water-meter. A pool or basin of standing water, as in the old Egyptian gardens, 

 will, however, serve to grow aquatic plants, and to add that touch of life to the 

 scene which can best be given by the reflections from the surface of a pool. 

 Indeed, the charming effects that can be obtained at comparatively slight expense 

 by the judicious use of a small basin make water one of the most useful accessories 

 of the garden. 



Of the other architectural ornaments of the garden, little need be said 

 except that they should be, if possible, beautiful, --at any rate, well designed, 

 and that they should be in scale with the garden. No imitation of more expen- 

 sive materials by cheaper ones should be permitted, because, even though the 

 counterfeit may not be apparent from a distance, a nearer view will detect the 

 sham. Marble should be marble, stucco should look like stucco, and wood should 

 pretend to be nothing better than wood. The solidity of the stucco columns at 

 "Stratford Lodge," Bryn Mawr, Penn. (Plates I., n., and in.), for instance, shows 

 that they make no pretence of being marble. It is perfectly possible to build, 

 as our ancestors did, interesting wooden pergolas and balustrades, which owe their 

 attractiveness to the fact that they are delicate in line and in mass in a way that 

 would be impossible in marble. There are limitations to any one material, of 

 course; but a study of the following plates will show that no matter what the 

 material be, so long as it is properly used, or no matter how slender the owner's 

 purse, an attractive garden can still be contrived. Indeed, several of the gardens 

 illustrated were built by their owners without the assistance of any skilled work- 

 men, and many of them are planted and brought to a state of perfection, year after 

 year, by the owners themselves. It is, after all, the feeling of ownership that is 

 one of the greatest pleasures of gardening, ownership not only of the ground 

 where the flowers grow, but ownership of the design according to which they 

 have been planted, and therefore ownership of the resulting beauty. 



We shall find that the special elements of beauty in the best and most char- 

 acteristic of our American gardens are simplicity of line, harmony of form and 

 color, and richness in the details of planting. The judicious study of the best 

 examples of this and other countries, the aim to keep w r ithin the limits set by 

 one's surroundings and one's purse, and above all the patience born of a love for 

 flowers, will make possible a garden which may be a well-spring of delight, even 

 to him who owns the smallest plot of land. There is no spot so small that 

 cannot bring forth a few flowers, no rock so barren that it cannot be made to 

 bloom. 



GUY LOWELL. 



