Vintage landscape: the capitol and the conservatory

The U.S. Botanic Garden, 1917, by Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The conservatory will be decorated for the holidays through January 5.

I wish you a very happy 2014.

“. . . Botanic Goddess! bend thy radiant eyes;
O’er these soft scenes assume thy gentle reign,
Pomona, Ceres, Flora in thy train;
O’er the still dawn thy placid smile effuse,
And with thy silver sandals print the dews;
In noon’s bright blaze thy vermil vest unfold,
And wave thy emerald banner starr’d with gold.”

Thus spoke the Genius, as he stepp’d along,
And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong;
Down the steep slopes he led with modest skill;
The willing pathway, and the truant rill,
Stretch’d o’er the marshy vale yon willowy mound,
Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground,
Raised the young woodland, smooth’d the wavy green,
And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.—

— Erasmus Darwin, from  “The Botanic Garden”