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atmosphere of this region was polluted with the smoke and fumes 

 from innumerable chimneys and stacks. The evaporating power 

 of the air that blew over the Parmentier garden was also doubtless 

 less than that which blows over the present Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden. With the growth of the City this air became exposed to 

 acres of tall brick buildings and concrete and asphalt pavements, 

 which materially increase its evaporating power before the air 

 reaches the Botanic Garden. The records of atmometers (which 

 measure the evaporating power of the air) show that the air has 

 an evaporating power at the Garden greater than over any area of 

 natural vegetation on Long Island. 



After calling attention to the fact that he had " laid out several 

 landscape gardens in this country," and had " made many designs 

 for a great number of gentlemen/' Mr. Parmentier gives his views 

 as to what should be the guiding principles in landscape design. 

 " It has been reserved," he says, " for the good taste of the present 

 age to make many advantageous changes in the embellishment of 

 gardens, and to reinstate Nature in the possession of those rights 

 from which she has too long been banished by an undue regard to 

 symmetry. 



" Our ancestors gave to every part of the garden all the exact- 

 ness of geometric forms: they seem to have known of no other 

 way to plant trees, except in straight lines ; a system totally de- 

 structive to beauty. We now see how absurd it was, except in 

 the public gardens of a city, to apply the rules of architecture to 

 the embellishment of gardens. . . . Gardens are now treated like 

 natural landscapes, the charms of which are generally injured by 

 any interference of art." 



This was one of the early voices calling for the naturalistic treat- 

 ment as a controlling motive in landscape architecture ; the words 

 quoted were published 31 years before Olmstead and Vaux, who 

 had designed Central Park in New York, published their "Design 

 for Prospect Park in the City of Brooklyn." These two parks, as 

 is well known locally, were among the first in this country to be 

 laid out primarily with a view to preserving and restoring natural 

 features. 



The map of Mr. Parmentier's garden is here reproduced from 



