TROPICAL GARDENS 



Rio I thought of the pillars of San Lorenzo, which came from an 

 ancient temple, and are now to be seen in a narrow street in Milan. 



But majesty is not the only quality of the palms. There are palms 

 of the most graceful form, which make pleasant green thickets 

 between the trees of the garden (Plate 32). Like the jets of a fountain 

 the stems of the Bamboo-palm shoot from the ground. The dense 

 thickets of these palms remind one of the cane whose name they 

 bear, but on drawing near one recognizes the pinnate palm-leaves, 

 which in this species point upwards, while the midrib curves down- 

 wards at various angles. In such a thicket the cane-like stems gleam 

 in pleasing tones of brown or orange, while the leaves, like gracefully- 

 curved combs, reach out in all directions, and glitter in the sun. 



Thickets of Bamboo-palms often line the path leading from the 

 garden door to the house. Their glittering green harmonizes pleas- 

 antly with the reddish sand, and they turn the path into a leafy 

 alley, through whose roof jagged splashes of light fall on the ground. 

 At the end of the path white steps lead invitingly to the verandah 

 of the house. And here too the visitor is greeted by graceful palms, 

 growing in green tubs, while between them, on the railing, are 

 bushy growths of the finely-divided, light-green froijdsof the Venus'- 

 hair fern, and from the roof hang pots of flowering creepers, or 

 orchids look down with their enigmatic, richly-coloured blossoms. 

 It is pleasant indeed to sit on such a verandah, where the white 

 benches are shrouded in the green shadows of all these plants, and 

 even one's white suit seems washed with a green vapour. The house 

 is like a summer-house; the garden seems imperceptibly to enter 

 the very rooms; and herein lies the unforgettable charm of the 

 tropical home. This charm is enhanced by the animal life : the 

 butterflies which float through the verandah on dusky blue or red 

 and yellow wings, the humming-birds, which suddenly hang 

 motionless before a flower, humming and ghttering with bronze 

 and green lights, often within arm's-length of the delighted observer. 

 Even in the centre of the city of Sao Paulo I could enjoy the sight 

 of these tiny birds if I sat in the shadow of one of the potted plants 

 on the verandah. 



The tropical gardener cannot do better than follow Nature, 

 which always excels human art. It is a mistake for a European 

 gardener, who has not yet become attuned to the spectacle of the 

 tropics, to attempt to lay out a garden. But if the gardener takes 

 Nature as his teacher his garden must display the chief characteristic 

 of the tropical vegetation— namely, variety. And what variety can 



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