STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I37 



ancient buildings, built in the Roman or after the Roman period, 

 shortly afterwards, but always exemplifying this permanent 

 construction and at the same time combining the aesthetic and 

 the beautiful. 



ROMAN BUILDINGS. 



This is a view of the Roman forum as seen at the present 

 day in the disinterred city of Pompeii, — a little picture made 

 with a kodak, taken particularly for the purpose of bringing out 

 these characteristic Italian combinations that one sees in the 

 landscape all through Southern Italy. Perhaps some of you 

 remember that when Pliny described the great convulsion here, 

 the great volcano which destroyed this city — there is an outline 

 of Vesuvius in the background — he said that the column of 

 smoke rose up like a great pine tree, a central column and an 

 umbrella-like top, (the pine trees in this picture show how 

 accurate was his description), then the column spread and sub- 

 merged the city. 



Gardening is as old as farming. Mr. Allis quoting Emerson 

 said the first man was the first farmer. I think we can, with 

 even stronger claim, say that the first man was the first gar- 

 dener, inasmuch as he lived in a garden. Here is a view of a 

 rich man's garden connected with a house in Pompeii, that has 

 been restored. The building has not been restored. The build- 

 ing is exactly as it was disinterred, but the garden has been 

 cleared up and the plants set there with a view to giving a 

 replica or an imitation of what existed in the olden times. The 

 garden was an important feature of Roman home life. 



These old Roman relics of arches and towers are quite com- 

 mon to the Riviera region. Notice how that. brick arch stands 

 up without any support whatever. There is no reinforcement 

 of iron work there; it is mortar and brick and it stands as it 

 has stood through the centuries. And so with the wall on this 

 side. One of the striking features, too, that you see in the 

 Southern or Central Italian country are these buildings on the 

 almost inaccessible heights. Here is a monastery and there a 

 tower and one wonders how they were ever gotten up there. 

 One wonders how it was possible to get the limestone, the water 

 and sand for the construction of these buildings — and yet you 

 find them on the highest points. 



