House and Garden 
FRONT ENTRANCE, FLANKED WITH COLUMNS AND 
MOUNTING BLOCK 
by her shining leaves—a sumptuous queen among 
her worshippers, I think—here is the queen of the 
studio, of the furnace, and of the work-shop, as well 
as the queen of the home and of the flowers. This 
beautiful garden is the casket in which the mod¬ 
ern spirit of decorative genius resides. Here is the 
head of the spring from which so many ideas have 
flown, carrying jewels of brightness to many homes 
throughout the land. 
So runs the story of the wild chase after color. 
Yet my host is no mere “Naturist,” “Impressionist,” 
or “Idealist.” He studies Greek forms, feeling 
their refining influence, and Gothic shapes, noting 
and absorbing the structural integrity of their 
vigorous principles. He has never visited japan nor 
India, sickness preventing. Yet his work teems 
with Oriental richness and mysticism. 
He shows himself a keen and an affec¬ 
tionate student of Byzantine and Lom- 
hardic art, barbarous and picturesque. 
When, some years ago, an attempt was 
made to measure the color value of 
certain enamels, the experiment should 
have been conducted in this Long Island 
flower garden, rather than in Union 
Square. The delicacies of tone charac¬ 
terizing that arrogant pearl of the 
decorator’s casket. Tiffany Enamel, hav¬ 
ing closer affinity with living flowers 
than with dead jewels, precious though 
they doubtless be. The glitter and sparkle 
seriously hampered the measurement, 
while the winsome smile of the flower 
seemed to invite a scientific investiga¬ 
tion which ended by establishing their 
silent claim to the first position as agents 
of color. When this new enamel of the 
New World was placed in the midst of a 
handful of gems polished and uncut—lapis- 
lazuli, sapphire, star-sapphire, topaz, beryl, 
tourmaline, fire-opal, Siberian amethyst, 
pink tourmaline, aquamarine and other jew¬ 
els, famous for their color-bearing qualities—■ 
the enamel was a king, yet even he could 
not coquet with the azalea without serious 
loss of caste and of tone! The azalea 
bewitching stones and enamel by her mar¬ 
vellous smile! Beautiful flowers have sup¬ 
plied a standard of measurement by which 
the colors of opalescent glass, enamel, aniline 
and dyes can be adjusted and their true 
importance determined. The temperate and 
mellowing color qualities of the flowers fur¬ 
nish us with examples of great and practical 
value. 
Let us examine the deep, bright blue of 
that elusive plant the gentian, on some spark¬ 
ling October day, when the sun is shining 
full upon it. Note the gradation of tone, remem¬ 
bering that it is by contrast that colors are 
beautiful, not as simple pigments. This startling 
blue flower, which seems to eat up all the blue 
in the garden, and then radiate blue so as to 
cool and tint everything around it is less than half 
blue. Starting with dark purple it runs through 
tones of greyish-blue to greenish-indigo, to even 
apple-green, forcing the bluest portion of the flower 
by strange contrast. Yet, when seen as a whole 
flower we say “Nature is a splendid moderator.” 
Examine his worshipful majesty, the giant sunflower, 
whose outflashing rays of golden light gladden the 
garden from midsummer to autumn. How many 
light and dark yellows and tawny brown tones does 
this sacred symbol present ? Examine the rose, the 
THE; QUEEN OF THE LILY POND 
no 
