SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 49 
reason of their insular position in Regent’s Park, they are 
touched by no tram cars, and by only one line of omnibuses, 
although other lines do land the visitor within walking distance 
of the gates. Of thirteen zoological gardens visited on the Con- 
tinent, I remember none save the Paris Jardin d’Acclimitation 
with such inadequate means of access as the London institution. 
For this, however, the Society is in no wise responsible. 
If you visit those Gardens in midsummer, when rain is as badly 
needed as it was in July, 1896, it will seem to you like a green 
and delightful oasis in a brown woods-pasture.* Even at its best 
the upper end of Regents’ Park is merely a meadow with a set- 
ting of trees; but at all times, save in winter, ‘‘ The Zoo’’ isa 
botanical paradise. 
Owing to its limited area, and the great number of its collec- 
tions, the Gardens are a perfect labyrinth of buildings, aviaries, 
dens, yards and ponds, laid out in rectangles, because that is the 
best way to secure the utmost benefit from every square yard of 
space. AQ little study of the map will reveal the fact that no at- 
tempt has been made to secure a systematic zoological arrange- 
ment. Ina large garden it is possible to secure a partial system- 
atic arrangement of the collections, but on an area of thirty 
acres it may be regarded as an absolute impossibility. The other 
conditions to be satisfied are to numerous and too exacting to 
admit of it. It is the large hoofed animals that upset one’s cal- 
culations as to arrangement, both in zoological gardens and in 
museums. 
As you enter the South Gate, from the Broad Walk of Re- 
gent’s Park, and look straight before you into the heart of the 
South Garden, you see a fine sweep of velvety green, dotted and 
hummocked every few feet with beds of brilliant flowers. In 
the distance appears the Restaurant—a very modest building 
in comparison with the magnificent and imposing structures 
that prevail in the gardens of the continent. Low, spreading 
trees and flowering shrubs form the boundaries of this beauty 
spot; and truly it is a most charming prospect. As you pene- 
trate farther, you will find flowers everywhere, in lavish richness 
and profusion, and trees wherever trees ought to be. There are 
twenty men in the Gardener’s Department, and the grounds are 
*Quite recently the Gardens have secured, by means of an artesian well, 
an independent water supply of 240,000 gallons per day. 
