154 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



in front of one window, so that the eye is carried from it 

 through an archway, past a sundial, to a garden seat 

 beyond, or whether some other part is made the starting- 

 point of the plan. 



Certain it is that a definite and rather formal plan 

 is what makes a small villa garden restful and pretty. 



There are many designs of small arbours or bowers, 

 made of square-meshed trellis, which the clever amateur 

 can execute for himself. They can form the background 

 to a circular or square water- tank, and possibly with slight 

 further ingenuity a small fountain can be contrived. This 

 will send up a thin, soft spray on hot days, and amuse 

 children perhaps by playing cup and ball as it rises and 

 falls, bearing with it a tiny indiarubber ball. 



Water is indispensable in all gardens, and even if there 

 be not any laid on for garden use, it is yet possible to 

 contrive some easy way of collecting rainwater from the 

 house. It can be stored in tanks and empty oil-barrels, 

 and by sinking these in the ground and planting water-lilies 

 at the bottom a pretty little ornamental feature is secured. 

 It is wonderful what a quantity of different plants can 

 thus be given happy homes, tier above tier, commencing 

 with the sunk water-lily and ending in the tall fruit- 

 tree. This, however, by no means exhausts the space we 

 have at our disposal. There is still the roof garden, of 

 which so much is made in Italy. 



ROOF GARDENS 



In Athens, a good many years B.C., it was the custom 

 to hold a festival of Adonis. Similar to our old-fashioned 

 May Day revels were the preparations for it ; but, instead 

 of adorning a maypole with wreaths of flowers, the 

 Greek women decorated their houses. Upon chased 

 ornaments we see represented groups of women and 



