THE GARDENS OF NEWPORT. 



325 



and present a striking appearance. The flower- 

 buds are in shape something hke those of the tea 

 rose, but several inches in circumference, and 

 when partially opened, tinted with bright carmine. 

 As the buds expand, the petals are creamy white, 

 sometimes delicately shading off to pink, and when 

 fully grown measuring eight to ten inches across. 

 The seed-pod is, as might be expected from 

 the size of the flower, large, and somewhat in 

 the form of an inverted funnel, the numerous seeds 

 in each being about the size of kernels of corn. 

 In the east they are often used as food, this being 



though situated on the line of Bellevue avenue, is al- 

 most hidden from observation. The illustration, page 

 327, shows the walk, between the avenue and the cot- 

 tage, which is bordered with trees, mostly tall spruces 

 with interlacing branches which afford a dense shade 

 at all hours of the day. The house itself stands in 

 the broad sunshine, and its immediate surroundings 

 afford fine displays of floral skill. A frontiersman 

 might speak of the place as "an opening in the 

 woods," so dense are the tree growths on every side, 

 but he could scarcely find words to describe the 

 garden and small lawn. This point once reached, 



Side view of the Lily pond. 



the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras, though not the 

 lotus fruit of fable and story, of which the world 

 has so fully heard. This circular pond, not more 

 than eight to ten feet across, furnishes flowers dur- 

 ing a large part of the summer, and is always 

 beautiful. There is around it, planted in earth, a 

 border of the new low-growing French cannas, above 

 which rise the lotus leaves and blossoms, giving a 

 combination of colors worthy of the highest ad- 

 miration. 



The summer residence of Mrs. Paran Stevens, 



there is revealed a collection of rare and rich flow- 

 ers, native and foreign. Here more than in most 

 places the greenhouse plants predominate. There 

 are, comparatively, very few flowering shrubs and 

 no attempt whatever to make use of bright and 

 curious foliage for the production of desired effects. 

 If the wall of trees on every side were made to pre- 

 sent a greater diversity as regards form and color, 

 the picture would be still more striking. This de- 

 fect appears in many other gardens which were 

 planted twenty or more years ago, for not until 



