At the nursery grounds the old condemned materials, the collections of several years, were sold at public auction and the proceeds of the sale, $2,005.59, turned into the Treasury. As soon as these old materials were removed, the ground was plowed up and surface-soiled, and a portion of it planted with young trees and shrubs.

A new coal-house, 35 by 22 by 17 feet was put up and two new coalbins constructed; a new store-house for flower-pots, 18 by 16 by 12 feet was built, in which three closets were constructed and connected with the main drain by 82 feet of 6-inch terra-cotta pipe; the old blacksmithshop, which was almost ready to fall down, was removed and a new frame building, 75 by 20 by 16 feet, constructed, mostly of old materials, for use as blacksmith's shop and store-house.

The old worn-out wooden fence around the nursery was removed and an iron fence, 1,274 feet long with four gates, erected; this fence was made from portions of the iron fences removed from various reservations; 480 arbor vitæ trees were planted so as to form a hedge inside the fence.

New roads and walks were laid out and constructed, new gutters laid and improvements made to the sewerage, rendered necessary by work on the Potomac flats.

The lawns were maintained in good order, the young trees and shrubs properly cared for, gutters and drain-traps cleaned, and roads repaired and kept in order.

About 600 young trees and 800 shrubs were purchased and planted in the grounds; and about 2,400 seedling water oaks, raised at the nurseries, were set out.

About 375 deciduous and 100 evergreen trees, and 1,700 shrubs of different varieties, were lifted from the nursery grounds and planted in the various parks throughout the city.

I am frequently in receipt of requests for the loan of plants from the gardens for the use of churches, fairs, festivals, etc., and demands are constantly made for decorative and other plants for private purposes; in fact, orders are sometimes presented from members of Congress di recting me to furnish plants.

I have been obliged to decline all requests for trees or plants, as either the loan or gift of them would be in violation of the following extract from the act of Congress, approved June 20, 1878:

Provided, That hereafter only such trees, shrubs, and plants shall be propagated at the greenhouses and nursery as are suitable for planting in the public reservations, to which purpose only the said productions of the greenhouses and nursery shall be applied.

In the propagation of plants there are a few flowers blooming, and it has been a pleasure to this office to extend to Senators, Representatives, and other distinguished officials, and to churches, festivals, fairs, etc., the courtesy of sending them these blooms as far as the limited quantity will admit.

The requests for flowers are numerous, and all letters received in reference thereto are filed, and a complete record kept of those to whom flowers are sent.

SMITHSONIAN GROUNDS.

Extensive improvements were made in these grounds during the

year.

The entire area around the new Medical Museum was graded, a large portion of it covered with soil, and about 2,000 square yards sodded.

A granolithic pavement covering an area of 1433 square feet, with 27 linear feet of curbing, was laid from the B street sidewalk to the steps of the Medical Museum, and a road, consisting of 2083 square yards of coal-tar distillate and asphalt pavement was constructed from the main road through the grounds to the south front of the Museum. The old shanties built sometime since by the authorities of the Smithsonian Institution, east of the National Museum, were torn down and the ground partially graded; this will be further improved during the coming fiscal year.

The main road in front of the Smithsonian Building was improved by extending the coal-tar distillate and asphalt pavement, over an area of 2,765 square yards from opposite the National Museum entrance to the west end of the Smithsonian Building; it is hoped to complete the improvement of this road throngh to Twelfth street during the coming fiscal year. The asphalt footwalk north of the Medical Museum was repaired over an area of 445 square yards; nearly all the other roads leading from Seventh, Tenth, and Twelfth streets to the Museum and Smithsonian buildings, covering an area of several thousand square yards, were repaired and resurfaced; about 1,700 cubic yards of gravel were used for this purpose, 1,400 of which were removed from the bed of the road where the asphalt pavement was constructed. One new brick drain-trap was constructed, 14 feet square and 3 feet deep.

The old brick and cobble-stone gutters on each side of the new asphalt roadway were taken up and 3,170 linear feet of cobble-stone gutter, 2 feet wide, was laid.

At the junction of the gravel and asphalt roads trap-rock aprons, covering an area of 360 square feet were laid.

The lawn north of the new pavement, near the Smithsonian Building, was graded and a portion of it, covering an area of 300 square yards, was sodded.

The post-and-chain fence on the south side of the reservation was removed and used around smaller reservations throughout the city.

During the year the lawns were covered in the early spring with guano compost, and in the summer season were regularly mown from time to time and rolled.

All roads were sprinkled during the summer, all walks, gutters, and drain-traps kept clean, trees and shrubs pruned and watered, and twentyone old trees, which were no longer ornamental and which were rapidly going to decay, were removed.

