58o GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 



in it were kept a vast number of plants, which Antoninus Castor 

 himself tended. 



At the fall of the Roman Empire the art of gardening succumbed 

 also to the violence of the age ; but it was, however, revived at a later 

 period by the monks, and still later a great stimulus was given to the 

 growth of plants by the Medici family, to whom many of the beautiful 

 gardens of Italy owe their origin. Those which belong to the purely 

 Italian style are architectural and geometric. These consist of ter- 

 races adorned with sculptures, and alleys of trees, and fountains and 

 cascades, and rich parterres of flower-beds filled with exquisite flowers. 

 Though the Italian gardens may be termed strictly formal, yet the house 

 and the grounds — designed as they frequently are by the same architect 

 — present such an harmonious whole, that instead of feeling the ennui 

 and disgust so commonly experienced in formal gardens, the eye is 

 enchanted with all it takes in; for in them is no stiffness, only so 

 much of symmetry as accords with the genius of this classic land. 

 Sometimes a wall surrounds the garden, though frequently extensive 

 views are obtained from the terrace walks. 



About the middle of the eighteenth century the English style 

 of gardening was introduced into Italy. Though many grounds have 

 been laid out in that manner, yet it has by no means super- 

 seded that of the pure Italian, which is so well adapted to be 

 placed before buildings, of which we have numerous examples in our 

 own country. Near to Florence, in a lovely valley among the 

 Apennines, is Pratolino, formerly a residence of the Grand Duke of 

 Tuscany, and this is a good specimen of an imitation of the park- 

 like grounds which are often to be met with in England. But 

 except in certain spots amongst the mountains — as in the instance 

 just mentioned — lawns, which the English so pride themselves on 

 possessing, or even grassy patches, are not to be found in ordinary 

 Italian pleasure-grounds, the climate being too hot for their cultivation. 

 The owner of a villa in the north of Italy having much admired the 

 lawns he had seen in this country, took especial pains to have one 

 in his own grounds. But though he took all the precautions of 



