TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the paragraph. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. 1858. CENTRAL PARK. 1868. “Meantime, with cheap land, and the pacific disposition of the people, everything invites to the arts of agriculture, of gardening, and domestic architecture. Public gardens on the scale of such plantations in Europe and Asia, are now unknown to us. There is no feature of the old countries that strikes an American with more agreeable surprise than the beautiful gardens of Europe; such as the Boboli, in Florence, the Villa Borghese, in Rome, the Villa d’Este, in Tivoli, the gardens at Munich, and at Frankfort on the Maine: works easily imitated here, and which might well make the land dear to the citizen, and inflame patriotism.”—_Emerson_, 1844. DESCRIPTION OF A PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE Central Park. “GREENSWARD.” [F. L. OLMSTED CALVERT VAUX.] NEW YORK, 1858. [REPRINTED 1868.] _The Aldine Press._—Sutton, Bowne & Co., 23 Liberty St., N. Y. NOTE, 1868. The following Description was prepared in 1858 to accompany the first study of our design for the Central Park, the appended woodcut being printed with the Report. A few notes are added in this edition, together with a map showing to what extent the intention of the plan has, thus far, been realized and in what manner the study has been elaborated. O. & V. REPORT. [Sidenote: Topographical suggestions.] A general survey of the ground allotted to the park, taken with a view to arrive at the leading characteristics which present themselves as all-important to be considered in adapting the actual situation to its purpose, shows us, in the first place, that it is very distinctly divided into two tolerably equal portions, which, for convenience sake, may be called the upper and lower parks. [Sidenote: The upper park.]