THE PRESIDENTS' GARDENS 141 



am able to do at present to situations of this kind, 

 which combine utility, ornament and amusement I 

 shall certainly avail myself of the liberty you have 

 authorized me to take, in requesting a small supply of 

 such exotics, as, with a little aid may be reconciled to 

 the climate of my garden." The greenhouses which 

 he built were burned in 1835, an< ^ their contents, save 

 three plants alone a lemon tree, a sago palm and a 

 century plant of course perished. The buildings 

 were rebuilt in the same place, along the north side 

 of the garden, and on the same lines but the houses 

 at the eastern end are later, and not a part of the 

 General's plan. 



Curiously shaped and divided are the compartments 

 in the north garden and both gardens are curiously 

 formed. I would give a good deal to know just why 

 these unsymmetrical and apparently arbitrary patterns 

 were adopted and why the little, trifling, yet very evi- 

 dent variations exist in the general outer form of the 

 two gardens. Certainly they were not variations by 

 chance, for the exactness of the plan wherever Wash- 

 ington wished it to be exact, is beautiful; moreover, 

 he was an engineer of skill, as well as a man of most 

 careful and accurate method, and no such chance hap- 

 pening would be even remotely possible, either in his 

 drawing or his execution. So it must remain a mys- 

 tery, unless, as tradition has it, the great order 



