42 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



and by the advice of Mr. Manning the original design for this 

 Court as incorporated in the final plan was discarded. The 

 architectural treatment of the buildings themselves, planned by 

 Messrs. Heins & La Farge, was, however, retained in its entirety. 

 The study of Baird Court in relation to its natural surroundings 

 was then taken up. The direction of its axis, its levels, and the 

 motor road along its western side were determined by Prof. 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, at that time Chairman of the Executive 

 Committee, acting in consultation with Mr. John DeWolf, then 

 landscape architect of the Park Department, and with Mr. H. 

 A. Caparn, who had in the meantime been appointed the land- 

 scape architect of the Society. Mr. Caparn served the Society in 

 this capacity from 1899 to the end of 1904, and his plan of Baird 

 Court, and the approach from the north, known as the Concourse, 

 was formally adopted by the Executive Committee on November 

 14, 1900, after having been submitted to the expert considera- 

 tion of Mr. Charles F. McKim, and approved by him. Tliis plan 

 was published in the Society's fifth Annual Report. 



The architectural features of the general design of Baird 

 Court, along the lines laid down in the Caparn plan, have again 

 been submitted to Messrs. Heins & LaFarge, and their general 

 combination of architectural with landscape features has been 

 approved by the Executive Committee, and is now being carried 

 out. 



In the meantime much attention has been paid to the care and 

 preservation of the forest, and to the whole subject of planting, 

 both for the present and in the future. All suggestions received 

 from those who have been connected with the landscape develop- 

 ment of the Park have been carefully considered, and sectional 

 plans of the planting have been made from time to time by our 

 Chief Forester, Herman W. Merkel. The plans have been con- 

 sidered separately, and most of them carried out. Mr. Merkel 

 had, of course, full benefit of the advice of the various landscape 

 architects employed. 



The general plan of the planting and forestry of the Park 

 has been to encourage the perpetuation of local types of flora, 

 rather than an introduction of exotics either from the extreme 

 north or south of our country. This purpose has been carried 

 out as far as possible, even in bushes and shrubbery, although 

 in some instances slight departures from this principle have been 

 made. The Executive Committee also has laid it down as a gen- 

 eral principle that formal phmting of any kind should be con- 

 fined to Baird Court and its main approach. The remainder 



