THE GARDENS BY THE LAKE OF COMO. 



205 



Before describing the gardens around Como, I wish to refer briefly to 

 those at Lugano. One cannot but be struck with the remarkable growth 

 some plants attain, and how they thrive in the most luxuriant fashion. 

 This was particularly the case with Bignonia radicans, the sight of which 

 in such profuse flower might carry one's thoughts to the gardens around 

 Algiers. The soil in which it grows so well is a stiff calcareous loam 

 in which lime rubble and the debris from the mountain sides were freely 

 incorporated. In England we usually grow it in rich soil with either 

 peat, or leaf-soil predominating. This is, as we know, conducive to 

 growth, but not so much to floriferousness. The best examples that 

 I saw were at Lugano. 



Nerium Oleander also thrives well around the Lake wherever the sun 

 shines for a good part of the day. This plant is cultivated in soil similar 

 to that in which the Bignonia thrives, in almost every instance. It may 

 often be seen projecting from the sides of the walls that hold up the 

 garden fronts of the houses, where it appears to have been planted when 

 the walls were built. It is a plant that evidently thrives well in the full 

 blaze of the sun, where its growth becomes well matured and capable of 

 withstanding several degrees of frost. The Oleander, to give it its more 

 popular name, is equally at home in the gardens around the Lakes of 

 Como and of Maggiore. 



The best examples of Nelumbium speciosum were also at Lugano, 

 where, in the gardens of one of the principal hotels, I saw a fine mass 

 growing splendidly and showing abundance of buds. This also was in 

 the full blaze of the sun, a pool having been made for it upon the sloping 

 bank leading to the hotel. 



After traversing a most delightful and fertile tract of country, we 

 stayed for some days at Menaggio, which we made our centre. In the 

 hotel garden there were several immense bushes of Oleander ; these were 

 in most profuse flower and formed quite a feature. There are several 

 distinct forms of Oleander in Italy : the ordinary double pink-flowered 

 variety ; the white, quite pure in colour, and semi-double ; and some very 

 brilliant singles, one of which struck me as being most distinct and 

 effective with its brilliant deep crimson flowers. Other shades of singles 

 were also to be seen. (I may note in passing that twenty years or more 

 ago there was a collection of Oleanders at Chiswick in which there were 

 many different shades of colour.) 



At the same hotel and in a portion of the garden running down to 

 the Lake-side were several well-grown plants of Sophora japonica 

 pendula flowering freely as standards. This plant is perfectly hardy, 

 in the south of England at least, and should receive more attention and 

 be planted more freely than at present ; it is a most graceful and effective 

 subject for the water side. 



The first garden we visited at Menaggio, about 300 to 400 feet above 

 the town itself, was the garden and extensive pleasure grounds of the 

 Villa Vigoni, at one time known as the Villa Mylius. From these grounds 

 a magnificent view of the Lake is obtained, showing the three arms into 

 which it is divided at Bellagio, as well as of that town itself. The Villa, 

 a palatial building, is finely situated amid most luxuriant vegetation, 

 being sheltered upon its northern and north-eastern sides. Immediately 



