GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



The Italian gardens, from which such American 

 ones as the above-mentioned example in Bar Harbor 

 have been copied, include very few flowers. They rely 

 for their beauty on their plan, their setting, and their 

 enduring points of interest. I have even searched 

 through Italian gardens in vain for flowers; yet 

 there are none that equal them in restfulness and 

 dignity. There is a poise and a balance to these 

 gardens that suggests infinite repose. They have 

 also vast endurance. 



Italian gardens are not now uncommon in America 

 in places near the sea. A few can no longer be called 

 new, and are very beautiful. Some among the newer 

 ones that I have seen appear incomplete in design 

 and quite unsuited to their surroundings, and seem 

 to rely for beauty mostly upon the effulgent bloom 

 of many kinds of flowers, including tuberous rooted 

 begonias, geraniums, heliotrope, fuchsias, cannas, and 

 many other bedding plants. In such places one grate- 

 fully regards their multiplicity. It seems that nature 

 has privileged them to charm by their colors, and to 

 pass over to oblivion the defects of their settings. 



The greater number of our gardens near the sea are 

 distinctly American in type, one which is more like the 

 English gardens than those of any other country. 

 This is quite natural, since, when the early English 

 settlers began to beautify their grounds, they tried 

 to fulfil the horticultural ideals in their own minds, 

 which were those of home. 



The Dutch settlers abetted the beauty of early 

 American gardens by the introduction of many bulbous 



