188 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



architect of the building marked out the paths and roads and indicated 

 the positions of the trees and shrubs, to comprise about 100 species, 

 principally American, The surrounding hedge was to consist on each 

 of the four sides, respectivel\% of pyrocanthus, osage orange, cherokee 

 rose, and hawthorn. Although considerable progress in this work 

 seems to have been made during the year, the contract was considered 

 not to have been properly complied with, and it was canceled in 1819. 

 The same .year, for the convenience of those who attended the lec- 

 tures in tlie east wing of the Smithsonian building, a walk was built 

 from Seventh street to the eastern gate of the grounds and the path 

 from the Twelfth Street Bridge was repaired. In speaking of the 

 considerable expense which such improvements outside the reservation 

 entailed upon the Institution, Secretary Henry, in his report for 1810, 

 said : 



It is hoped that the authorities of the city of Washinijjtoii will cause bridges to 

 be erected across the canal and walks to be constructed through the |)ublic grounds, 

 to facilitate the approach to the building, and that the Institution will not 1)e expected 

 to provide accommodations of this kind. 



In their report for 1850, the building committee stated that up to 

 the end of that year $3,747.51 had been spent upon the grounds, and 

 that probably little more expenditure on that account would be neces- 

 sary. Portions of the roads about the building had been graded and 

 man}' trees and siirubs set out. An appropriation having been made 

 b}" Congress for the purpose, Mr. Andrew J. Downing, at the request 

 of the President, was then preparing a plan for converting the entire 

 Mall, including the Smithsonian grounds, into a landscape garden. If 

 this plan were adopted, tiie Smithsonian lot would form part of an 

 extended park, of which the Smithsonian building, by its site and 

 picturesque style of architecture, would be a prominent and attractive 

 feature. 



In 1851, according to the report of the same committee, the Mall 

 was in course of rapid improvement under Mr. Downing, The cor- 

 poration of the city appropriated $^,500 for an iron bridge across the 

 canal at Tenth street, and a gravel walk was carried thence to the 

 building. The Smithsonian reservation of It) acres had been inclosed 

 with a fence and planted with trees at an expense to the Institution of 

 about $1,000, but the execution of Mr, Downing's plan, at tlie cost 

 of the General Government, would, in the view of the committee, 

 render unnecessary any further disbursements by the Institution. 

 Without surrendering the right of use of the reservation appropri- 

 ated to the Institution, the partition fence between it and the other 

 part of the Mall had been removed and the whole given in charge of 

 Mr. Downing. 



Although relieved at this period, and at its own request, of the care 

 and improvement of its gi-ounds, which have since remained under the 



