PARK AND CEMETERY 
45 
grew, if I have the facts right. It will be of interest 
to say here that both this oak and the bicolor, the 
other one mentioned as being of an easily trans- 
planted nature, are found in their wild state in low, 
moist ground. Trees in such situations are known to 
make many spreading roots instead of downward 
ones, and this habit may be why it is they have more 
small roots than those on dry ground, which con- 
planted. The trees were set in the fall. Large holes 
were excavated, the soil carted away and a cartload 
of good soil substituted to every hole. The trees were 
very closely pruned. The soil was rammed in as hard 
as could be about them, that all the roots were well 
encased in soil. The soil was not leveled off but in- 
stead another load of good soil was added and 
mounded up about the base of the tree. This was 
AN AVENUE OF PIN OAKS, FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHIUADEUPHIA. 
tent themselves with a few strong descending ones 
only. 
There are other avenues of oaks in this park, 
some of pin and some of other species, and it has 
surprised many to notice the uniform good luck the 
superintendent of grounds has in planting them. 
Some years ago an avenue of assorted oaks was 
for the double purpose of keeping the frost from the 
roots and keeping the tree from swaying about, both 
matters of great importance. These trees all lived, 
though some were, perhaps, 15 feet high and three 
to four inches in diameter, a large size to transplant 
for an oak. 
JOSEPH MEEHAN. 
A PLEA FOR MORE WATER GARDENS. 
New Enisrlatid Association of Park Superintendents. Bulletin No. (>. 
One of the great needs in our parks is some nat- 
ural bits of planting near our ponds or lakes. As a 
rule there is too much cleaning up and cutting down 
of the natural shrubbery, leaving nothing to break 
the shore line. While I would not like the whole 
pond or shore covered with shrubs or aquatics, I 
would like some little bits of nature left. What looks 
more unnatural than a beautiful pond or lake divested 
of all natural beauty, leaving the trees all trimmed 
up like so many sentinels, and every vestige of 
shrub and flowering plant cleaned to the water’s 
edge? On the other hand, what is more beautiful 
than the trees or shrubbery hanging over a river’s 
bank or gracefully grouped at intervals along the 
edge of a pond? We have so many plants that love 
this moist situation. Imagine a planting of groups 
of Azaleas, Clethra, Viburnums, Cornus, Myrica Gale,. 
Rhodora and black alder, high bush, blue berries 
with Irises, Hibiscus, Lobelia cardinalis, forget-me- 
not, Caltha palustris, Eupatorium purpureum, Ascle- 
pias purpurascens. Can we not have more water 
gardens in our parks and make those we have more 
ornamental instead of the unsightly things edged with 
stone walls that we call ponds? No pond or brook 
should be planked with stones unless actually neces- 
sary to hold the soil in its place, and even then they 
should not be laid like a wall, but as near on a nat- 
ural slope as poss’ble to the water’s edge, with plenty 
of pockets left to plant, so that eventually the stones 
will not be seen, but would have the appearance of 
a natural bank. What we need most is some natural 
bits of planting near our ponds or lakes. As a rule' 
we have too much trimming and cleaning up around 
