The City of Domes | Page 9

his search for what he wanted
he did not confine himself to California. A good many trees he brought
down from Oregon. Some of his best specimens of Italian cypress he
secured in Santa Barbara, in Monterey and in San Jose. He also drew
largely on Golden Gate Park and on the Presidio. In all he used about
thirty thousand trees, more than two-thirds eucalyptus and acacia.

Preparing the Landscape

Two years before the Exposition was to open McLaren built six
greenhouses in the Presidia and a huge lath house. There he assembled
his shrubs, his plants, and his bulbs. In all he must have used nearly a
million bulbs. From Holland he imported seventy thousand
rhododendrons. From Japan he brought two thousand azaleas. In Brazil
he secured some wonderful specimens of the cineraria. He even sent to
Africa for the agrapanthus, that grew close to the Nile. Among native
flowers he collected six thousand pansies, ten thousand veronicas and
five thousand junipers, to mention only, a few among the multitude a
flowers that he intended to use for decoration. The grounds he had
carefully mapped and he studied the landscape and the shape and color
of the buildings section, by section.
The planting of trees consumed many months. The best effects
McLaren found he could get by massing. He was particularly
successful with the magnificent Fine Arts Palace, both in his groupings
and in his use of individual trees. About the lagoon he did some
particularly attractive planting, utilizing the water for reflection. There
was a twisted cypress that he placed alone against the colonnade with a
skill that showed the insight and the feeling of an, artist. On, the water
side, the Marina, he used the trees to break the bareness of the long
esplanade. And here and there on the grounds, for pure decoration, he
reached some of his finest effects with the eucalyptus, for which he
evidently had a particular regard. As no California Exposition would be
complete without palm trees, provision was made for the decorative use
of palms along of the main walks.
About two weeks before the opening, the first planting of the gardens
was completed, the first of the three crops to be displayed during the
Exposition. The flowers included most of the spring flowers grown
here in California or capable of thriving in the California spring climate.
In June they were to be re-placed with geraniums, begonias, asters,
gilly-flowers, foxglove, hollyhocks, lilies and rhododendrons. The

autumn display, would include cosmos and chrysanthemums and
marguerites.

The Hedge

As the work proceeded, W. B. Faville, the architect, of Bliss and
Faville, made a suggestion for the building of a fence that should look
as if it were moss-covered with age. The result was that developing the
suggestion McLaren devised a new kind of hedge likely to be used the
world over. It was made of boxes, six feet long and two feet wide,
containing, a two-inch layer of earth, held in place by a wire netting,
and planted with South African dew plant, dense, green and hardy and
thriving in this climate. Those boxes, when piled to a height of several
feet, made a rustic wall of great beauty, Moreover, they could be
continuously irrigated by a one-inch perforated line of pipe. In certain
lights the water trickling through the leaves shimmered like gems. In
summer the plant would produce masses of small purple flowers.
McLaren found his experiment so successful that he decided to build a
hedge twenty feet high, extending more than a thousand feet. He also
used the hedge extensively in the landscape design for the Palace of
Fine Arts.

The Sculptors

The department of sculpture was placed under the direction of one of
the most distinguished sculptors in the country. Karl Bitter, of New
York, whose death from an automobile accident took place a few
weeks after the Exposition opened. He gathered around him an
extraordinary array of co-operators, including many of the most
brilliant names in the world of art, with A. Stirling Calder as the acting
chief, the man on the ground. Though he did not contribute any work of

his own, he was active in developing the work as a whole, taking
special pains to keep it in character and to see that, even in it its
diversity, it gave the impression, of harmony.
Calder welcomed the chance to work on a big scale and to carry out big
ideas. With Bitter he visited San Francisco in August, 1912, for a
consultation with the architectural commission. Minutely they went
over the site and examined the architectural plans. Then they picked the
sculptors that they wished to secure as co-operators.
In December, 1912, Bitter and Calder made another visit to San
Francisco for further conferring