House iff Garden 
grotto at the 
southern end 
of the garden. 
The plots of 
ground thus 
laid out by 
these ramifi¬ 
cations are 
correspond¬ 
ingly numer¬ 
ous, and vary 
in size from 
the two small 
ones on the 
immediate 
right and left 
of the statue, 
to the large 
one in the 
center about 
which are 
grouped four 
others of equal size and of like design. 
Each plot is bordered by a narrow hedge 
of boxwood, cropped very close, and the 
whole garden bristles with tropical and quasi- 
tropical shrubs of a variety, size and con¬ 
dition such as would more than vie with 
a tropical garden itself. The phoenix and 
date palms, numerous and without blemish, 
are set with every regard for their proper 
expansion, and the whole plan is free from 
any sign of 
crowding or 
of that confu¬ 
sion of flow¬ 
ers, shrubs 
and tropical 
plants such as 
is too often 
met with in 
gardens which 
grow under 
these climatic 
conditions. . 
There is, in 
fact, a con¬ 
spicuous scar¬ 
city of flow¬ 
ers in this first 
terrace; and 
while one re¬ 
marks the 
THE ENTRANCE HALL OF THE PALACE 
AND THE GRAND STAIRWAY 
LOOKING NORTHWARD FROM THE COLONNADE 
scantiness 
with which a 
few of the 
ordinary vari¬ 
eties are scat¬ 
tered about, 
he also re¬ 
marks the 
restfulness 
which steals 
over him as 
he inspects a 
spot so ele¬ 
gant, yet so 
quiet and free 
from affecta¬ 
tion, and so 
much in har- 
m o n y, by 
reason of its 
very contrast, 
with the 
wild mountain scenery about it. 
To the far right and left of the Achilles, 
following the marble balustrade which caps 
the garden wall rising like a giant fortress 
from the mountainside beneath, two other 
paths lead away and are almost immediately 
lost in the arbored avenues or pergolas 
which follow the garden walls to their south¬ 
ern limit and converge at the grand marble 
approach to the second terrace. These 
walks, n ow 
canopied with 
vines of great 
beauty, form 
a cool retreat 
for the nu¬ 
merous pot¬ 
ted plants 
whose frail 
natures are 
not proof 
against the 
searching rays 
of the sum¬ 
mer sun, and 
their notice¬ 
able though 
slight convex¬ 
ity of form 
as they draw 
in toward the 
2 4 5 
