122 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



incongruous ; and because it favors sucli a distribution of those 

 who visit it that few shall be seen at a time, and that the ground 

 shall not be overcrowded. 



" A landscape in order to be beautiful must have all its parts 

 stamped with a common idea, and contributing to a single sensa- 

 tion. If it gives the lie here to what is said yonder, it destroys 

 itself, and the spectator is in the presence of nothing but a mass 

 of senseless objects." 



The north meadow in Central Park, New York, has an area of 

 nineteen acres ; this area is greatly exaggerated to the observer 

 by the. judicious arrangement of the planting, opening up long 

 lines of sight, and broadening here and there into large expanses 

 of turf. The sheen of the grass, the varied tints of the foliage, 

 the low-lying hillocks crowned with large forest trees, the great 

 bowlders entirely exposed or only half buried, the meadow be- 

 yond running back to seemingly unknown distance, — all con- 

 tribute to make the picture one of pastoral beauty. There is 

 dignity, there is breadth, repose, restfulness, and yet a sense of 

 isolation that is not absolute. It is genuine park scenery that 

 the eye is tempted to linger on and the foot to walk on, and it 

 presents, if reviewed as a single feature, one of the best examples 

 of good park work. 



The same general features have characterized the work of a 

 master-hand, in the long meadow of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and 

 will be secured in Franklin Park, Boston, when completed, and 

 time has matured the groAvths and mellowed the crudities of the 

 site. 



The landscape gardener must take into consideration all the 

 impressive and natural elements of the locality, in the planting of 

 any park of sufficient extent to have a distinctive landscape char- 

 acter. The general aim of his work Avill be to make a harmoni- 

 ous combination with the dominant characteristics which nature 

 has already stamped upon the site. He will seek a fuller or 

 richer development of the essential leading features, simply soft- 

 ening what is hard, clothing Avhat is bare, filling out what is 

 meagre, and enriching Avhat is beautiful, — all in harmony Avith 

 the original type. 



He will thus avoid all novel conceits, all conspicuous eccen- 

 tricities, all incongruous intrusions, and be guided by his under- 

 standing of the laAvs of nature and his sympathy Avith them. It 



