GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 583 



birds,— making two organs to play,— starting up from invisible holes 

 and squirting persons in the face,-and dashing down terraces, besides 

 performing numerous other tricks. To these hydraulics the Italians 

 are very partial ; from them other nations have learnt these ingenious 

 water tricks. They have been imitated by the Dutch: there are 

 also, as well as in other parts, very amusing examples in a garden 

 at Salzburg in the Tyrol. 



The grounds adjoining the Villa Borghese are very much frequented 

 by the Romans, and certainly they had a lovely appearance when I saw 

 them one spring, when the park or uncultivated part was a rich parterre 

 of the exquisite purple anemone, which there springs up without the aid 

 of man. Other choice grounds at Rome, such as the Villa Doria and 

 the Pincio, might be cited as being pre-eminent for their loveliness. 



Neither is Naples behindhand in her gardens. Near the one belong- 

 ing to Monsieur Dumontet is another, situated on the shores of the Bay, 

 in which, as in that belonging to Prince Demidoff, are grown a large 

 collection of plants. There are many other very beautiful ones. 



Besides the gardens attached to villas, there are several botanica 

 ones ; and the Italians can boast of being the first people in Europe to 

 establish purely scientific gardens. If we except the one of Antoninus 

 Castor, which can hardly claim for itself the appellation of being a 

 botanic garden, then the first in Europe was formed by a Tuscan noble 

 at Padua in the sixteenth century, and a few years later another was 

 established at Pisa under the auspices of the Medicis. Since that time 

 botanical gardens have extended throughout Italy. Those I have 

 seen at Venice and at Naples contain some highly interesting specimens 

 of trees and plants. 



I cannot leave the gardens of Italy without saying one or two 

 words on a very pretty garden which a countryman of ours — Dr. 

 Bennett— has made at Mentone, and which, to use his own words, " is 

 hanging as it were on the flank of the mountain," and faces the lovely 

 bay. A long, straight terrace entrance walk leads from the gate ; on 

 each side of this, at regular intervals, are pillars of stone, to which are 

 attached creepers, to twine and form a canopy overhead. On a marble 



