BEAUTIFUL GARDENS IN AMERICA 



it was, the delight in early spring of visitors from all 

 over the world. To quote one who resides near by: "The 

 garden first came into notice about a hundred years ago. 

 In spite of all the cultivation, it still suggests the heart of 

 the forest, with the old Oak and gray moss and wild flowers 

 mingling with Cherokee Roses, Jessamine, etc. These Mag- 

 nolia gardens are not only wonderfully beautiful, but, I 

 believe, quite unique. The great show is not Magnolias, 

 or even the Camellias, although they are lovely but the 

 Azaleas, which grow in such profusion and variety of 

 shades that one loses all sense of individual plant and 

 flowers and perceives only glowing, gleaming masses of 

 color veiled by festoons of gray moss, giving one a deli- 

 cious feeling of unreality, almost enchantment. In Owen 

 Wister's 'Lady Baltimore' there is a beautiful description 

 of Magnolia. The coloring on the post-cards is not in the 

 least exaggerated." Live Oaks over two centuries old 

 draped with gray moss suspended from the branches! This 

 wonderful growth is not an uncommon sight in the South- 

 ern States. 



Columbia, the capital, has the famous Preston garden, 

 and for many generations this beautiful property remained 

 in the families of the Hamptons and Prestons. By a 

 marriage a century ago the Hampton estate came into the 

 possession of the Prestons, and for many years the stately 

 garden with its aged Box and shade trees, its choice shrubs 

 and plants, has been an object of veneration to garden 

 lovers. A descendant writes: "There is no interest of im- 



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