Page:Report of the Park Board 1903.djvu/62

 trees. A moderate amount of flowers can be maintained in connection with necessary buildings, such as the animal houses, shelters and the like, but the existing beds of flowers elsewhere in the informal portions of the park ought, as a rule, to be obliterated. Trees and tall-growing shrubbery should be planted about the buildings wherever possible, as they are at present unduly conspicuous and usually not in themselves agreeable. Even where they are pleasing in design, they are incongruous with the wild character firmly established by the numerous fir trees and other forest trees. Fences, wherever necessary, should be screened by shrubs and vines, except where walks are carried to or along them to enable visitors to see the animals. In case of enclosures, the animals in which would destroy the vines and shrubbery, the planting can be kept far enough outside of the fences to be safe, or there may be an additional inconspicuous wire fence. Unless there is some important reason to the contrary, the use of white and very light colors should be avoided in the informal parts of the park, and even in the formal part of the park all buildings not of good classic design, should be painted or stained a dark and inconspicuous color. This rule is particularly applicable to the greenhouses, which though conspicuous, are not handsome architecturally.

The scattering about of small coniferous evergreens which are by nature, or are made by clipping, noticeably dense and formal, should be avoided, and many such trees already planted should be removed to the more formal portion of the park or eliminated. It is still more important to do away with clipped shrubs and hedges, rows of trees or shrubs and formal or narrow beds along the drives and walks in the old, informal portion of the park.

A rockery composed of picturesque stones, with the crannies filled with interesting plants, may, in some cases, be picturesque and agreeable, but certainly the rockery built up with small stones on level ground at the junction of roads near the upper reservoir in this park is questionably good to look at in itself, and certainly utterly out of place. Such an affair should be worked into a steep hillside or small ravine where there is not too much shade, and in a situation where it can only be seen close at hand, or where it can be screened from general views by informal plantations.

Grass in the form of clipped turf is particularly adapted for lawns that are to be walked upon, but on steep banks it will not stand this usage. Hence on level or gently sloping land turf suggests strolling and is there appropriate, while on steep slopes it is usually inappropriate because it is not proper there to suggest or invite strolling. Moreover, well-kept turf is notably smooth and therefore appropriate on level or gently sloping land, whereas on irregular, steep slopes it is