ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



253 



Walks should be laid down so as to afford easy com- 

 munication between the various departments of the 

 garden. Where the style approaches that of a flower- 

 garden, it should be of the mixed flower-garden de- 

 scribed in a previous chapter, displaying an agreeable 

 intermingling of shrubs and flowers. Perhaps flower- 

 ing shrubs and a mixture of evergreens should pre- 

 dominate. We are of opinion that any thing like 

 excess in the culture of flowers is here out of place, 

 both as requiring an ill-advised expenditure, and as 

 exciting an adventitious interest. Zoological gardens 

 have recently been made the scenes of flower-shows : 

 at first sight this may seem a grotesque and incongru- 

 ous combination, but in practice the occasions are 

 pleasant enough, and if they benefit the funds of these 

 meritorious institutions, no reasonable objection can 

 be made to them. 



Note. — As every thing in America must he made to 

 pay, we do not see why a zoological garden, rightly 

 got up, may not be made a permanent "institution" 

 of this country, as well as the traveling menageries. 

 The city of New York can certainly afford one. We 

 trust that our country will ere long be provided with 

 an establishment which has proved so attractive an 

 object of interest to the immense population of Lon- 

 don, as well as to the innumerable multitudes who 

 flock thither from countries abroad. In New York, 

 its attractions would be none the less, and in the "pay- 

 ing" department, far more productive upon the capital 

 employed than there ; and as a school of study, and 

 science, the benefits of a zoological garden would be 

 unquestioned. The department of Natural History 



