124 Ornamental Planting. 



portunities afforded by wild and rocky suburb, or of waste and vacant 

 grounds for rural adornment, have been improved. In other cases 

 there are still barren wastes, river banks, shores, islands and points 

 of land, within or near a city, and sometimes belonging to the cor- 

 poration, that have not yet been noticed, where, at a moderate ex- 

 pense, there might be secured a little paradise of beauty, and an 

 inviting place of resort. 



490. In laying out city parks, the leading idea should "be to make 

 them easily accessible, and as widely useful as possible. 



491. They need not, therefore, embrace ivide areas, unless there be 

 convenient bodies of land available, but they should be as long as 

 may be. They may sometimes consist of separate pieces connected 

 by broad, well-planted boulevards or avenues. It is an excellent 

 plan, where the space is ample, to lay out the boundary-street, at 

 one or two hundred feet distance, within the actual line of owner- 

 ship, at the beginning, and to sell or lease this strip of land outside, 

 upon condition that dwellings shall be built and maintained upon 

 plans prescribed or approved by the commissioner in charge, and 

 that their future use for purposes injurious to the general objects of 

 the park be forbidden in their title deeds or leases. 



492. In some instances, vacant grounds near cities have been 

 highly improved with plantations, fountains, lakes, and other objects 

 of rural interest, upon private account ; and the adjacent and inter- 

 vening lands sold upon conditions tending to maintenance and to great 

 profit upon the investment. Where persons of congenial tastes, and 

 united by a common sympathy in social, educational, religious, or 

 other matters, can establish suburban colonies of this kind near our 

 large cities, they may multiply the enjoyments of life indefinitely, 

 and by carefully arranging a plan of organization in the beginning, 

 they may secure the maintenance of their object, by the exclusion of 

 any thing that might interfere with its operation. Even as a simple 

 speculation, such enterprises have an admirable effect, and in some 

 instances present an inviting field for investment. 



493. The traveler in Europe will often find the line of fortifications 

 of a former period now converted, or in process of transformation, 

 into a line of gardens and pleasure-grounds, the moat affording 

 ready-made a meandering lake, and the slopes and ramparts still 

 left presenting that diversity of surface most desirable for ornamental 

 plantation. Upon certain of these points admirable sites are found 