A large flower-bed was laid out and planted in front of the National Museum.

HENRY (ARMORY) PARK AND SEATON PARK.

The usual work of care and protection was carried on and new improvements made as far as funds would admit.

All roads were repaired, rolled, and watered during the summer season, paths repaired, lawns mown from time to time, gutters and draintraps cleaned, and trees and shrubs pruned.

The post-and-chain fence was removed from the south side of the reservation and used around smaller parks throughout the city.

In Henry Park about 2,000 cubic yards of earth were added to the mound around the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad depot, completing the amount required for the work.

The southern section of this mound for a length of 260 feet, varying in height from 2 to 11 feet, and in width of base from 10 to 75 feet

was shaped, graded, surface-soiled, and seeded; the ground south of the mound and west of the railroad wall, over an area of about 700 square yards, was graded, covered with soil, and seeded. This section, together with the complete portion of the mound, was covered with grass in the spring of 1888. Six hundred and twenty linear feet of walks 9 feet wide were laid out, bottomed with broken stone, and completed with gravel; 260 square yards of sod were laid along the borders of these walks. It is hoped that funds will be available this season for the completion of the mound aud the grounds adjacent.

Twenty-seven handsome evergreen trees in these parks, near the railroad, which were being injured by the smoke from locomotives, were lifted and planted in other sections of the city. The places formerly occupied by them were filled with soil and sodded.

The lawn surfaces were repaired in various places where they had been injured by trespassers.

Extensive improvements are still necessary to complete these prominent and important parks.

RESERVATIONS NORTH OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE AND WEST OF THE CAPITOL.

This division of the city consists of fifty-eight improved reservations, covering an area of about 109 acres, and located between First and Twenty-eighth streets west and B and Q streets north.

It includes the highly improved parks known as Washington Circle, Rawlins Square, Du Pont Circle, Scott Circle and adjacent triangles, Lafayette Square, Franklin Square, Farragut Square, McPherson Square, Thomas Circle, Mount Vernon Square, Iowa Circle, and Judiciary Square.

During the year the lawns were mown twice each month between May 15 and November 30, and watered during the dry season, the margins edged and trimmed, and bare places sodded and seeded down, the gutters and drain lodges were cleaned out once each month, the roads and paths weeded, raked, and rolled once in two months, the trees and shrubs pruned, cleared of caterpillars, and the young trees and shrubs and flower-beds watered during the dry season, new trees and shrubs were planted, and beds of ornamental foliage, flowering, and tropical plants set out. This is a part of the regular annual work, and is necessarily mentioned in the yearly reports.

During the winter season a large quantity of compost was prepared and spread over the lawns of the various parks and raked therein in the spring.

After the removal in the autumn, of the summer flowering and foliage plants, about 2,000 chrysanthemums were planted in the principal beds of Lafayette, Franklin, and Farragut parks. These continued to bloom until cut down by frost late in November, and contributed greatly to the beauty of the parks.

In November forty beds were planted in the various parks with early spring flowering bulbs, consisting of 7,294 hyacinths, 12,007 tulips, and 21,007 crocuses. These beds were subsequently coated with a heavy mulching of manure for protection during the winter. During the early spring the bulbs bloomed freely and attracted a great deal of attention by their beauty.

During the winter season plank foot-walks were laid on regular lines of travel through the south grounds of the Executive Mansion, Mount Vernon and Judiciary squares, and on the southern border of the Monu ment reservation.

The asphalt walks in Franklin and Lafayette squares were repaired, a new walk 585 feet long by 5 feet wide laid through Washington Circle on the line of Pennsylvania avenue, and new walks leading to and around the Rawlins statue laid in the reservation at the corner of Ninth street and Pennsylvania avenue.

The high iron railings were removed from the reservations on Pennsylvania avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets and between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh streets, the two reservations on New York avenue, between Tenth and Twelfth streets, and that on Massachusetts avenue, between Fifth and Sixth streets; post-and-chain fences were placed around four of these reservations; portions of the old fence were erected around the nursery grounds and the remainder sold at public action, and $1,001.51, the proceeds of the sale, turned into the United States Treasury.

The removal of these fences and the opening of the reservations to the public appears to have given general satisfaction.

The two reservations on New York avenue, between Tenth and Twelfth streets, Nos. 153 and 154, containing, respectively, 11,877 square feet and 5,726 square feet, were highly improved, gravel walks laid out, lawns resodded where necessary, flower beds planted, and No. 153 extended to the sidewalk on the I street side.

