Los Angeles Park 
and bamboo are 
i m p 0 s i 
n g. The 
three combined can 
make be 
; a u t i f u 1 a 
tall screen without 
much width of plant- 
i n g. A 
grove of 
palms a 
gainst a 
background of pine 
IS a stn 
king and 
unusual e 
fleet, and 
the tall 
eucalyptus 
— which 
popularly 
seems to 
1 be little 
regarded— 
-does get 
into the 
landscape 
with very 
fine effect. 
T h u s 
there are 
other a 
n d more 
serious 1 
landscape 
e ft' 0 r t s 1 
than just 
that bedding of 
bright flowers which 
gives to the Public 
Garden in Boston 
its distinctive char¬ 
acter. That is the fourth impression — one’s 
final judgment. And it may be that to the peo¬ 
ple who live in Southern California the flowers 
are a less vital attraction in the parks than to 
the strangers. One sees, at any rate, compara¬ 
tively little loitering over the flowers, though the 
band concerts on Sunday afternoons bring tens of 
thousands of people into the parks. One would 
have to search, too, for any sign prohibiting the 
picking of blossoms, fl'here is said to he very 
little trouble of that sort. Nobody steals flowers, 
for everybody has them. 
Los Angeles has done remarkably little as yet, 
compared with what she ought to do, toward the 
beautifying of the streets by parking and boule- 
varding. But where this has been done, blossom¬ 
ing plants, such as the geranium and larkspur are 
quite commonly used and they seem as unmolested 
as cobblestones. In the year 1905, the park de¬ 
partment set out, in parks and streets, 483,000 
bedding plants; and yet the side parking where 
flowers were used, between walk and curb, was 
mainly done by the property owners. Fences, too, 
are very rare in front of houses, and the front gar¬ 
dens are full of flowers. All this explains why the 
blossoms are not picked. The thief would not 
know where to begin, and what is the use of stealing 
what one already has ? 
A few more notes of a casual observer remain 
to be jotted down. The poinsettia is everywhere— 
in parks, and gardens, and its picture is in all the 
stores. Often its stalks are half as high as a house; 
but the country is full of the stories of the bigness 
of California plants—of roses over roofs and gera¬ 
niums like bushes. A few weeks later — when 
spring comes—the golden poppy is as common as was 
ever the poinsettia, and as beautiful in its way. 
Though it is a “ wild flower,” there has been the 
courage and good sense to put some beds of it in 
the parks. 
One thing has not been done in the Los Ange¬ 
les parks, however, that ought to be done. 
Not a tree or plant is labeled, and in this city of 
tourists, where the very newsboys in the streets 
sell papers from every large city of America and 
Europe, the labels would add immensely to the 
interest, for the vegetation is new to very many of the 
strangers. But a good thing that has been done in 
Eastlake Park, is the construction of a ford, where 
horses can be driven splashing across the lake, to the 
infinite delight of children, of every age; and where 
by the aid of stepping stones, young people, and 
for that pretty much all the world is young enough, 
can have the pleasure of crossing where every step 
brings the delightful possibility of falling oft—and 
wetting one’s shoes! Incidentally, when the ford 
is not in use, there is no marring bridge; and the 
ford is so near the lake’s end that its use is never 
necessary, except for fun. It is a rare device in a 
park, hut a most happy one. 
Courtesy Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce 
AN AVENUE OF PALMS 
A striking instance of an insistent need of an accent to close the vista 
117 
