The making of the Court of Palms is due largely to the liberal use of
these elegant trees, with their somber stateliness.

The lover of outdoors will find no end to his pleasurable investigations
in the many fine, luxurious groupings of flowering shrubs. Heather,
which does so well with us, and blooms when only few flowers brighten
our gardens, has been profusely used in solid beds at the base of the
Kelham towers, around Festival Hall, and in many other places. The
dainty, glistening foliage, interspersed with red berries of another
acclimated alien from the Himalaya Mountains - the Cotoneaster - makes
fine borders around the pool in the Court of the Four Seasons, in the
Court of Palms, and in several of the colonnades.

Evergreen plants and shrubs are the dominant features of the two Italian
Avenues connecting the big court with the side courts. The rich and
luxuriant carpets of the many varieties of box, thuya, taxus, and dwarf
pine, in dark, somber greens and many lighter color variations, are
superb.

In the Court of Abundance great masses of orange trees furnish the
dominant note. They are most effective with their branches heavily laden
with fruit. They are not only a surprise to the outsider, but even to
the Californian, who wonders at the skill and experience which made this
feat possible.



Mural Decorations