The triangular reservation No. 139, on Rhode Island avenue, at the corner of Seventh and R streets, was graded, surface-soiled, sodded, and inclosed with a post-and-chain fence, and a flower-bed laid out and planted; this reservation had formerly been thickly planted with oak trees by the parking commission of the District of Columbia.

The triangular reservation No. 165, at the intersection of Indiana avenue and Third street, containing an area of 5,307 square feet, was graded, surface-soiled, sodded, planted with trees and shrubs, and surrounded with a post-and-chain fence; sixty-one flowering shrubs and eleven dwarf ornamental flowering trees were planted in this reservation.

Franklin Park was greatly improved by the removal of a number of old, decayed, and unsightly trees, principally Chinese arbor vitæ, balsam fir, and Norway fir; these trees were originally planted to temporarily improve the grounds until the more valuable trees obtained their growth; having outlived their usefulness they were removed. The lawn surfaces hitherto injured by the shade were at once sodded and seeded down, and the improved appearance of the park elicited favorable comment.

In Lafayette Square a few old, decayed, and unsightly trees, similar to those removed from Franklin Park, were taken out and the lawns in the vicinity improved. In one particular instance an old soft maple was seriously injuring a magnificent copper beech; the removal of the maple has added greatly to the beauty of the beech, which is now one of the handsomest trees in the public grounds.

Attention is called to this matter of the removal of old trees, as it is not clearly understood, and the cutting down of a tree under any cir cumstances frequently causes unfavorable comment.

Repairs were made to the drainage of McPherson Square and a new drain laid from the lodge in Lafayette Square to the sewer in H street. This latter was necessary, the line being shorter and the old drain having been completely closed by the roots of trees.

At the Thomas Circle four white marble piers have been constructed on the outer boundary of the circle and the ornamental lamp-posts removed from the pedestal of the statue and placed on these new piers. At reservation No. 71, intersection of Massachusetts avenue, Fifth

and I streets, the post-and-chain fence on the east side, which had been thrown down by the party erecting a new building just east of the reservation, by authority of the building inspector of the District of Columbia, was again put up, about 6 feet west of its first position. The claim made was that under the building regulations of the city owners of lots could be authorized to control certain portions of the adjacent parking. and that the reservation being a portion of the parking the building inspector had the power to authorize the United States fence to be thrown down.

A small force of laborers were employed early in the winter months removing the cocoons of caterpillars from the bark of the large trees, from the park lodges, and from under the caps of the posts and other portion of the iron fences. About five bushels of cocoons were collected

and destroyed.

The beautiful flower beds in the parks have been greatly injured by dogs during the spring and summer. In order to partially protect them temporary light wire fences were placed around the most exposed beds.

GARFIELD STATUE.

In order to maintain the lawn surface in a presentable condition around the statue of General Garfield, it was found necessary to construct walks leading from the circumference of the circle to and around the statue; three granolithic walks were constructed from points opposite the spurs of the pedestal leading to a circular walk around it; in this work 243 linear feet of curbing and 1,096 square feet of pavement were laid, and 100 square yards of sod used in repairing the adjacent lawn surfaces.

RESERVATIONS EAST OF THE CAPITOL.

The improved reservations in this section of the city consist of Lincoln Square, Stanton Square, Folger Square, Marion Square, and twenty-three smaller parks on Pennsylvania avenue, Maryland avenue, Massachusetts avenue, and Delaware avenue.

During the year the following unimproved reservations have been graded, covered with soil, seeded, their borders sodded, post-and-chain fences erected, and water introduced: No. 84, containing 7,840 square feet, and located at the intersection of Massachusetts avenue, Ninth and B streets, northeast; No. 206, containing 7,837 square feet, and located at the intersection of North Carolina avenue, Eighth and B streets, southeast.

In these improvements there were used about 300 loads of earth, 175 cubic yards of soil, 250 square yards of sod, 80 posts, and 690 feet of chain.

Post-and-chain fences were erected around reservation No. 48, at the intersection of South Carolina avenue and Eighth street, east, and reservation No. 50, at the intersection of Pennsylvania avenue and Tenth street, east; 110 posts and 1,143 feet of chain were used in this work. Board walks were laid through Stanton Park on the lines of travel in the autumn of 1887 and removed in the spring of 1888.

In Lincoln Park the drainage was improved by laying 165 feet of 4-inch pipe, and 84 feet of 8-inch pipe in trenches from 4 to 6 feet deep; thirty-eight trees, mostly evergreens, that were seriously injured during the blizzard of March 11, 1888, were removed from this park.

The usual care was given to all the improved reservations throughout this section of the city; roads and paths were repaired, edged, and