102 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
MEETING OF THE WATERS, DEMESNE OF KENMARE, KILLARNEY, IRELAND. 
the ravages that Time has made in the old stones of 
the Inn. 
Not yet, has the average American, planning a 
home garden, learned the lesson already grasped by 
the average Englishman — that of covering the bare 
earth and of making his rear yard the most attractive 
part of his grounds. The American usually decorates 
his front yard by polka dots of shrubs, usually exotics, 
and pen-wipers of sickly annuals and allows his rear 
yard to present a waste of raw earth, clumps of weeds, 
and rubbish. 
The French teach us that the economic garden is 
to be secured even with an exceedingly small area. 
These thrifty gardeners mass fruit bushes against fruit 
trees and vines which are generally planted close to 
the inevitable stone wall, while in the center of the 
plot will be found an open lawn space with perhaps 
one or two trees surrounded by annuals, sucb as the 
begonia or geranium. 
Astonishing ignorance and neglect in gardening is 
displayed by Americans even in California, where 
Nature would provide beauty unaided if only unmo- 
lested. Side by side with the effective planting of 
palms at the gateway of a mansion (the only suit- 
able dwelling to build in conjunction with palms) one 
finds a tiny house with six and even eight of this 
huge horticultural species within the front yard. The 
foreigner who is a stranger to the ignorance of land- 
scape art in America, naturally infers that the afore- 
said small plantation is a nursery for palms. The 
same effect is produced at the famous place called 
Smiley Heights at Riverside, California,. The drives 
are glorious and the taste shown in the planting of the 
grounds that border the drives, is all that could be de- 
sired, while the extravagant display, the crowding of 
blossoming plants about the dwellings on the Heights 
and the utter absence of knowledge 
in combinations of color or color re- 
lations, recalls the trite saying con- 
cerning quantity instead of quality. 
Contrary to this commercial ef- 
fect is the home garden planted by 
Mrs. E. S. Howard, of Oakland, 
where the flag of hospitality is the 
magnificent wistaria which covers 
the sidewalk in arbor fashion ; 
where delicate birches lead up to 
heavier pines, and pines to euca- 
lyptus — the whole composition 
showing thought as well as love of 
nature. 
Therefore, here, as in many plan- 
tations all over America, we find 
models for the amateur, which 
give us hope for the future. The 
American is a utilitarian. When 
once his artistic perception is cultivated to the 
sense of relation in horticultural form and color in 
conjunction with architectural form and color, he will 
realize that real beauty is lacking in the average gar- 
den in America, and that he can produce it. This very 
study of relation will prevent stereotyped design, for 
both dwellers and owners have characteristics and 
these should be echoed in the plantation. 
HOME GROUNDS OF E. S. HOWARD, OAKLAND. CAL. 
