42 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL S@CIETY: 
and by the advice of Mr. Manning the original design for this 
Court as incorporated in the final plan was discarded. The 
architectural treatment of the buildings themselves, planned by 
Messrs. Heins & La Farge, was, however, retained in its entirety. 
The study of Baird Court in relation to its natural surroundings 
was then taken up. The direction of its axis, its levels, and the 
motor road along its western side were determined by Prof. 
Henry Fairfield Osborn, at that time Chairman of the Executive 
Committee, acting in consultation with Mr. John DeWolf, then 
landscape architect of the Park Department, and with Mr. H. 
A. Caparn, who had in the meantime been appointed the land- 
scape architect of the Society. Mr. Caparn served the Society in 
this capacity from 1899 to the end of 1904, and his plan of Baird 
Court, and the approach from the north, known as the Concourse, 
was formally adopted by the Executive Committee on November 
14, 1900, after having been submitted to the expert considera- 
tion of Mr. Charles F. McKim, and approved by him. This plan 
was published in the Society’s fifth Annual Report. 
The architectural features of the general design of Baird 
Court, along the lines laid down in the Caparn plan, have again 
been submitted to Messrs. Heins & LaFarge, and their general 
combination of architectural with landscape features has been 
approved by the Executive Committee, and is now being carried 
out. 
In the meantime much attention has been paid to the care and 
preservation of the forest, and to the whole subject of planting, 
both for the present and in the future. All suggestions received 
from those who have been connected with the landscape develop- 
ment of the Park have been carefully considered, and sectional 
plans of the planting have been made from time to time by our 
Chief Forester, Herman W. Merkel. The plans have been con- 
sidered separately, and most of them carried out. Mr. Merkel 
had, of course, full benefit of the advice of the various landscape 
architects employed. 
The general plan of the planting and forestry of the Park 
has been to encourage the perpetuation of local types of flora, 
rather than an introduction of exotics either from the extreme 
north or south of our country. This purpose has been carried 
out as far as possible, even in bushes and shrubbery, although 
in some instances slight departures from this principle have been 
made. The Executive Committee also has laid it down as a gen- 
eral principle that formal planting of any kind should be con- 
fined to Baird Court and its main approach. The remainder 
