A GARDEN CANTON, 



195 



all-pervading sunshine. For the flowers 

 radiate happiness, while poetry wells 

 forth with every opening flower and 

 budding branch, each shade and leafy 

 dell showing unsuspected charms. Tru- 

 ly, a land rich in flowers is a land full of 

 delights which are apart from all other 

 sources of happiness, and this is true the 

 world over, for only the soulless merce- 

 nary (and he is happily rare) is unrespon- 

 sive to the mystic spell of flowers. And 

 Ticino is truly the garden of Switzerland. 

 Alpine flowers — Rhododendrons and 

 Saxifrages — creep down as near as Lo- 

 carno; one sees them in bloom even on 

 the rocks of the Madonna del Sasso ; 

 flowers too that breathe of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and which have made it their 

 home for thousands of years gone by ; 

 exotic flowers, in garden and park, fine 

 brilliants enriching Nature's beautiful 

 setting, are seen scattered up and down, 

 even in gardens the most modest, and 

 richly lavished upon the fringes of the 

 limpid waters. Those charming gardens 

 of Como and theBorroneanIsles,the gar- 

 dens of Pallanza and Lustra, of Locarno 

 and Lugano, the floral wealth of the en- 

 tire world is gathered here, but it is the 

 far East, Australia, and North America, 

 which have given most largely. And 

 how shall words do justice to the beau- 

 ties of those groves of Camellias, bloom- 

 ing from March to May, in the gardens 

 of Locarno? Everyone in Ticino de- 

 lights in flowers, collecting and caring 

 for them. But all alike cannot share the 

 lovely setting of Locarno, or that of Lu- 

 gano — the gentle, poetic Lugano — 

 slumbering at the foot of the Salvatore I 

 and encircled by a crown of gardens | 



fully as rich in flower, but not in variety, 

 as those of Locarno, which is nearer the 

 sources of rare plants. But Lugano has 

 something better than mere collections, 

 however rich and rare, better even than 

 the fairest gardens of our dreams; it has 

 the starry slopes of Salvatore, carpeted 

 with Christmas Rose and the brightly- 

 flushing Polygala, with garlands of fra- 

 grant Daphne(Z). Cneorum) and spread- 

 ing fields of sweet Fraxinellas, which are 

 sheeted in earliest spring with Snowdrop 

 and Snowflake. And Lugano also has 

 its Castagnola, with the ancient trees ; 

 and the natural gardens of Gandrid, with 

 old Chestnut groves, beneath whose 

 shade flourish the velvet-flowered Sera- 

 pias ; and sunny slopes, crowned with 

 Apollo Laurels and thickets of the white 

 flowering Ash. And from Lugano, by 

 way of Melida and Morcota, one may 

 wander round the foot of Salvatore, re- 

 turning by the flower-decked valley of 

 Ticino. — H. CoRREVON,"Par Monts et 

 par Vaux." 



Orchard Beauty. — Orchards are even more 

 personal in their charms than gardens, as they 

 are more nearly human creations. Ornaments 

 of the homestead, they subordinate other fea- 

 tures ofit; andsuch is their sway over the land- 

 scape that house and owner appear accidents 

 without them. So men delight to build in an 

 ancient orchard, when so fortunate as to possess 

 one, that they may live in the beauty of its sur- 

 roundings. Orchards are among the most co- 

 vetedpossessions; treesof ancient standing, and 

 vines, being firm friends and royal neighbours 

 for ever. The profits, too, are as wonderful as 

 their longevity. And if antiquity can add any 

 worth to a thing, what possession has a man 

 more noble than these? So unlike most others, 

 which are best at first, and grow worse till 

 worth nothing; while fruit trees and vines in- 

 crease in worth and goodness for ages. — The 

 Orchard. 



n 2 



