Opening Leaves 



are the result of indigenous growth. Other climes have 

 given us the yulan., tamarix, forsythia, quince, English 

 hawthorn, bird cherry, ailanthus, the most valuable coni- 

 fers, the deutzia, hydrangea, lilac, many beautiful spir- 

 aeas, azaleas, weigelas, etc., etc. ; but we are proud of 

 our elms, maples, and oaks, our flowering dogwood, 

 silver-bell-tree, red-bud, cottonwood, buttonwood, yel- 

 low-wood, catalpa, beech, birch, etc. At the same 

 time it is useless to deny that in very many genera 

 the foreign species decidedly outrank the native ; and 

 in the last analysis will it not be necessary to admit 

 that, with a presumably Asiatic origin of species, we are 

 ultimately indebted to the Eastern hemisphere for all 

 our wealth of vegetation ? 



The catalogue herein presented is based upon accurate 

 official lists recently completed, and not yet published, 

 by the Park Department, the correctness of which has 

 been largely verified by my own observations during 

 the past two years. 



This extensive area of landscape gardening is in three 

 sections : the first, extending from Fifty-ninth Street 

 to the north side of the " Ramble," is by far the most 

 favorable for study, as it contains, in an area of little 

 more than half a square mile, the majority of all the 

 species throughout the grounds. The second section, 

 reaching northward from the "Ramble" to above 

 Ninetieth Street, though hardly less beautiful in scenery, 

 is not so elaborately cultivated ; and the third section 

 contains the wilder portion at the upper end, where 

 nature boldly asserts itself amid the few deft touches 

 of art. 



3 



