H ouse and Garden 
attached to 
trees in certain 
portions of the 
business dis¬ 
tricts. 
Mankind’s 
appreciation of 
nature, espe¬ 
cially within 
city boundar¬ 
ies, is acompar- 
atively late 
growth; but 
when the trees 
had been ap¬ 
preciated and 
the ornamenta¬ 
tion of broad 
open spaces by 
means of plant¬ 
ing had been 
undertaken, a 
long advance 
was made. Yet the naturalness of vegetation 
was so far removed from the artificiality ot a 
town’s business district that an unconfessed 
sense of artistic incongruity and of civic unfit¬ 
ness long barred nature from the business part 
of the town, and it was by a reversal ol what 
would seem the natural order of develop¬ 
ment that massed foliage was recognized as 
valuable for the terminus of a street vista 
only after the worth of sculpture tor this 
purpose had long been appreciated. Thus 
even among business streets, though more 
lately there, the planted open space came 
to be esteemed, and not merely for its 
own beauty but for the benediction it shed 
far upon the way. To lead up to it and 
blend it with the highway, nothing could be 
so efficient as a row of trees. 
Where the street has widened in parts, 
and rows of trees continue the original build¬ 
ing line in order that perspective may be 
preserved, it may be possible to throw the 
divided roadway to either side, beyond the 
trees. There is then left a middle strip, the 
width of the old street and continuing its 
vista, which may be given over to formal 
gardening. This is not strictly a business- 
street peculiarity, but it is an interesting 
development that occasionally appears on 
them; and upon them at least, needless 
to say, it is ab¬ 
solutely essen¬ 
tial artistically 
that the gar- 
d e n i n g be 
formal. A por¬ 
tion of Charles 
Street, in Balti¬ 
more, is an ex¬ 
ample, though 
the Rue de la 
Republique, in 
Lyons, is rather 
better, as em¬ 
phatically a 
business thor¬ 
oughfare. 
1 n the Place 
de la Repub¬ 
lique, in Paris, 
we come to a 
space magnifi¬ 
cent in its pro¬ 
portions, adorned with sculpture, fountains, 
rows of trees, and many lights, and having 
beneath its rich, calm surface such wotider of 
underground construction that it would seem 
as if the evolution of the business thorough¬ 
fare could proceed no further in glory or 
completeness. The place offers a study in 
the evolution of the furnishings of the street 
as well as in the evolution of the street 
itself. The lamp posts, so familiarly hideous 
with us, have become artistic. The flag 
poles or masts are things of beauty. The 
trees, springing in healthy rows from the 
pavement, have their roots protected by iron 
gratings that admit the moisture; and finally 
the comfort of the citizens as well as their 
convenience and pleasure has been consulted. 
But if we need go no further in seeking 
the latest stage in the evolution of the public 
way, in the business district of a city, than 
to this vast open space in modern Paris, we 
may yet obtain by looking further some hints 
at least that will be suggestive. We may 
note at once the value of planting, in the 
setting it offers to architecture. It may offer 
so noble an approach as to do for a building 
not less than verdure familiarly does for a 
statue. The Government buildings on the 
Ringstrasse of Vienna are a conspicuous ex¬ 
ample, if there were need of seeking so far. 
THE PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE-PARIS 
17 
