hillside west of the Conservatory, where the main lead would 

 debouch from the shut-in sylvan vestibule upon an open sunny 

 space, rich with color of flowers and well-kept, smooth, green 

 turf; strongly enclosed on the northwesterly side, toward the 

 railroad and the city and the direction of bleak winds, by a dense 

 enframement of tall-growing full-foliaged trees. The present 

 enframement of the space on the southeast is fairly good, with 

 its inviting glimpse of the Conservatory dome and its suggestion 

 of specifically horticultural interest. This unit of first impres- 

 sion, about a hundred yards in length from southwest to north- 

 east, would occupy the space where the word " Pinetum " first 

 occurs upon the Guide Map, but where in fact are ill-kept, im- 

 poverished slopes of grass, bordered by weak and dwindling 

 firs, of species which have proved not to thrive in such a locality. 

 In character of design this unit might be anything rich and vigor- 

 ous and gay and inviting, but perhaps a rather sophisticated 

 naturalistic treatment might be best, a foretaste in petto of the 

 prevailing characteristics of the Botanical Garden as a whole, 

 as an antechamber to the principal elements of formal design 

 adjacent to the Conservatory and the Museum, through which 

 or past which lies access to the main body of the grounds. 



Before entering this unit of first impression, but just within 

 sight of it, would branch easily to the right a path of direct 

 approach to the main entrance court on the southwest side of 

 the Conservatory, so treated as to give a glimpse suggestive of 

 the kind of interest to be found by following that course. Passing 

 through the unit of first impression one would cross the main 

 path or paths of the flower garden which lies northeast of the 

 Conservatory at a grade and in a way which would give glimpses 

 of that garden, inviting some to turn aside, while the main lead 

 would continue northeasterly at easy grades through successive 

 minor units of informal character but individual, distinctive 

 interest, all backed up by heavy tree plantations on the north- 

 westerly side, to a point on the hillside pleasantly overlooking 

 the valley southeast of the Museum. Here the choice would 

 be open of proceeding, on the one hand, directly toward the Muse- 

 um, from a point on its axis at a distance of rather more than 

 two hundred yards from the building, or, on the other hand, 

 through the valley to the plainly visible and very pleasant and 

 inviting region south of the Museum, through which to reach 

 the Herbaceous Grounds, the Economic Garden, the Hemlock 

 Grove, the Water Gardens, and all that lies beyond them. 



Because of its grades, because of the sense of at once getting 

 into the heart of things, and because of leading on insensibly 



[38] 



