The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-04-04

sts Of sa a %s ssss p T!e 1 nes
= way back to Naples, sense of
| II Az y peace more descends upon
the island. And surely nowhere
earth present fairer Far away on the
western horizon the dim outlines of the Ponza
Islands are visible. Ischia, floating in the golden
haze of the dying day, seems linked by Proc'da
and Nisida to the mainland, and the eye travels
slowly eastward over Posilippo and Naples to
where Vesuvius brooding and silent since the
great catastrophe of five years ago, keeps watch
over the city it has so often threatened with de-
structon Still further east, the distant peaks OF
the great Apennine Range appear almost to fringe
the sunlit waters Of the Bay of Sorrento whose
cliffs dotted with pink and white walled houses,
are dominated by the rugged of SAINT
Angelo and the hills which guard Ravello and
Saerno's gulf
| Wellngh two thousand years have come and
gone since Augustus Caesar weared by the
| splendors Of imperial Rome, first gazed on the
matchless beauty of this scene; small wonder
that the magic spell which Capri throughout the
ages has cast upon the stranger within her gates
should lose none of its potency till mems hearts
shall cease to care for beauty. Since my garden
first came into being have often analysed how
imperious is this love of beauty, for. from
purely gardening point of view, would
select spot exposed to all the winds of heaven
and bereft of water on a sprngless island. And
yet Nature supplies the compensation in having
provided such a background to the picture that
she must continue to dominate it, making amends
for the inevitable failures which the gardener
Is forever encounterng. And if the growing"
period is short in this un-baked land yet again
1t is prodigious in result while it lasts Gardening
in Italy teaches of many lessons; namely, to
avoid the temptation arising from the desire for
quick effect-that of planting trees and shrubs
too large in size; the smaller ones establish
themselves and go ahead in half the time making
compact and sturdy growth, and also avoiding
the necessity for unsightly stalking. Six years
ago the hill of San Michele little than
barren rock, clothed in parts with vineyards and
olives. Approaching Capri from Naples 1t is cas-
lily discernible as it rises midway between the
preciptous cliffs at the eastern end and Monte
Solaro, the highest summit of the island; this
exposure to all points of the compass is being
utilized to advantage, the difference between
the north and south aspect amounts to fully a
fortnight in the Towering season.
| The modest little house-originaly the Colono's
lies at the base of the hill on the southern side.
The vineyard which surrounded it has been
cleared and terrace and parterre substituted;
here in the spring months Darwin and Cottage
tulips faunt their painted faces in the sunshine;
freesia narcissi, xias and sparaxis (for Capri is
| q bulb-soil par excelence); rapidly COW
ering the columns and wreathing the olive trees,
all grated the Banksian rose, that boon to the
| gardener in the south Beyond the parterre in
| the lower garden, a long tank fanked by
expresses on either side, holds the beautiful Mel
umbium-the Lotus of Old Nile-speciosum ro-
scum, rubrum, Shiroman and Osiris-a feast for
| the eye denied to the gardens of the north
Will you come with me on a pilgrimage up the
| hill through the old lemon garden, where the
trees perishing from neglect, but now we'll
screened from their cruel enemy, the south wind
| are bearing thousands of yellow fruit, and the air
| is laden with the scent of blossom? AS as
cend, each successive terrace holds it's quota of
bulbs and iris, under the silvery sheen Of the
| olive trees, until we reach at length the rose
garden, and here it is we'll to rest while The
Southern Sea stretches below u.s. with the pic
turesque ruin of Castigone in the middle dis
lance Against background Of tall bamboos, at
our feet bloom the for which Capri Gas
Paestum was of old) is famed. What would have
been the feelings of Virgil. could he have looked
on the goody array to which rosarians are now
accustomed-Mme. A. Chatenay, the Lyon rose,
Richmond, Betty Marquse de Ganay Nine Leon
Pain in addition to all the older favorites such
as Anna Olivier Nine Ravary, Caroline Testout,
to say nothing of pillars Wreathing themselves
with Sinica Anemone, Tausendschon Ideal and
the Michuraianas! From the rose garden the
crcng Of the hill commences; a broad path,
planted on either side with towering shrubs
wgelas, lilac, syringa, deuzias, pomegranates
and guelder roses-leads to the vine-clad per-
COLA, and as we leave it. at the farther end, the
uncomfortable Bay of Naples grees the eye All
available ground on the hillside is being utilized
for shrubs and plants, with wind breaks of Gu
| Nressus macrocarpa and Pinus halepensis which
grow at surprising rate in this sandy soil Here
ere TO be found the Towering crabs thorns and
| Almonds while Japanese NAPLES and Rosa ru
rosa give feast of color in the foreground, in
terspersed with tenderer shrubs. such as Fabiana