GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 595 



Granja or San Ildefonso — the Versailles of Spain — which Philip V., who 

 caused it to be laid out, is said to have exclaimed on beholding it : " It 

 has cost me three millions, but for three minutes I have been amused ! " 

 And lastly, there are the gardens of the Alhambra, which were con- 

 sidered so very lovely; that a long inscription, placed at the entrance 

 of the one called the Lindaraxa, thus ends : " Where is there a garden 

 like unto this ? Its verdure and its fragrance excel all others ; and 

 its freshness is diffused far around." 



I cannot here refrain from saying a passing word of eulogium 

 on the very beautiful garden of Mr. Cook (the Viscount de Montserrat) 

 at Cintra in Portugal ; for that gentleman has not only most 

 beautifully laid out his grounds, but, regardless of expense, has suc- 

 ceeded in extending the knowledge of horticulture in that country by 

 the acclimatization of new and rare shrubs and plants. In our own 

 country, one of the Scilly Islands has been converted into a sub- 

 tropical garden by the ability of Mr. Smith, formerly Member for one 

 of the divisions of Cornwall. There grows, in the open air, the gum- 

 tree, and, what is more particularly interesting, there is a geranium hedge 

 twenty feet long, which in 1862 was said to be ten feet high, and 

 whose bright pink flowers, when seen from the sea, present from a 

 considerable distance a strange yet beautiful appearance. 



Many more examples I might bring forward, to show how every 

 nation has, in a greater or less degree, had gardens. Throughout 

 Germany they are to be found, likewise in Russia, Denmark, Poland, 

 Switzerland, and other countries. In the other hemisphere we find 

 them, in North and South America: and here I must mention 

 the Shakers' gardens in New Lebanon, at New York, for in them are 

 grown the narcotic herbs for which they have a great reputation ; as 

 well as the garden at Rio Janeiro, which is kept up for the 

 cultivation of the cochineal insect. None of the other gardens of 

 the above-named countries offer, like those already described, any 

 peculiar characteristics in the mode in which they are laid out, but 

 comprise either one or a mixture of the styles of other countries; it 

 is consequently needless for me to enter into fuller details of them. 



QQ2 



