for most of the Botanical Garden, where a natural-seeming aspect 

 should be sedulously sought, the word "tidiness" suggests a smug 

 and artificial quality quite too sophisticated. Yet weediness 

 with its connotation of neglect, ought everywhere to be avoided; 

 and there is a good deal of it today. It comes from the presence 

 of plants — whether classed in common parlance as "weeds" or 

 not — which look out of place in their surroundings; often plants 

 much coarser of texture or ranker in growth than their neighbors, 

 and always suggestive of encroachment on something that would 

 be pleasanter without them. Millions of volunteer seedlings 

 spring up every year and many of them, if not systematically re- 

 pressed, are able to survive in places where they look distinctly 

 weedy. 



The avoidance of shabbiness and weediness is the negative 

 aspect of the problem. The positive aspect, in addition to secur- 

 ing healthy vigorous growth of all vegetation that is not to be 

 suppressed as weedy, lies in the progressive, appropriate enrich- 

 ment not merely of the regular "collections" but of the incidental 

 or background flora. 



The latter may in some places involve the introduction of more 

 kinds of plants, especially of the more delicate native flowering 

 plants, but is perhaps more likely to mean simply the multiplica- 

 tion in certain places of a limited number of species peculiarly and 

 charmingly characteristic of distinctive types of flora, at the ex- 

 pense of those species which are less characteristic. 



PART III 



IMPROVEMENTS CONSTITUTING NEW DEPARTURES AND 

 SUBSTANTIALLY INDEPENDENT OF PARTS IV AND V 



i. Rhododendron Glade. One of the most beautiful, striking 

 and completely self-contained and independent new features 

 which could be added to the Botanical Garden is that which has 

 been for some time under favorable consideration by the Director- 

 in-Chief in the so-called "Lake Valley" — a great naturalistic 

 exhibition of rhododendrons (including azaleas) and of plants 

 suitable for association therewith, in such a manner as to make 

 a notably impressive landscape unit, a valley of rich foliage and 

 brilliant bloom enclosed by wooded rocky hills. The natural en- 

 framement of this valley is almost perfect except on the southeast, 

 where the frame must be completed by adequate grading and mas- 

 sive border planting. As a scenic and topographic unit the valley 

 begins in a rocky wooded defile just east of the Lorillard Mansion, 

 whence it descends, widening slightly but still almost overarched 



[17] 



