House and Garden 
and often contained over three thousand 
blooms at a time. Nature is in a lavish 
mood on the banks of the Ashley. 
The gardenia and the Camellia Japonica 
are both found in the old Camden gardens ; 
but the Southern gardener has never seemed 
awake to their possibilities. In the hands 
of an appreciative workman they could be 
made to produce remarkable effects. 
Some very interesting old gardens are to 
be found at Beaufort, attached to the old 
Georgian houses there, though most of them 
are sadly in need of pruning. Beaufort and 
the adjacent country, including the nearby Sea 
Islands, was at one time the abode of the 
richest society of people in America who rep¬ 
resented the nearest approach to aristocracy 
of blood and feeling on our continent in that 
they married only among themselves for 
generations and consequently were all related. 
They owned more slaves per capita than any 
other people in the South, and looked with 
disdain on all occupations other than the 
planting of rice and Sea Island cotton. Their 
servants in livery and their equipages pre¬ 
sented a spectacle of elegance and fashion then 
unequaled in America. Their houses were 
the most splendid in the country and were 
filled with what is now called “old mahogany”; 
and their gardens were skilfully laid out and 
perfectly maintained. 
The Preston Gardens, at Columbia, S. C., 
which were perfect in their day and once cov¬ 
ered two city squares, still show some re¬ 
markable hedges. Among the best known 
old gardens in the South which are still kept 
up in the original style is the Ferrell Garden, 
at La Grange, Ga. This covers ten acres 
and abounds in clipped and shaped hedges 
of various kinds and rare plants from all 
quarters of the globe. It was established 
early in the nineteenth century. 
A study of the flowering trees of the far 
South is interesting in connection with the 
gardens. There the dogwood, white and 
crimson, is unsurpassed as an ornamental tree. 
The linden tree, generally known as the 
American basswood, grows extremely well 
under favorable conditions and bursts into 
bloom early in June. The Magnolia grandi- 
flora, with its brilliant varnished leaves (the 
simplest leaves in the whole of nature), and 
its wonderful white blossoms, grows to great 
height and perfection from South Carolina 
straight through to California. Not only 
are the gardens of the far South beautified 
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