98 GARDEN ilAXAGEJIEXT. 



Crystal Palace, or by means of tiie hydraulic ram, a machine contrived to 

 raise water by its own momentum — a sort of reciprocating process iu which a 

 comparatively small quantity of water is forced up at a time ; but the process 

 being continuous and self-acting, great aggi-egate results are obtained. By this 

 process the jet d'ecm in the gardens of the Nymphenberg at Munich rises 

 to the height of 90 feet. These few remarks will readily account for the 

 failure of all attempts to introduce effective fountains into our pnbhc places. 

 According to oiu* system of finance, public money cannot be applied in any 

 considerable amount to such purposes ; and without a large expenditure no 

 grand result can be attained. Should the public ever take the water-supph' 

 of London into its own hands, and a man of genius have the management, 

 very grand effects might be p>roduced at a trifling cost, and enormous public 

 savings effected, — especially if it could be accompanied with a comprehensive 

 plan for isolating the water-pipes from all communication with waste gas. 



223. Thus it is only where the pleasure-garden is surrounded bj^ high grounds 

 that effective fountains can be constructed. It was by taking advantage of 

 the rocky slopes of the Apennines, in the neighboui-hood of Tivoli and 

 Frascati, that the Itahan villa gardens became such noble models for terraces 

 and fountains. The Villa d'Este, beneath Tivoli, although its terraces are 

 crumbling to ruin, and its fountains dry, is yet a wonderful creation of art, 

 which could only have existence on the decli\-ities of a hill-side. But, though 

 the fountain can only act where the water hes at a gi'eat elevation, or can be 

 forced up by artificial jDower, there are other forms in which water becomes 

 ornamental in a garden, as well as useful. 



224. Where water can be obtained from a higher level than the garden, 

 after having i^erformed a tour de force as a jet in the vicinity of the house, 

 it maj' be made to descend to the lower level of the grounds, step by step, 

 until it finally feeds shallow canals, constructed for growing such ornamental 

 aquatic plants as require the stimulus of running water. Mr. Noel Humphreys 

 has proposed an ingenious design for forming an ornamental canal of this 

 kind, of which the engraving at the head of this chapter is a copy. The basin 

 is supposed to have stone or cement dressing of an architectural character. 

 On each side is a small and still shallower canal, prepared for the reception of 

 the rai'er aquatic plants for which more careful treatment is required. In 

 these canals i*eceptacles are prepared for the soil, sufficiently massive to retain 



their places, or having spaces left in the bottom 

 for the reception of a basin in which the soil is 

 placed and the root planted ; it is then sunk into 

 ^^^^^g its place at the bottom of the canal, and the cover, 

 B, fitted into it, and, in due course, the plant throws 

 tip its stem through the apertures in the lid. The soil is thus kejit in its 

 place, and the water remains pure, even amid considerable agitation. The 

 basin and canals might be formed of Portland cement, moulded into archi- 

 tectm'^1 fojTn, or the coping might be of the ordinary dressed freestone of the 

 •quarries. The water enters at the upper end, being obtained either fi'om the 



