March, 1 910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



103 



Water Gardens of California 



By Kate Greenleaf Locke 



HERE is, near Santa Barbara, California, serene coolness and repose, is due to still pools of water 



a snow-white villa set high upon a hill, which mirror quietly the blue ether, as they lie facing the 



Upon its pink-tiled roof the sun shines in sky and absorbing its beauty. 



unchecked brilliance, and when one steps The top of the mountain has been smoothed away and 



out from the cool shadows of the house upon it is set the villa and these basins. Around 



onto a broad-mosaiced terrace (Fig. i) them waves the feathery green of the tree-tops of tall 



the blaze of light is dazzling. That this palms, giant-bamboo and bananas; and from the white 



momentary effect is followed immediately by a sense of balustrade one looks across an ocean of green to the blue 



Fig. 2 — Dr. Rudolph Shiffman's Italian garden with pool and Japanese fountain 



