ANNUAL 3rEETING AT LEXINGTON. 327 



amount of land, together with a large body of water. Chicago and St. 

 Louis each have ten or a dozen parks. Low grounds, however beau- 

 tiful, if cut off from outward view, in the vicinity of artificial ponds or 

 sluggish streams, creating miasma or malaria, cannot be considered fa- 

 vorable. Such as want diversity or variety cannot be considered 

 without enormous expense to avoid monotony. The late A. J. Down- 

 ing, author of "Landscape Gardening of American," says : "The ad- 

 mirers of nature, as well as the lovers of pictures and engravings, will 

 at once call to mind examples of scenery distinctly expressive of these 

 ends of beauty. In nature, perhaps, some gentle, undulating plain 

 covered with enameled turf, partially or entirely encompassed by rich, 

 rolling outlines of forest canopy, its wildest expanse here broken occa- 

 sionally by noble groups of round headed trees, or there interspersed 

 with single specimens, whose heads of foliage flowing in outline or 

 drooping in masses to the very turf beneath them. For an example of 

 opposite character perhaps a romantic valley, half shut in on two or 

 more sides by steep rocky banks partially concealed and overhung by 

 clustering vines and tangled thickets of deepest foliage against the sky, 

 outlines the irregular trunk of some old, half decayed tree near by, or 

 the horizontal unique branches of the oak or elm, with their strongly 

 marked forms. Kough and irregular stems and trunks, rocks half cov- 

 ered with masses of flowering plants, open glades of bright verdure - 

 opposed to dark masses of bold, shadowy foliage, form i)rominent ob- 

 jects in the foreground." 



Has the city of the hills, grounds pre-eminently suitable for this 

 purpose ? Echo answers in the affirmative. Other American cities 

 "would give millions of dollars if they could be possessed of these cov- 

 eted grounds that nature has so lavishly formed, awaiting the finishing 

 touch at the suggestion of the landscape gardener. Big Muddy, one of 

 the greatest rivers in the world. The Nile of America. The only river 

 on the continent that has an annual summer rise from the cool, pure 

 waters caused by melting snow and ice in the far off distant mountains 

 in the northwest. This great river is perpetually sweeping by at the 

 foot of the city, and its prominent bluffs has given to the city the ap- 

 pellation of the city of seven hillS, which may appropriately suggest 

 that one more might be added as a park. One of these promontories, 

 in easy range of the city, according to the government survey, is the 

 highest on the river in the State, being 365 feet above the water in the 

 river. From this isolated elevation is to be had one of the finest views 

 in the world, eclipsing anything on the boasted Hudson river. An 

 eminent tourist and writer has said that "no scene is complete without 



