BOTANICAL INDEX 
38 
correctly portray its beauties. It is tilled with choice palms, tree ferns, tropical 
fruit, rare foliage and flowering plants in great luxuriance. It is on a level and 
communicates with the corridors of the fifth floor, so it is always ea>y of access 
and certainly makes a pleasant resort to while away an hour when time hangs heavily 
on the traveler. Like all the other portions of the building, it is built entirely of 
glass and iron, and is heated from the same steam-pipes that warm the whole struiv 
ture. The roof is of the same height as the main portions of the building, conse- 
quently the room is two stories high. 
Having satisfied our curiosity with the beauties of our new home, we will now 
visit some of the places of special interest in the town, after having devoted a half 
hour to a table loaded with the bounties of the land. A short drive fake- us to the 
Exposition building (fig. 178), which is now (September) in full blast with its ex- 
hibits of specimens of the wonderful crops contributed by all the States of the great 
North West; choice samples of dry goods and groceries from the large commercial es- 
tablishments, and a rich display of machinery, manufactured articles, paintings, and 
everything of interest is here right royally represented. But as a special portion of 
the building is devoted to plants or floriculture, we will visit Floral Hall, which is a 
small portion of the southern end of the main building, to which has been added an 
annex to accommodate the numerous applicants for space, and which is well filled 
with choice and beautiful forms of plant-life in splendid foliage or flower. The 
building occupies the southern portion of the ground originally held by the Govern- 
ment as Fort Dearborn Military reservation, and lately considered as a portion of 
Lake Park. It is eight hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide, exclusive of 
the additions which have been built each year to accomodate those wishing to exhibit 
machinery, plants, &c. But a hast}' look at the Exposition will satisfy our curiosi- 
ty, and we will .soon visit the adjoining Park immediate^" south on the shore of Lake 
Michigan. The city appropriates each year a certain sum of money to improve and 
beautify the so-called Lake Park, but as the city virtually has no legal title to the 
ground, the Park Commissioners do not feel at liberty to expend a very large sum 
on it. To thoroughly understand the situation it will be necessary lo give a brief 
history of the Park. In 1821-2, Congress chartered the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
Company, ceding them certain lands. In 1827, Congress granted the Company still 
further privilege and lands, and the Illinois Legislature soon after perfected the or- 
ganization by appointing Canal Commissioners to locate and build the canal. The 
commissioners commenced this work immediately, and in the Autumn of 1820 au- 
thorized the laying out of the “Town of Chicago” on the alternate sections of land, 
at the mouth of Chicago river, ceded by Congress to the Company. This was the 
first legal existence of Chicago. The land lying east of Michigan Avenue and be- 
tween Madison .Street and Park Row was laid out by the commission in lot* and 
blocks, in April, 1836, but never sold. This was platted as fractional section 15. ad- 
dition to Chicago. The northern portion of Lake Park, from Madison Street to 
Randolph and from Michigan Avenue to the lake, was originally a portion of the 
Fort Dearborn Military reservation, and was conveyed to the city by Mr. Burehard, 
Agent for the Secretary of War, in June, 183b. All this strip of land from Ran- 
dolph Street to Park Row, a distance of nearly one and a half miles in length, con- 
tained very little dry land previous to 1870, but as the break water and railroad track, 
built by the Illinois Central Railroad from Park Row to the north of Chicago river, 
enclosed a shallow portion or arm of the lake which afforded a convenient dumping 
place for refuse matter in cleaning up the debris of the great lire in 1871, a strip of 
