Such is a slight sketch of some of London's Parks. No doubt there is much that could be changed for the better, both in design and planting: less sameness and meaningless formality without true lines of beauty in design would be an improvement. In planting, there might be more variety of British trees-alder, oak, ash, and hawthorn; and a wider range of foreign ones-limes, American or Turkey oaks, and many others; more climbing plants, such as Virginian creepers, more simple herbaceous borders and fewer clumps of unattractive bushes, and more lilacs, laburnums, thorns, almonds, cherries, and medlars in groups on the grass. If greater originality was displayed and a thorough knowledge of horticulture were shown, especially by the authorities that supervise the largest number of these parks, many improvements in existing ones could be easily achieved, and in forming new parks the same idea need not be so rigidly followed. But, in spite of small defects, the Parks as a whole are extremely beautiful, and Londoners may well be proud of them.
