32 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
vistas terminated by obelisks, a garden adorned with marble 
vases, busts and statues, and pleasure grounds filled with 
the rarest trees and shrubs, were conspicuous features here. 
Some of the latter are now so remarkable as to attract 
strongly the attention of the visitor. Among them, is the 
chestnut planted by Washington, which produces the 
largest and finest fruit ; very large hollies ; and a curious 
old box tree much higher than the mansion near which 
it stands. But the most striking feature now, is the still 
remaining grand old avenue of hemlocks, ( Abies canaden- 
sis.) Many of these trees, which were planted 100 years 
ago, are now venerable specimens, ninety feet high, whose 
huge trunks and wide spread branches, are in many cases 
densely wreathed and draped with masses of English Ivy, 
forming the most picturesque, sylvan objects we ever be- 
held. 
Lemon Hill , half a mile above the Fairmount water- 
works of Philadelphia, was, 20 years ago, the most perfect 
specimen of the geometric mode in America, and since its 
destruction by the extension of the city, a few years since? 
there is nothing comparable with it, in that style, among us. 
All the symmetry, uniformity, and high art of the old 
school, were displayed here in artificial plantations, formal 
gardens with trellises, grottoes, spring-houses, temples, 
statues and vases, with numerous ponds of water, jets-d’eau 
and other waterworks, parterres and an extensive range of 
hothouses. The effect of this garden was brilliant and 
striking, its position, on the lovely banks of the Schuylkill, 
admirable, and its liberal proprietor Mr. Pratt, by opening 
it freely to the public, greatly increased the popular taste in 
the neighbourhood of that city. 
On the Hudson, the show place of the last age was the 
