H ouse and Garden 
CANAL-PIERCED AMSTERDAM 
way the softening touch of verdure. To this 
end, clearly, has tended the evolution of the 
street; and with more rapidity in the last 
decade or two than in all the centuries be¬ 
fore. The business street would be the last 
to feel its influence. Mr. Gomme, the statis¬ 
tician of the London County Council, writ¬ 
ing of the improvement of London during 
the reign of Queen Victoria, declares that 
“in all the new streets formed by the Coun¬ 
cil trees have been planted.” And he adds: 
“ Treeless London is, it is to be hoped, a 
thing of the past.” 
But if a thoroughfare dedicated to the ac¬ 
tivities of industry and commerce suffers 
trees to trespass on its precious space, we 
may be sure that in the evolution of the 
street there must be highways and byways of 
other special purpose, and of the final glory 
of which the Champs Elysees would be still 
not an accurate representative, where the 
trees will be imperative, not incidental. Such 
will be certain minor residential streets; such 
may be the waterways that in certain cities 
commerce has taken to itself; and such will 
be the parkways which, by whatever name— 
boulevard, avenue or parkway—lead the city 
to its country pleasure ground. 
As to the latter, reflecting on the evolu¬ 
tion of the wav, and seeking causes, we find 
the large park of the city and its park¬ 
way approach too modern, even recent, a 
development to lead us far. We must go 
back of that, to the nobleman’s park or gen¬ 
tleman’s estate, that was its forerunner, and 
in the “avenue” of trees that like a cathe¬ 
dral aisle was the main approach-road, we 
shall find the prototype of the parkway. In 
the development of the approach-road as a 
street a need will arise for walks as well as for 
drives. A demand for bridle paths may 
supplement this ; the ubiquitous bicycle may 
require a special provision, and it may be 
that houses will line the parkway to the very 
entrance of the park. But always the trees 
will be here a pleasant and conspicuous fea¬ 
ture, and it will be possible to trace the 
original ideal of this highway, of special 
purpose and special arboreal beauty, to the 
tree-arched avenue in the private park—in 
reminder that the evolution of the street, in 
the gradual development of towns and cities, 
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