PALMS OF BORDIGHERA. 



25 



the German Landscape-gardener, Ludwig Winter, and 

 was to be turned into a garden. But it was hardly to 

 be expected that this piece of groLind should remain 

 long unused in such a thickly populated district. It 

 must be considered especially fortunate that this lovely 

 spot should have fallen unto appreciative hands. Herr 

 Winter has left in its primitive condition that little pro- 

 ■ 'iiik^ ^' j^ction of the= coast, on which 



\l ^Sr \ Scheffel's Palrns grow; and he has 



\:/ laid out I the garden in harmony with its sur- 

 1 roundings. / Anemones, Reseda, Carnations and 

 / luxuriantly blossoming Rose bushes 

 now adorn the slope. Tall Palms 

 rise from the soil which was for- 

 merly bare ; and round a large 

 tank a Pergola has been construc- 

 ted, to whose pillars the Date Palm 

 supplies the architectural motive. 



In the Old Testament the Date Palms 

 ■ are likened to the proud daughters of 

 ^, kings. But the Date Palms in the 

 gardens of Bordighera are not all as 

 beautiful as this. The fault lies in the treat- 

 ment to which most of these trees are subjected. 

 Every year part of their fronds is removed. The 

 Bresca family, of San Remo, received from Pope 

 Sixtus V, in the sixteenth century, the privilege 

 of supplying Rome with Pa:lm-fronds for Palm 

 Sunday. This was nominally as a reward to 

 y)««Hon<- \ uNaia. Captaio Bresca, who, while the obeHsk 



