FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
75 
encompassed area with just a cozy tea 
house, miniature mirror-pool, a palm or 
two, perhaps an overhanging shade tree, 
and borders of annuals along the back¬ 
ground and edging the walks. Frequently 
they can be combined with the rose garden 
so much sought by “ flower-lovers” in the 
South as well as North. 
Or the garden close may be strictly in¬ 
formal in character, as is this delightful 
“out-of-doors living room”—I like that 
expression, “out-of-doors living room”— 
it so aptly conveys the real purpose of the 
enclosed garden. And for those of us 
who are favored in being able to live in 
Florida where our climate permits an out- 
of-door life almost every day of the year, 
no house is truly a home in the fullest ex¬ 
pression until the owner can pride himself 
in one! 
Primitively the pergola was merely a 
vine-covered passageway from one point 
to another, but in our modern carelessness 
in definition we use the word to include 
any structure with “open-work” overhead. 
Such structures serve a variety of pur¬ 
poses—as a covered way, as a terminal 
feature to a garden view, especially as 
strengthening the axial line, as a bound¬ 
ary treatment in itself, as a means in pic¬ 
ture-composition to secure repetition of 
the motif of the dominant architectural 
scheme, and then in a variety of less im¬ 
portant ways for rest houses, tea houses, 
entrance ways with infinite variation. 
But never, never, never set them out in 
the open lawn, there to have to stand with 
detached and meaningless expression, pit¬ 
ifully alone and about as fitted to the im¬ 
mediate environment as an ice factory at 
the north pole! 
In the garden picture there is nothing 
serves quite so well to lend an atmosphere 
of charm and interest as the pool. This 
may be large enough for a pond or as tiny 
almost as “mi’ lady's kerchief,” but always 
serving as a mirror in which are reflected 
blue sky, fleecy white clouds, the col¬ 
umned pergola, towering palm and dimin¬ 
utive plants that margin the rim. But it 
can be overdone, and this first picture 
shows how one amateur “fell down” on 
the undertaking. Note that the pool is all 
out of proportion to the area involved, the 
location poor, the rim too high and the pile 
of rock in the center surmounted by a 
sprinkler stand-pipe is all out of keeping 
with the material and environment. 
There are other errors of technique such 
as the location of the sun dial, poor treat¬ 
ment of planting and so on, but note par¬ 
ticularly the pool and compare with this 
next slide. What delightful atmosphere 
—what refinement of design—what ex¬ 
quisite composition—what perfect har¬ 
mony of thought and purpose in concep¬ 
tion and execution! 
Our State has far more lakes within its 
confines than any other, yet I think no¬ 
where is the value of water so little appre¬ 
ciated. Perhaps it is because of this very 
fact in itself that the neglect arises, but be 
that as it may, it is none the less disap¬ 
pointing to those who can vision the tre¬ 
mendous potential value of our magnifi¬ 
cent length of coast line and unnumbered 
lakes to see them so consistently ignored. 
From the scenic standpoint alone they are 
our one greatest asset, yet so obsessed are 
