282 CITY PARA'S. 



produce the ample, open-air lawn effect with reasonable 

 shade, that should be the initial requirement in any city 

 park. 



Passing up the West Drive between two small hollow 

 lawns ornamented with some fine specimens of evergreen, 

 Pinus exceha (Bhotan pine), and stone pines and hemlocks 

 near 82d Street and Eighth Avenue, a loop drive leads up 

 to a small plateau called The Concourse, where the eye 

 wanders over miles of city houses, out to the Hudson in 

 the distance. Here are many specimen evergreens of con- 

 siderable excellence, creeping junipers, retinosporas, stone 

 pines (Pinus cembraj, white pines in groves, silver firs of 

 several excellent species and varieties, Oriental spruces, Atlas 

 cedars, mugho pines, and some fine specimens of the evergreen 

 thorn ( Cotoneaster <n- Cratceguspyracantha),w\t}\ its shining 

 small leaves and orange-red berries in autumn. 



Beyond this portion of the park, towards the 85th 

 Street transverse road, are two or three other small lawns 

 on either side of the Drive. Throughout these lawns, since 

 we left 72d Street, will be noticed along the West Drive as 

 far as 110th Street quantities of evergreens. The West 

 Drive was originally^ arranged for a winter as well as a 

 summer resort, and is altogether the most attractive side of 

 the park. Fashion has decreed, however, that the grand 

 parade of carriages must go up and down the east side of 

 the park. 



Having reached the 85th Street transverse road, I will 

 stop a moment and explain these peculiar features of the 

 park. They are sunken roads extending from Fifth to 

 Eighth Avenue, and there are four of them, viz., at 65th, 



