such a thing as might be more properly called a court-yard or a 

 plaza than a garden. But it is equally obvious that it is legiti- 

 mate and desirable to provide, for the benefit of that great part of 

 the public which is interested in plants mainly for their usefulness 

 in pleasure gardens, one or more excellent examples of a sort of 

 garden which countless generations of mankind have delighted 

 to have in association with dwellings — a frankly man-made thing, 

 expressing man's skillful artistry and the completeness of his 

 command over his surroundings: formal in the sense that the 

 dominant form of the thing as a whole and the form of the more 

 conspicuous relationships between its several parts are not merely 

 beautiful but unmistakably intentional and deliberate. 



We do not question that such a formal garden could be done 

 beautifully in the locality now in question. 



On further study, however, two considerations have led us to 

 believe that this is not the best place for such a thing. One is 

 that a center for meetings and exhibitions, both indoor and out- 

 door, other things being approximately equal, ought to be more 

 conveniently and quickly accessible from rapid transit stations 

 than is the neighborhood of the Lorillard Mansion, and also 

 should have space in its vicinity for small special exhibition gar- 

 dens and preferably also for special exhibitions under glass, which 

 could be introduced near the Lorillard Mansion only by sacrifice 

 of existing and potential values of another sort of great importance 

 to the Botanical Garden. 



The most notable natural feature of the Botanical Garden, 

 perhaps as a matter of botany and certainly as a matter of land- 

 scape, is the gorge of the Bronx River with its wild growth of 

 hemlocks and associated plants, its picturesque precipitous slopes 

 and ledges, its sense of remoteness and seclusion from the city 

 and most of the works of man. The Lorillard Mansion and its 

 appendages conspicuously intrude upon this landscape unit in 

 a manner contradictory to its essential character. From the 

 point of view of botanical consistency no less than landscape 

 value these contradictory elements ought to be removed and the 

 entire landscape unit of the gorge, on both sides of the river, 

 gradually restored as nearly to the conditions characteristic of 

 such a gorge in a state of nature as is consistent with making it 

 accessible to and enjoyable by large numbers of people. No 

 artificial structures except such as are necessary to that end 

 should be maintained here and these should be made as incon- 

 spicuous as is consistent with efficiency in operation and mainte- 

 nance. The precise limits of this gorge unit we are not prepared 

 to define positively as yet; but plainly they should include the 



11*3] 



