266 Landscape Gardening 



only sort in the mythological gardens which excels the 

 Newtown Pippin. Her lips had the dewy freshness of the 

 ruddiest strawberries raised by Mr. Longworth's* favorite 

 old Cincinnati market woman; and there was a bright 

 sparkle in her eye, that assured us there is no trouble with 

 the curculio in the celestial orchards. 



But if we were charmed with the ruddy beauty of Pomona, 

 we were still more fascinated by the ideal freshness and 

 grace of Flora. She wore on her head a kind of fanciful 

 crown of roses, which were not only dewy moss roses, of 

 the loveliest shades imaginable, but the colors themselves 

 changed every moment, as she turned her head, in a manner 

 that struck us quite speechless with admiration. The 

 goddess observing this, very graciously remarked that these 

 roses were the true perpetuals, since they not only really 

 bloomed always, but when plucked, they retained their 

 brilliancy and freshness for ever. Her girdle was woven in 

 a kind of green and silver pattern of jasmine leaves and 

 starry blossoms, but of a species far more lovely than any 

 in Mr. Paxton's Magazine. She held a bouquet in her 

 hand, composed of sweet scented camellias, and violets as 

 dark as sapphire, which she said her gardener had brought 

 from the new planet Neptune; and unique and fragrant 

 blossoms continually dropped from her robe, as she walked 

 about, or raised her arms in gestures graceful as the swing- 

 ing of a garland wooed by the west wind. 



After some stammering on our own part, about the honor 

 conferred on an humble mortal like ourselves - - rare visits 

 of the goddesses to earth, etc., they, understanding, prob- 

 ably, what Mr. Beecher f calls our "amiable fondness for 

 the Hudson," obligingly put us at our ease, by paying us 

 some compliments on the scenery of the Highlands, as seen 

 at that moment from our garden seat, comparing the broad 

 river, radiant with the chaste light of the moon, to some 



* Referring to Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, famous horticul- 

 turist and grape grower, who still has a grandson in Congress. 



t Referring to the famous Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at that time 

 editing a horticultural column in Indiana. 



