SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1913. 
note of the week. 
Flowers in Towns. 
Within a comparatively recent period 
much has lieeii accomplished by those who 
take an active interest in municipal affairs 
to increase the brightness and interest of 
tlH‘ surroundings of those wlio from neces¬ 
sity or choice spend their lives in popu¬ 
lous centres. The means by which this de¬ 
sirable result has been 
effected have been of a 
varied character, but where 
administrative ability has 
been accompanied by a full 
appreciation of the mani¬ 
fold charms of Nature, the 
town dweller has had his or 
her eye delighted and mind 
quickened by the beautiful 
displays of flowers and foli¬ 
age provided for the adorn¬ 
ment of the various open 
spaces. Few indeed are the 
towns of any importance that 
have not several parks and 
gardens in which one or more 
attiactive floral displays are 
annually provided for the 
enjoyment of the people. In 
the great towns and cities 
the public parks and gar¬ 
dens, as so Avell knowui to 
those who have travelled 
nauch, extend over so large 
an area, and are main¬ 
tained in so high a state 
^ cultivation, as to form 
important part of 
municipal activities. That 
t IS should be so is highly 
gratifying, for there can be 
question as to the value 
of 
butii 
the 
spaces in contri- 
*tg to the health and 
management is of the best, -to see how 
great are the opportunities for their im¬ 
provement from an aesthetic point of view. 
When, on the other hand, a visit is made 
to towms in which but little attention is 
paid to matters other than those of a 
distinctly materialistic character, one is so 
struck by the bare walls that flank the 
streets, and the absence of flowers from 
the windows as to at once understand how 
depressing must be the appearance of the 
rlu- n of town 
that the social scale. The efforts 
ameiiit*'^* 'being made to improve the 
»se of'thet^ judicious 
will iu •• ornamental plants that 
tain ^»ider the conditions that ob- 
so <^entres should not, as is 
iimits nf oonfined within the 
^"'PortaLtrX''''''' gardens. 
Dart f .f spaces as an essen- 
town life it pleasing aspects of 
nised that clearly recog- 
l®r beantif • ®'”ple opportunities 
*arge towns, both 
plant life '''*^** suitable forms of 
the streets of t through 
tration of tt "herein the adminis- 
«e bodies responsible for their 
MR. WYNDH.4M FITZHERBERT. 
streets upon those by whom they are being 
constantly used. The great need of prac¬ 
tically all the larger towns is a fuller 
recognition of window gardening as a 
means of beautifying the streets. En¬ 
tered into with some spirit and conducted 
along proper lines, it will afford an im¬ 
mense amount of pleasure to the occupiers 
of both private houses and business pre¬ 
mises, and, with combined effort, the whole 
aspect of the streets will be changed. This 
need was recognised some years since by 
the municipal authorities at Liverpool, and 
practical expression was given to this recog¬ 
nition. With a view to encourage the work¬ 
ing classes of the city to embellish their 
windows with flowers, the Corporation an- 
niiallv distributed large numbers of wm- 
dow boxes well furnished with plants, 
among those who made application for 
them. As the result of this procedure 
many streets, if not converted into avenues 
of flowers, had much of the bareness so de¬ 
pressing to those who are “ in city pent 
swept away. More recently the question of 
encouraging the cultivation of plants in 
window boxes has engaged the attention of 
several other municipalities in the Midlands 
and the North, notably those of Preston 
and Sheffield. Theaiithorities- 
of these two great industrial; 
centres have proceeded on 
different lines to those laid 
down at Liverpool, and 
limited their activities in 
this direction to arranging 
a series of competitions for 
ihe summer season on which 
we have just entere<l. At 
both centres the competitors 
are grouped according to the 
wards in which they reside, 
and, as a separate set of 
prizes is provided for each 
ward (which, by the way, 
will have its o^^^l commit¬ 
tee), the competition will be 
on terms as nearly equal as 
it is possible to make them. 
Each of the two courses of 
procedure has its advan¬ 
tages, and it would be a 
matter of considerable prac¬ 
tical importance to dis¬ 
cover the course by which 
the best results are oib- 
tained. To the poorer 
classes it is, of course, an 
immense advantage to be 
relieved of the cost of pro¬ 
viding the boxes and the 
soil, and plants with whioh 
to fill them, and, in admit¬ 
ting this, it has to be con¬ 
sidered whether window 
boxes so provided have the same interest 
Uke" in them as those which arc obUmed 
bv the occupiers of the houses. It is a 
nfatter of common knowledge that many 
things which can be had for the as 
ine fail to obtain an appreciation pro¬ 
portionate to their worth, 
have in mind several towns, notably 
Kingston-on-Thames, where window pr- 
deiiing has attained to a high state 
of development with no further encourage¬ 
ment than is provided by 
petition for prizes provided by the public 
l^ies or private donors, or the two com¬ 
bined. The essential point m entering on 
the development of window gardening in 
towns is to interest the people in the 
plants and their cultivation. The offeiing 
