PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
VOL. XIII CHICAGO, AUGUST, 1903 No. (i 
Characteristic Gardens I Have Known. 
BY MRS. HERMAN J. HALL, VICE-PRESIDENT AMERICAN PARK AND OUT-DOOR ART ASSOCIATION. 
Since the Persians set the fashion of planting trees 
in straight rows and bordering their garden paths with 
odorous flowers ; since the Egyptians grouped their 
horticultural species and massed colors — the cultured 
and the wealthy have known gardens. 
Now, the time has arrived when all classes shall 
demand such art expressions as we find in landscape 
architecture, for in the study of that art, we shall un- 
derstand best, composition, perspective, and color. 
Therefore while discussing “How to plant” it is op- 
portune to review some of the 
noted gardens still existing. 
Probably the most famous, as 
well as the most elaborately 
planned and executed, are those 
of the Chateau of Versailles, 
France, laid out by Le Notre, a 
favorite landscape architect of 
the seventeenth century. Only 
by the fact that people of every 
clime, for over a century, have 
enjoyed this piece of verdant 
geometry, may we be reconciled, 
if at all, to the enormous taxation 
of the oppressed and the loss of 
life, which was the inevitable re- 
sult of this hydraulic marvel. Al- 
though the large fountains gen- 
erally play only once a month in 
summer and the smaller jets 
twice a week, the cost of each display is ten thousand 
francs — an incredibly vast amount of water is used 
to irrigate the bosquets and flower beds. 
Formal gardening in France reaches its height at 
Versailles where the design of the grounds conforms 
with the heavy artificial style of the Chateau. One 
might imagine himself in an art gallery so sculptural 
are the trees, pruned in contradiction to their natural 
shape, so symmetrical the walks and flower beds, as 
well as the presence of innumerable sculptures. 
Large gardens in France which are comparable in 
elaborateness with those of England are scarce ; on 
the contrary, correctly designed home grounds are far 
in excess of any other country. 
Modeled somewhat after Versailles are the castle 
grounds of Schonbrunn, Austria, so called from the 
beautiful fountain at the end of the Main Allee. Near 
by is the Gloriette, a colonnade which is as renowned 
as its founder, Maria Theresa, erected on an eminence 
commanding a view of the surrounding country. Here 
the Duke of Reichstadt turned his steps many a sum- 
mer evening. The gardens encompassed by thick for- 
ests, yielded one opportunity for this homesick soul to 
view the roads which conducted others to his beloved 
France. At Schonbrunn, the present Emperor, Franz 
Joseph, retires when he wishes to be free from the for- 
malities of court life in the city, and when he would 
live in memory the happy days when Elizabeth shared 
the joys of country life with him. 
Unlike the Austrian queen, the Moors in Spain ad- 
mitted no such beacon lights as the Gloriette into the 
vicinity of their retreats. In order to hoodwink the 
“Evil Eye” they planted huge cypresses and thick 
hedges of myrtle about their palaces. That the san- 
daled feet of their women might not touch the damp 
earth, they laid mosaic paths of colored pebbles. These 
lead to alabaster fountains connecting with the many 
canals that intersect the patios. 
At Generalife, once the summer residence of the 
Moorish kings, successive flights of stone steps lead up 
the mountain side, each flight ending in a terrace 
where a fountain sends up a flashing spray. These 
PANORAMA OF VERSAILLES, FRANCE. 
