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MmisToRiIic GARDENS OPT Niike@rn ra ee — = — ™ tm EZÜNHEHeeHüEÉtleéekeeüuss/sy = = ae a ——— TT and to the left it continues between walls of box and borders of roses, roses, roses on one side and on the other the squares laid out tor vegetable and fruits. Among the latter a huge frame-work bears the heavy branches of an ancient Vitis Vulpina, known to us as the scuppernong grape. he transverse walk continues quite to the other side of the great garden and is again sheltered by large box-trees up to which it is still bordered with roses. Turning to the left, to follow an equally broad walk, parallel to the main walk, you pass a large garden square the left half of which is filled with jonquils, daffodils and narcissi. All the rest is roses, save close to the box border where there are shrubs of all varieties and a wonderful ash-tree which, on this day in June, is laden with its bloom of white fringe. Now you are under an arbour covered with a shower of pink roses and, if you do not swoon with the emotion caused by all the beauty you will in a few steps come to the soul of this garden—a well, everlastingly old and everlastingly preserved, covered with a pump without whose homely bounty beauty would perish. Nearby, there is triangular bed bordered with box which bears within its limits so much linked sweetness, so much refreshment and joy that one is loath to leave it. Heliotrope, lilies, mignonette, rosegeraniums, tea-roses, blue phlox, myosotis and the resurrection lilies. As to this last, plant the bulbs in the fall and watch their spring growth, green and promising, then let your hope die, for the growth withers and decays to nothingness and you think you will plant some other thing to comfort you, when in August there springs to life a leafless stalk—many of them—and in a few days your heart is gladdened by a vision of clusters of exquisite pink lilies, than which there can be nothing more lovely. Just beyond the well stands an immense pecan tree planted by John Randolph, of Roanoke, when on a visit to his relatives, the Carters. It has borne for many years. Ina square, to the right of the tree, there is a large bed of Cynara Scolymus, the burr artichoke of ordinary parlance. Its gray-green leaves, its dilated, im| 62 |
