As superintendent of planting in Central Park and landscape architect to New York City for nearly thirty years, Samuel Parsons Jr. (1844–1923) was a last direct link to Vaux and Olmsted. His widely read 1915 book summed up the theories and work that had inspired America's first generation of landscape architects. Francis R. Kowsky's introduction explores Parsons's contributions to the nascent field and his defense of Olmsted and Vaux's vision for Central Park.