463 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
eni Division and the tolerably natural style of the Northern 
Division. While its constructive details are on curving lines 
and its plantations irregular, yet in choice of trees and shrubs 
the idea has been to use somewhat extensively, yet in a nat- 
uralistic way, some varieties which have been more or less 
artificiallly produced, as for instance, the purple foliaged or 
golden or silvery foliaged trees and shrubs. It has not been 
the intention to make a collection of such curious freaks of 
nature, but to create a local landscape in imitation of a con- 
ceivable landscape, but exaggerated and accentuated beyond 
what one would have experience of in nature. The land- 
scape design consists of a meadow with a broad, wandering 
placid brook or small river along one side of it and the two 
surrounded with high banks clothed with trees and under- 
growth, thus forming an inclosed scene, complete in itself. 
As one would expect the bank facing to the north to be 
shady and therefore rather dark in tone, the choice of trees 
and shrubs for that part of the border included not only those 
like the hemlock and rhododendron, whose foliage naturally 
becomes dark in partial shade, but also various purple foli- 
aged trees and shrubs like the purp’e beech and purple-leaved 
barberry and rose and those having large heavy leaves. 
I'his style of planting occupies the south end and is carried 
partly along the east and west sides, gradually merging 
toward the north end into plantations having light green and 
rather light feathery foliage, which again merges into gray 
and silvery tones of foliage on the bright sunny southern 
exposure of the steep bank at the north end. Such a scene is, 
in a sense, unnatural, yet it is based ou a study of the methods 
of nature. The local conditions of topography^ are simply 
made to enforce certain logical results in the vegetation. 
“The Northern Division has been planned in a style of 
landscape gardening as naturalistic as it is feasible to have for 
a comparatively limited area, which is expected to be sur- 
rounded by a dense popula- 
tion and to be visited, be- 
fore many years, by thou- 
sands of people. 1'he land 
was almost all flat and the larger part of it was 
swampy. A pool has been dug near the upper 
end and a small brook, widening occasionally 
into pools and ponds, has been formed, running 
from the upper pool to the lake in the Middle 
Division. The pools are in general made eight 
feet deep, as it is found that reeds, cat-tails, rush- 
es, water grasses and other water plants cannot 
grow- in water so deep as this, as the sun does not penetrate 
sufficiently to the bottom. 'Fhe brook being narrower, is shal- 
low. To prevent an undue growth of water plants in the 
brook, it is planned to have it everywhere densely shaded by 
overhanging trees, as it is well knowm that few water plants 
can grow in dense shade so abundantly as to choke up a 
running brook. South of Ballentine entrance this division is 
intended to be practically continuous woods, while north of 
that entrance and east of the borders of the brook, the land 
has been nearly stripped of woods to provide open meadows, 
both for their beauty, and as a contrast to the woods, and for 
their great utility for field sports and strolling upon. The 
northwest corner of the park being apparently the part 
least useful to the public, has been occupied by the usual 
park administration buildings, as yet mostly of a temporary 
construction and lacking in architectural beauty. Hence they 
are designed to be hidden by border mounds and plantations.” 
Eastside Park is situated in a thickly populated part 
of Newark, and has the character of a small park or 
large city square. The land cost $117,792.64, the 
buildings $6,800, and the improvements $41,740.92. 
There are 1,5 miles of paths and no roads. The land- 
scape architects have on file plans for boys’ and girls’ 
playgrounds for this park, but are of the opinion that 
the expense of maintenance will he greater than the 
commission’s funds provide for. About 3,000 shrubs, 
obtained by thinning out older plantations in other 
parks, have been planted. 
Westside Park is in a part of Newark where there 
is a large population of Germans, and many formal 
features have been introduced in deference to their 
PLAN OF BRANCH BROOK PARK, 
ESSEX CO., N. J., 
OLMSTED BROTHERS, 
DESIGNERS. 
SCALE, ONE INCH=760 FEET. 
