BILTMORE AND THE NEW ERA 155 
these aliens he may note a very rare exotic, but it is 
not displayed. Perhaps not one in a hundred will 
recognize or notice it, yet its presence gives the per- 
fect touch to the place it adorns, and even without 
his knowing it, gives pleasure to the sympathetic 
passer-by. These beautiful exotics, placed in the 
right spot to strenghten a group of trees, to empha- 
size the greens of a mass of foliage, or to add a sudden 
glow of color, are gems that reward the careful eye 
of the botanist, though most of the plant life that 
hedges the drives of Biltmore is the wild life of the 
forest skillfully persuaded to create a desired impres- 
sion, without betraying to the most careful observer 
that its perfections are not wholly due to the benefi- 
cence of nature. Look up that charming little valley 
— why does it bring a smile and a memory of some- 
thing sweet and dim and poetic? Nobody seems to 
have touched it, and yet it makes one feel as one 
never feels in a wild mountain gorge, no matter 
how well one may love the gorge. The bottom of 
this valley is smooth and green, its sides as they 
ascend are clothed first in bushes and low-growing 
things, then with trees, the largest at the upper edge. 
You do not see this at first, perhaps you will not ana- 
lyze it at all, seeing only a lovely valley with rocky, 
shrubby walls irregularly and charmingly clad with 
nature's wild growths that seem to reach up into the 
very sky in noble sweep. It is so sweet, so natural, 
so sympathetic a part of the landscape that you can 
scarcely believe it is one of those rude ravines that 
furrow the mountains, and which, charming as they 
