts, including landscape gardening? 
Next, “It seems curious to see a person pay $2,000 
for a canvas landscape and then pay a gardener to 
prevent the real thing from forming outside his own 
window.” 
This is a saying to make one wonder which of a 
hundred different answers is the right one for the 
occasion. It cannot be discussed thoroughly in less 
than a good sized volume. But, are we to have no 
artificial gardens, no lawns and exotic plants outside 
our windows? Are not these things beautiful in their 
way and much more fit for their place than a piece of 
natural scenery ? Is an artificial scene necessarily 
bad because a natural one is often good? 
Again, “Every ‘Keep off the Grass’ and ‘No Tres- 
passing’ sign, and every barrier to divert travel, and 
every trampled down projecting corner is conclusive 
evidence that the contest between bad designing and 
public utility is on.” 
Surely this is a little too. sweeping. If you have 
only a square of grass 50x100 feet to serve the needs 
of thousands of people (as often happens in towns) 
must all of them lose the sight of a spot of green 
that a few of them may trample it out of sight? 
Is it not desirable to confine travel to certain limits, 
even in parks? If paths were to be laid out in every 
direction in which people would naturally travel there 
would be no fences and no lawns, and little of any- 
thing else. Are not even projecting corners to be al- 
lowed on certain occasions for the sake of symmetry 
or harmony of line ? 
These remarks call for comment, because, though 
they contain a good deal of truth, they are likely to 
give very wrong impressions of the principles of out- 
door designing. A park must first of all be useful, 
but it cannot be useful without being beautiful, and 
while the beauty should be constructed on the needs of 
utility, beauty cannot always give way to utility. It 
is the balance between the two that preserves the best 
ingredients, and proportions of both that constitute 
good design. H. A. Caparn. 
Garden Plants Their Geography— XCVI. 
Musales. 
The Zingiber, Maranta and Musa Alliance. 
There are 4 tribes, 41 genera, and 520 species, with 
a host of varieties, in this group, often included under 
Epigynae by systematists. All are tropical or sub- 
tropical except, perhaps, Thalia dealbata, Canna flac- 
cida and a very few others. All are classed as herbs, al- 
though the Museae frequently have tree-like or even 
woody stems. They have simple petioled leaves, with 
veins diverging from the midribs. The large leaves 
of Musa, Strelitzia, etc., split into sections when ex- 
posed to wind. The flowers are often strangely un- 
symmetrical, and highly colored as are the bracts. The 
ovaries are three-celled as a rule, sometimes by abortion 
unicellular, while in the case of the edible bananas the 
seeds are abortive. Many are rhizomatous, and the 
roots of several such will endure the winters of the 
south quite well. Among these, species of Hedychium, 
Curcuma, Zingiber, Alpinia and Canna are the most 
familiar, but more attention should be paid to the sum- 
mer blooming Heliconias, which are often magnifi- 
cent. At the north, where there is the convenience of 
MUSA ENSETE. ’ 
