CITY PARKS. 289 



east of the drive adjoining the 79th Street transverse road 

 that is worth stopping to look at. Its sides are planted 

 with beeches, oaks, elms, and maples, and at the bottom the 

 grass seems to grow with peculiar richness and vigor. 



As we come down the hill past the branch road leading 

 out to 79th Street we look over to Fifth Avenue across a 

 hollow or bowl extending from 79th to 72d Street. The 

 sloping sides of this region, intended for a conservatory, 

 enclosing as a central feature a small sheet of water with a 

 lily-pond to the north, close by, make an attractive picture. 

 These slopes are further adorned with fine specimens of firs, 

 spruces, beeches, elms, and maples, and also with large 

 groups of deciduous shrubs planted on the slope adjoining 

 Fifth Avenue. There is a noteworthy mass of Rosa rugosa 

 and among the shrubs are many Japanese snowballs, hy- 

 drangeas, Rhodotypus kerrioides, Spiraea Thunbergii, etc. 

 The common shrubs are numerously represented by Spiraea 

 opulifolias, red-twigged dogwoods, weigelias, standard honey- 

 suckles, and philadelphuses. 



The lily-pond is of irregular form, bordered with rocks 

 ^nd planted at intervals with lotuses, water-lilies, Cyperus 

 papyrus, and the quaint and charming floating pontederia. 



Thus we have made the round of the park and come to 

 the Casino Restaurant, which is worth visiting in early 

 or late May of all seasons, for the sake of the wonderful 

 wistaria effect crowning the Pergola, a summer shelter 

 overlooking the Mall at this point. The purple clusters 

 of flowers lie in piles among the tossing tendrils and leaves 

 until against the blue sky beyond the effect is that of a 



purple and green cloud resting on the arbor. 

 ro 



