Eiuropean and Japanese Gardens 
spreading top), is one of the most picturesque and decorative 
of all trees for backgrounds and large effects. The oak and 
chestnut also abound on the upper terraces of Italian grounds 
and in those wilder portions of wooded land which sometimes 
surround the formal garden. The ilex is a low shrub-like tree, 
of very slow growth but dense foliage, admirably suited for 
those tunnel-llike walks forming long, natural arbors, which in 
CYPRESSES SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE SKY’ 
The Central Fountain! 
Villa Albani, Rome 
the Boboli amd other gardens are so delightful and restful a 
resort. 
Closely (cropped grass is used only as an accessory feature 
in the Italiain formal gardens. The lawn, for its own sake, 
rarely figures} in the Italian designs except in those large, pub¬ 
lic parks, whiich, like the Giardino Pincio and the Borghese 
gardens at Rtome, serve a function like that of our city parks. 
The nearest aipproach to the lawn per se in the villas is in the 
grassy amphiitheatres of some of the larger gardens like the 
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