THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
Mr. Wurts, an American, who is passionately 
fond of gardening and garden decoration. 
Italians do not usually understand growing flowers, 
and prefer such roses and flowering shrubs 
as need little care; but in such a_ climate, 
when an enthusiastic gardener takes matters 
in hand, the very perfection of floriculture may 
be expected. Already in the grounds of the 
Villa Sciarra, sheets of colour catch the eye at every 
turn, rose-rhododendrons tower aloft, rare and 
interesting plants fill the borders. The owner has 
been fortunate in securing some excellent garden 
stonework—in one little garden where pansies of 
every shade make a_ brilliant carpet, twelve 
picturesque stone figures, representing the months, 
are set in a semi-circle, against close-clipped hedges, 
with the happiest effect. From an old villa of the 
Viscontis comes the beautiful fountain. illustrated, 
where the most charming of putt play games with 
the water and the Visconti dragon. The villa itself 
is a true summer-house, with a labyrinth of 
rooms, half halls, half loggie, cool retreats, vaulted 
and: softly lighted, in which to breathe the scent 
of flowers and to listen to the splash of 
fountains and to look down on Rome glowing in 
the sun and away to that ever-glorious view of 
the Alban hills, ever changing as the hours wear 
on, from delicate lilac and turquoise, to purple and 
amethyst and gold. 
The Sciarra gardens are on the site of the 
gardens of Julius Cesar, which he left to the people for 
public pleasure-grounds. | Many remains of Roman 
days have been discovered in them, among others a 
magnificent bronze figure, which was sold to the 
Brussels Gallery. Mr. Wurts has ordered a fac-simile 
of it in bronze for his palace in Rome, and proposes 
to place a plaster cast of it in the garden. In later 
times the fine site attracted the attention, like many 
other good things, of the Church, and Cardinal 
Barberini built the villa, which passed by marriage 
to the Sciarra Colonna. It is encompassed on its 
south side by the deep bastioned walls of Rome, 
which were stormed in the War of Liberation, and 
a stone with inscription marks where the French 
made a breach and commemorates those who fell! in 
the defence. 
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