562 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Colleges, &c. As illustration, we will give from each 
class one example, selecting such as we happen to be 
the most familiar with. 
The Central Park, in New York, being the most 
important work of the kind that has been undertaken in 
America, some slight reference to its plan and general 
intention will be appropriate here, the more especially, 
as the editorial articles that appeared in the “ Horti- 
culturist,” urging its necessity, and setting forth its 
advantages, unquestionably exercised an important in- 
fluence in favor of the project. 
The ground set aside for the purpose, consisting of 
about 750 acres (represented by the small diagram, Fig. 
99), was appropriated by an Act of Legislature, in the 
course of the year following Mr. Downing’s death. It 
was not, however, till the close of 1857, that the actual 
purchase of the land was completed. Premiums for de- 
signs were at this time offered by the Commissioners 
intrusted with the conduct of the enterprise, and early 
in June, 1858, the plan (Fig. 98), submitted by Fred. 
Law Olmsted, and Calvert Yaux, was adopted by the 
Board. The work was at once actively commenced, 
under the guidance of the designers, and has since been 
steadily pressed forward by the Commission — a force of 
over 2,000 men being employed during the most favor- 
able part of the season. 
From the published description of the design, and 
such other data as have been furnished us, it appears 
that the Park is two and-a-half miles long and half a 
mile wide. It is divided into two distinct parts by the 
old and new Beservoirs — the former a quadrangular 
basin of mason-work ; the latter, of an irregular curved 
outline, with an earth embankment to retain the water. 
These two artificial structures occupy a considerable 
space, and when complete, will have appropriated 
about 150 acres of ground out of the middle of the site ; 
