Whether a mainly informal scheme or a more largely formal 

 scheme is adopted, a permanently satisfactory result in this part 

 of the Botanical Garden can in our opinion be attained only by 

 radical, extensive and costly changes. Plans for either kind of 

 scheme, sufficiently well worked out to be dependable and to be 

 clearly explanatory of the results to which they would lead — 

 such plans, in other words, as the Managers should have before 

 them at the time of reaching a definite decision in a matter of 

 such importance and involving commitment to such large expendi- 

 tures — can be prepared only with much study and labor. Every 

 part would be so interlocked with other parts that it would be 

 unsafe to stop short of working out all the parts in considerable 

 detail, continually revising and adjusting until a satisfactory and 

 harmonious whole is quite certainly assured. 



We have made numerous diagrammatic and partial studies in 

 hopes of being able to illustrate and clarify our general state- 

 ments above, but those which show enough features to be really 

 explanatory go further and appear to commit us to more definite 

 conclusions than is safe without much more thorough and de- 

 tailed planning than we have felt to be justified at present. 



If it is thought that there would be a reasonable prospect of 

 carrying out such a radical plan of improvement in the vicinity 

 of the Museum as we have outlined above, we should be interested 

 to work it out in definite form so that at least the pros and cons 

 could be thoroughly canvassed and clearly understood. To do so 

 is so much of an undertaking that we hesitate to embark upon it 

 and to ask the donors of our services to pay for it, without know- 

 ing whether the Managers would be inclined to consider such a 

 proposition favorably. 



There is, however, one part of any plan for this vicinity about 

 which more needs to be said, and about which something even 

 might be done in the way of execution without dangerously com- 

 plicating the main problem of how to treat the valley between 

 the Museum and the Conservatory ridge. We refer to the recep- 

 tion and initial distribution of the throngs of visitors who enter 

 from the terminal of the Elevated Railway. 



It is important, as has already been pointed out, to induce the 

 rapid dispersal of visitors, and it might be held that a more in- 

 tensive development in the vicinity of the Museum and Conserva- 

 tory would necessarily defeat this purpose and lead to congestion. 



There are, however, two sides to this question. A large propor- 

 tion of the visitors, especially of those on foot delivered by the 

 rapid transit lines, have no definite objective when they enter the 

 Garden. Also most of them are lazy about walking far; and, if 



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