50 



AK^ALS OF HOKTICULTURE. 



bright blue water from Lake Michigan, which filled the lagoons, 

 was of itself a most fitting setting and complement to the white 

 and graceful architecture, and it emphasized the importance 

 of the architectural masses by disassociating the vision from 

 the earth and creating what landscape gardners know as aerial 

 perspective. The height and importance of the larger build- 

 ings were further emphasized by the terraces or esplanades, 

 which set the structures well above the canals, upon which they 

 seemed to rest. These terraces joined the lagoon by a perpen- 

 dicular wall of white staff, and the approaches were always 

 architectural in design; these retaining-walls were, therefore, 

 essentially parts of the buildings which they supported, and 

 upon this fact rested their great service in the general design. 

 Yet this terrace feature does not appear to have been in the 

 minds of the architects when the first perspectives were made, 

 for the earlier sketches of the buildings show them upon flat 

 surfaces, and the minor reliefs are improvised foliage rather 

 than architectural bases. 



It was designed that the central portion or core of the 

 grounds should comprise a quiet and verdurous park, with a 

 glade-like or meadowy interior and an intricate water border. 

 The shores of this wooded island were incomparably good, and 

 upon them, alone, the landscape gardeners could rest their fame 

 with perfect safety ; but the interior of the island was pressed 

 into service as a show-ground, and its landscape value was 

 almost wholly destroyed. 



The Shores of the Island were clothed with native plants 

 in the main. At least, the effect of the planting was native, 

 both in plants and method, and most of it was so well done 

 that one could scarcely be made to believe that the mass had 

 been evolved from barren sand within two years. " Altogether," 

 Mr. Olmsted writes, "we have planted on the shores of the 

 lagoons one hundred thousand small willows ; seventy-five large 

 railway platform carloads of collected herbaceous aquatic 

 plants, taken from the wild ; one hundred and forty thousand 

 other aquatic plants, largely native and Japanese irises ; and 

 two hundred and eighty-five thousand ferns and other perennial 

 herbaceous plants. The whole number of plants transplanted 

 to the ground has been a little over a million." * 



*For a sketch of the plants used upon the shores, see article by J. 

 G. Jaek in Garden and Forest, vi. 419. 



A full account of the genesis of the Exposition Grounds, by Fred- 

 erick Law Olmsted, will be found in the American Architect, xli. 151. 



