BEAUTIFUL GARDENS IN AMERICA 
it was, the delight in early spring of visitors from all 
over the world. To quote one who resides near by: “The 
garden first came into notice about a hundred years ago. 
In spite of all the cultivation, it still suggests the heart of 
the forest, with the old Oak and gray moss and wild flowers 
mingling with Cherokee Roses, Jessamine, etc. These Mag- 
nolia gardens are not only wonderfully beautiful, but, I 
believe, quite unique. The great show is not Magnolias, 
or even the Camellias, although they are lovely — but the 
Azaleas, which grow in such profusion and variety of 
shades that one loses all sense of individual plant and 
flowers and perceives only glowing, gleaming masses of 
color veiled by festoons of gray moss, giving one a deli- 
cious feeling of unreality, almost enchantment. In Owen 
Wister’s ‘Lady Baltimore’ there is a beautiful description 
of Magnolia. The coloring on the post-cards is not in the 
least exaggerated.’’ Live Oaks over two centuries old 
draped with gray moss suspended from the branches ! This 
wonderful growth is not an uncommon sight in the South- 
ern States. 
Columbia, the capital, has the famous Preston garden, 
and for many generations this beautiful property remained 
in the families of the Hamptons and Prestons. By a 
marriage a century ago the Hampton estate came into the 
possession of the Prestons, and for many years the stately 
garden with its aged Box and shade trees, its choice shrubs 
and plants, has been an object of veneration to garden 
lovers. A descendant writes: “There is no interest of im- 
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