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HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



by columns of granite, forming an arcade, in wliicli are arranged 

 statues, busts, and other works of art. The engraving gives a 

 general idea of the style of these buildings, and may suggest 

 the origin of some of the arrangements in the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Garden. 



The casino, or vUla, of the family of the Sachetti, at Eome, 

 is quite in the same style, and may possibly also have contributed 

 somewhat to the ideas introduced into the Garden at South 

 Kensington.'" 



The ai'cade is semicircular, 600 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 

 22 feet in height, and embraces in its centre the Conservatory. 

 The arches are 10 feet 7 inches wide, 18 feet 9 inches to the 

 crown of the arch, and 13 feet 6 inches to its spring ; the pillars 

 on each side are 1 foot 1 inch in thickness, the pilaster or pier 

 between them is 2 feet in breadth, and is finished by a capital 

 executed in terra-cotta. There are 38 arches, 42 pilasters, and 

 42 shields. 



The decorations of the frieze and spandrils have been com- 

 pleted on one arch, to show the style of decoration which is 

 intended to be followed. Each pilaster has a shield over it, 

 also executed in terra-cotta, and containing an impressed and 

 painted or gilded figure of some one of the natural orders of 

 plants, with its name below it. 



On the occasion of the opening of the Society's Great Show, 

 on the 5th of June, 1861, and on some of the subsequent Flower 

 Shows, the whole extent of the Albani Arcades has been crowded 



* It was built from the plans of Pietro Barettini, of Crotona, and may be cited 

 as an extreme example of the Inxnriant richness of embellishment of the high 

 Italian School. 



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