398 AN ITALIAN LAKE GARDEN. [April, 



retreat is afforded by a Sequoia gigantea — to Englislimen better 

 known by the name Wellingtonia — of vigorous growth and about fifty 

 feet in height. Descending towards the northern shore of the island 

 through a shrubbery wilderness, one comes upon two or three fine 

 specimens of Pinus sylvestris, evidently of considerable age, and fully a 

 hundred feet high. Turning eastwards, an Orange avenue opens out 

 before us, twenty finely-grown trees being planted at regular intervals 

 on either hand, with hundreds of fine fruit clustering amongst the 

 shining foliage. 



Looking up, one sees terrace rising above terrace, each consisting 

 of a narrow path with a wall some eight feet high on the land side ; 

 and these walls are all thickly clothed with the abundant foliage of 

 Citron, Lemon, Shaddock, and Mandarin, plentifully sprinkled with 

 buds, flowers, ripening and ripe fruit. Coming round to the southern 

 slopes of the tiny island, a gaudy peacock struts away in front of us 

 along a terrace of Lemon trees, and we enter a grove of stately 

 Magnolias, comprising thirty splendid trees, the tallest of which is 

 forty feet in height. These, when in flower, must form as grand a 

 sight as the Camellia trees in the north garden. On this side are 

 several deep grottos in the rock-walls, filled with ferns and having 

 enormous trailers of ivy, thirty feet in length, depending from above, 

 and the slopes at foot covered with Bignmiia radicmis, interspersed 

 with huge Aloes. Here, too are fine specimens of the Sago Palm, the 

 Picus gum-elastica, and Quercus suber ov Cork tree, each evidently 

 suited by the soil and climate. 



Ascending a slope of thick Japanese grass, overshadowed by a 

 grand Cedar of Lebanon, we are confronted on an upper terrace by 

 numerous flourishing specimens of shrubs and flowers from divers far 

 distant countries. Here are clumps of Hortensia, the Papyrus , the 

 Callicarpa sinensis, indigenous to China and Java, with pink clusters 

 of fruit springing from the stems, the Ahelia rupestris of China, with 

 its delicate pink and white blossoms, the Thea in full bloom, Indigo- 

 fera decora, with its acacia-like fronds and pinkish purple flowers, 

 Piper nigrum, and Olea fragrans, with its rich shining foliage and 

 exquisitely-sweet tiny white wax-like blossoms. Those that I have 

 mentioned are but a few of the hundreds of foreign plants and shrubs 

 which adorn the slopes and terraces of Isola Bella. 



Granted that in places the statuary, fountains and stonework are in 

 bad taste, it cannot be denied that, in the eyes of a lover of trees, 

 shrubs and flowers, this is amply compensated for by the rich 

 luxuriance of one of the finest collections of foreign flora to be found 

 within such circumscribed limits. Add to this the fact that the island 

 was originally but a barren rock, and one cannot forbear from paying 

 homao-e to the marvellous climate of the Italian Lake district. 



