stone pines are planted in avenues or circles, but always in such a way as 

 to add a picturesque touch to the surroundings. Some are perhaps as old 

 as the villa itself, and with their sombre, bushy heads add greatly to the 

 beauty of the garden. 



What a striking feature too are the hedges and alleys of bay, laurus 

 nobilis it may well be called, used with such excellent effect throughout 

 this villa. The trees are thirty feet high, and their principal stem is 

 often nine inches in diameter. So closely are the branches interwoven in 

 the long covered walks, that even at midday the sunlight filters but thinly 

 through. 



One wonders why this most beautiful tree, such a favourite in years 

 gone by, is passing out of the Italian garden ! Is it that we no longer 

 recognise its superiority to such things as the palm, the acacia, the 

 common " fir-tree," or even the magnolia, all of which are well enough 

 in their way but feeble by comparison with sweet bay, ilex, stone pine, 

 or cypress ? Nowadays apparently we have no use for the bay save to 

 extract essences from its leaf. During the writer's stay at the Villa 

 Piatti, ragged young urchins and their w itch-like grahdam were busy 

 stripping the leaves, and stowing them in great sacks for the market. 



Terminal figures, or termes, are such an important feature in this, as 

 in many another Roman garden, that they deserve more than a passing 

 word. Among the Romans, Terminus was the god under whose special 

 protection all boundary stones (termini) were placed, and he was supposed 

 to punish any unlawful usurpation of land. In early times his statue was 

 a mere stone or pointed post driven into the ground to mark the division 

 between two properties. The customs connected with these stones carry 

 us back to the days of King Numa. When a new boundary-stone was 

 set up, it was consecrated in the presence of the people, a sacrifice was 

 offered, and the stone, bedecked with garlands and ribbons, was sprinkled 

 with incense, honey, corn, and wine. Annually on February 23, the 

 last day of the Roman year, a festival was held in honour of the god, who 

 at a somewhat later date was represented with a human head, but 

 without arms or feet, as an intimation that he never moves from the spot 

 where he has been placed. 



Among the Greeks the corresponding god was Hermes, who was not 



43 



