CENTRAL PARK 



" No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes, 

 As still are wont t' annoy the walled towne, 

 Might there be heard : but carelesse Quiet lyes, 

 Wrapt in eternall silence farre from enemyes." 



SPENSER. 



AN admirable feature of Central Park is the fine 

 adaptation everywhere displayed. Each tree, 

 shrub, and vine, with artful ingenuity, is made 

 to show its best. Here, the water-loving hornbeam 

 hovers over the lake as if nature had put it there, and 

 the tall cottonwoods bathe their roots at its brink. 

 Yonder, staghorn sumachs, in October's crimson, are 

 gloriously massed, as they so like to be upon the hill- 

 side ; the graceful drooping white birch stands solitary 

 in an acre of greensward ; a large cluster of magnolias 

 gives a touch of tropical luxuriousness ; the group of 

 buttonwoods is a noble bit of forestry; black haw, 

 honeysuckle, and viburnum shrubs are scattered with un- 

 studied effectiveness ; stony embankments have allured 

 bittersweet, trumpet -flower, matrimony- vine, wistaria, 

 and ampelopsis to trail in graceful profusion, and double 

 rows of grand old elms on each side of the Mall are col- 

 onnades and vaulted roof to frame the finest vista in the 

 Park. 



The flowering wonder of spring in these spacious 

 29 



