THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
26 T 
BOSTON PARKS AND ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
Entertainment and Excursions Instructive and Delightful 
MR. J. WOODWARD MANNING ASSISTED BY HARLAN P. KELSEY, A. E. ROBINSON, 
W. H. WYMAN AND OTHERS, WERE THE MEN “ON THE JOB” 
Perhaps the reader would think we were exaggerating if 
we were to say that there were so many nurserymen with 
their wives waiting to take the trip through the Arnold 
Arboretum on Wednesday afternoon that it took all of half 
an hour to get them seated in the autos provided. At any 
rate, seven large “rubberneck” machines and more than a 
dozen touring cars were needed to accommodate the party. 
No doubt it was a revelation to many 
of the visitors to see the miles and miles of 
tree-lined driveways within the limits of 
the bustling capital of Massachusetts. 
Moreover, we were told that the boulevards 
we passed over constituted but a small. 
part of the great system which has been 
established and is maintained in Boston 
by its metropolitan park system. After a 
ride of some five or six miles, the party 
reached the entrance to the Arnold 
Arboretum, where we gathered in front of 
the administration building to hear brief 
addresses from some of the officials of the 
Arboretum. The words of greeting were, 
in brief, as follows, the speakers being intro¬ 
duced by Mr. J. M. Farquhar. 
Jackson Dawson, who is renowned as 
our greatest plant propagator, said: 
I bid you welcome to the Arboretum, 
and hope you will hdve a good time here. 
We have here tree cuttings gathered from every, quarter of 
the globe, till now we can boast to have the greatest collection 
of hardy woody plants in the world. I hope you will enjoy 
yourselves here, and anything we can do to facilitate your 
stay, we will be very glad to do. 
Mr. E. H. Wilson was next introduced as the greatest 
plant collector the world ever knew. Mr. Wilson said: 
“I am delighted to have the pleasure of greeting and 
helping to welcome you all here. In the absence of my chief. 
Professor Sargent, I bid you a most hearty welcome. Al¬ 
though you have not the architect of this place here, you have 
the builder, Mr. Dawson. There are in this Arboretum trees 
which he has raised from seed or which were seedlings taken 
from the woods. Some of these trees which Mr. Dawson has 
watched develop arc now sixty feet high and seven feet in 
girth.” 
The city was represented by Park Commissioner Shea who 
extended a warm welcome. 
Mr. J. Horace McFarland of Harrisburg, Pa., responded 
for the Association: 
The American Association of Nurserymen is delighted to 
be received in this fashion, and to accept the welcome you 
have given us to the park system of Boston, undoubtedly the 
greatest in the United States, and to the Arnold Arboretum, 
undoubtedly the greatest tree garden in the world. In one of 
Kipling’s books, he speaks of one of his characters as the little 
friend of all the people. It seems to me that among those 
who have bid us welcome today, I may turn to Mr. Dawson 
and sa}^ he is the great friend of all the nurserymen. As 
Mr. Wilson has said, the architect is not 
here, but the man who built this place is 
before us. His it has been to see trees 
grow to grand maturity during his conscious 
life. He can give the lie to the old story 
that a man cannot afford to plant a tree. 
We shall never have any other than the feel¬ 
ings of the greatest gratitude to those who 
have made it possible for us to avail our¬ 
selves of the information worked out in 
this Arnold Arboretum, the greatest trial 
ground in all the world. 
Returning to our machines, we were 
taken through winding roads to the top of 
Bussey Hill, the highest point in the Ar¬ 
boretum. From there we could view the 
country for miles on every side, as far as 
the Blue Hills on the west, the nearest 
approach to mountains that eastern Mass¬ 
achusetts knows. 
Stopping close by Hemlock Hill, where 
the grand old trees seem to be growing right out of the 
rocks, we got out to inspect at shorter range the wonderful 
groups of rhododendrons and mountain laurel which border 
the drive for several hundred feet. The latter was just 
coming into bloom, and the gradations of color from the deep 
pink buds to the almost white blossoms were most charming. 
How shall we describe the magnificent beauty of the rhodo¬ 
dendrons? We remember particularly one large plant on 
which there scarcely seemed to be any leaves, so covered 
was it with a mass of purple blossoms. The collecfion of 
these flowers, on bushes from two to ten feet high, in their 
great profusion of many colored blossoms is a scene not soon 
to be forgotten. 
The ride continued through Franklin Park, a playground 
of five hundred twenty-seven acres, for several miles along 
Columbia Road to Marine Park, thence back to the Hotel 
vSomerset. 
Madison, Wis. Tlie Kickapoo Orchard Co., has been incorporated 
to engage in the orchard and nursery business with a capital stock of 
$10,000. The incorporators are: J. C. Schubert, Dr. J. K. Chorlog, 
and J. A. Harley .—The Florist^' Exchange. 
J. W. MANNING 
