The Green Forest tribune., 1912-04-05
Arr-uurr---S6

earth present a fairer scene. 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 Proctda and Nisida to the mainland, and the eye travels slowly eastward Posilippo and Naples to where Vesuvius breeding 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 mass of Sant Angelo and the hills which guard Ravello and Salerno's gulf.
 Wellnigh two thousand years have come and gone since Augustus Caesar, wearied by the splendors of imperial Rome, first gazed 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 mens hearts shall cease to care for beauty. Since my garden
 first came into being, have often analysed how tmperious is this love of beauty, for, from purely gardening point of view no one would select spot exposed to all the winds of heaven and bereft of water on a springless isa1-l. And yet Nature supplies the compensation in having provided such background to the picture that she must continue to dominate it, making amends for the inevitable failures which the gardener is forever encountering And if the growing" period is shc-t in this sun-baked land yet again 1t is prodigious in result while it lasts Gardening in Italy teaches one of many lessons; namely to avoid the temptation arising from the desire for quick efect-that of planting trees and shrubs too large in size; the smaller 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 was little more than barren rock, clothed in parts with vineyards and olives. Approaching Capri from Naples, it is cas- fly discernible 1t rises midway between the preciDtOuS 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 fortnight in the Towering season.
 The modest little house-orignally the Colonos lies at the base of the hill on the southern side. The vineyard which surrounded 1t 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, narcssi ixias and sparaXis (for Capri is bulbseil par excellence); roses are rapidly GOV ering the columns and wreathing the olive trees, all grafted the Banksian rose, that boon to the gardener in the south. Beyond the parterre, in the lower garden, a long tank. fanked by expresses either side, holds the beautiful Nel- umbium-the Lotus of Old Nile-speciosum scum. rubrum Shiroman and Osris-a feast for the eye denied to the gardens of the north.
 Will you come with me pilgrimage up the hill through the old lemon garden, where the trees, once perishing from neglect, but now well screened from their cruel enemy, the south wind, bearing thousands of yellow fruit and the air is laden with the scent of blossom? AS cend, each successive terrace holds it's quota of bulbs and iris, under the slvery sheen of the olive trees until reach at length the garden and here it Is well to rest while. The Southern Sea stretches below us, with the pie turesque ruin of Castglione in the middle dis tance. Against background of tall bamboos at our feet bloom the for which Capri Gas Paestum of old) Is famed What would have been the feelings of Virgil could he have looked the goodly array to which rosarians accustomed-Mme. A. Chatenay, the Lyon rose, Richmond Betty, Marquise de Ganay, Mime. Leon Pain, in addition to all the older favorites such Anna Olivier, Mime. Ravary, Caroline Testout, to say nothing of pillars wreathng themselves the Michuraianasi From the garden the circling of the hill commences; broad path, planted either side with Towering shrubs wigelas lilac, syringa deutzias. pomegranates and gueder roses-leads to the vine-clad per gola and leave it. at the farther end the incomparable Bay of Naples greets the eye. All available ground the hillside is being utilized for shrubs and plants, with wind breaks of Gu pressus macrocarpa and Pinus haepensis which grow at surprising rate in this sandy soil Here to be found the Towering crabs thorns and almonds, while Japanese naples and Rosa ru- gosa give a feast of color in the foreground in- terspersed with tenderer shrubs such as Fabana