September, 1909 AMERICAN HOMES AND ‘GARDENS 339. 
Beyond, and entirely separated from the dining- gf ==> Hse 
room, is the breakfast-room. This is, indeed, a porch, a 
partially enclosed. And a most delightful place it is, . a? ¢ 
with its latticed walls, its dome-like ceiling, its corner Se 2 Se 
niches, its two entrance doors, its caned furniture with a ee Se al 
gaily covered borders, its table, topped with plate glass 
above the canes, the red cement floor with its rug, and, 
perhaps after all, its color, a grayish ground, on which 
is the lattice work in sage green. It is a room pleasant 
enough to be appetizing, and of exactly the same size 
—and that, of course, is none too large—for an agree- 
able breakfast party. 
Seated here one looks out directly into the large 
pergola, a pergola quite vastly high, and stretching so 
far away from the house that its perspective is most 
unusual. It ends, in truth, against a blank wall, which 
examination presently discloses to belong to one of the 
forcing-houses. And its vine-shadowed walk readily 
invites one to a ramble through the grounds, the extent 
of which is by no means hinted at from the entrance 
of the house, but which, on the inner side, is found to 
be most considerable. One wanders here from garden to 
garden, from greenhouse to greenhouse, from hothouse 
to hothouse, from arbor to arbor. No doubt all these 
things have their special place on the formal plan, but 
the visitor will not concern himself as to arrangements, 
for the charms and delights of this wonderful place are 
so infinite in their variety that more than one journey 
amid their floral delights is essential to their enjoyment. 
As for their understanding, that is quite a different 
matter, for the gardens of ‘Firenze Cottage’? were lige tet ; ae: 
made for pleasure, and very agreeable and delightful The breakfast-room is a latticed porch 
are the pleasures they afford. In a certain general way eee ! . i 
these inner gardens consist of certain general groups. The of bedding and decorative plants required here, as well as 
hot-houses, forcing-houses, conservatories, and the like, con- care for them in the winter. The houses needed for this 
stitute a group of structures thoroughly utilitarian in purpose purpose are, therefore, quite numerous. ‘They are enclosed 
and very extensive. Even before they have been seen the within hedges of plants, chiefly cannas, which present ~a 
visitor has been made aware that only a horticultural plant brilliant spectacle when a-bloom and almost hide the utili- 
of the first magnitude could turn out the immense number  tarian nature of the structures they surround. 
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The fountain in the sunken garden 
