A charming foreground to the great palaces--Palace of Horticulture and
some of its rare plants--Food for pirates--Ancient and blue-blooded
forest dwarfs--The Horticultural Gardens--House of Hoo Hoo--Festival
Hall, with its fine sculptures by Sherry Fry--A remarkable pipe organ.



Entering the Exposition by the main or Scott Street gate, the visitor
has before him the beautiful South Gardens. (See p. 23.) These form an
animated and effective foreground for the Exposition palaces. Except for
their fountains, the gardens and the structures in them are less notable
for sculpture than the central courts of the Exposition. Most of the
plastic work here is purely decorative. The gardens are formal, French
in style, laid out with long rectangular pools, each with a formal
fountain, and each surrounded by a conventional balustrade with flower
receptacles and lamp standards. In harmony with their surroundings, the
buildings, too, are French, of florid, festival style.

The Palace of Horticulture, Bakewell and Brown, architects, is the
largest and most splendid of the garden structures. (p. 24.) Byzantine
in its architecture, suggesting the Mosque of Ahmed I, at
Constantinople, its Gallic decorations have made it essentially French
in spirit. The ornamentation of this palace is the most florid of any
building in the Exposition proper. Yet this opulence is not
inappropriate. In size and form, no less than in theme, the structure is
well adapted to carry such rich decoration. This is the palace of the
bounty of nature; its adornment symbolizes the rich yield of California
fields.