balustrades and up into the cypress- and olive-trees, dropping garlands 



as it climbs. 



For a description of the gardens as they were a quarter of a century 



since, I cannot do better than quote the words of the late Dean Hole,* 



who about the year 1880 spent some months at the Villa Arson, and 



who, knowing my predilection for the older type of garden, strongly 



recommended it to my notice. " Passing under the archway, which is 



covered with the Banksian rose, and leaving on the left the curious 



' Fountain Kiosk ' composed of stone, shells, glass, statues, and tanks 



(note especially the swans done in cockle shells, within, and the beautiful 



muhlenbeckia on the southern front, without), and erected by the 



Societedes Ouvners de Nice in honour of Commander Arson de St. Joseph, 



one of the former owners of the villa, and descending the first of 



the terraces, of which there are seven, you walk through a little 



avenue of magnolias, the tallest about thirty feet in height, covered with 



their large lustrous leaves and cone-like seed vessels, showing here and 



there the bright vermilion seeds. Then going on from platform to 



platform — 



D'^tage en 6tage, on allait de surprise en surprise — 



you have around you a most charming collection of trees and shrubs 

 and flowers : eucalyptus and carouba, cedar, cypress and pine ; the pepper 

 tree, Crataegus, acacia, camellia, escallonia, veronica, kennedya, plumbago, 

 teucrium fruticosum (the pale blue salvia, with its white woolly leaf) ; 

 ... an abundance of roses, principally Chinas, Teas, and Bourbons, 

 such as Cramoisie superieure, fabvier, gloire de rosomene, safrano, 

 gloire de Dijon, acidalie, and Bourbon queen ; phloxes, petunias, 

 carnations, violets, mignonette, pansies ; the aloe, still wearing its 

 scarlet glory ; hedges of the spirasa or Italian May, at rest, and of 

 coronilla and red geranium intermixed, and here and there gay with 

 flowers. 



" The glorious view opens out before you as you go down the garden, 

 until, reaching the central terrace, you look over the orange-trees, with 

 red roses almost touching their golden fruit, upon the monastery and 



* " Nice and her Neighbours." (S. Low & Co., 1881.) 



144 



