ON THE DRAPERY OF COTTAGES AND GARDENS. 



357 



"Trumpet Creepers," [Bignonias ox Ttco- 

 inas.) 



These are all fine, picturesque vines, not 

 to be surpassed for certain effects by any- 

 thing else that will grow out of doors in our 

 climate. You must remember, however, 

 that, as they are wedded for life to what- 

 ever they cling to, they must not be planted 

 by the sides of wooden cottages, which are 

 to be kept in order by a fresh coat of paint 

 now and then. Other climbers may be 

 taken down, and afterwards tied back to 

 their places ; but constant, indissoluble in- 

 timacies like these must be let alone. You 

 will therefore always take care to plant them 

 where they can fix themselves permanently 

 on a wall of some kind, or else upon some 

 rough wooden building, where they will 

 not be likely to be disturbed. 



Certainly the finest of all this class of 

 climbers is the European Ivy. Such rich 

 masses of glossy, deep green foliage, such 

 fine contrasts of light and shade, and such 

 a wealth of associations, is possessed by no 

 other plant ; the Ivy, to which the ghost of 

 all the storied past, alone tells its tale of 

 departed greatness ; the confidant of old 

 ruined castles and abbeys ; the bosom com- 

 panion of solitude itself, — 



*' Deep in your most sequestered bower 

 Let me at last recline, 

 Where solitude, mild, mojest flower, 

 Leans on her ivy'd shrine." 



True to these instincts, the Ivy does not 

 seem to be naturalized so easily in Ameri- 

 ca as most other foreign vines. We are 

 yet too young — this country of a great fu- 

 ture, and a little past. 



The richest and most perfect specimen 

 of it that we have seen, in the northern 

 states, is upon the cottage of Washington 

 Irving, on the Hudson, near Tarrytown. 

 He, who, as you all know, lingers over the 

 past with a reverence as fond and poetical 



as that of a pious CrHsader for the walls of 

 Jerusalem — yes, he has completely won the 

 sympathies of the Ivy, even on our own soil, 

 and it has garlanded and decked his antique 

 and quaint cottage, "Sunnyside," till its 

 windows peep out from amid the wealth of 

 its foliage, like the dark eyes of a Spanish 

 senora from a shadowy canopy of dark lace 

 and darker tresses. 



The Ivy is the finest of climbers, too, be- 

 cause it is so perfectly evergreen. North of 

 New- York it is a little tender, and needs to 

 be sheltered for a few years, (unless it be 

 planted on a north wall, quite out of the 

 reach of the winter sun ;) and north of Al- 

 bany, we think it will not grow at all. But 

 all over the middle states it should be 

 planted and cherished, wherever there is a 

 wall for it to cling to, as the finest of all 

 cottage drapery. 



After this plant, comes always our Vir- 

 ginia Creeper, or American Ivy, as it is 

 often called, {Jmpelopsis.) It grows more 

 rapidly than the Ivy, clings in the same 

 way to wood or stone, and makes rich and 

 beautiful festoons of verdure in summer, 

 dying off in autumn, before the leaves fall, 

 in the finest crimson. Its greatest beauty, 

 on this account, is perhaps seen when it 

 runs up in the centre of a dark cedar, or 

 other evergreen, — exhibiting in October 

 the richest contrast of the two colours. It 

 will grow anywhere, in the coldest situa- 

 tions, and only asks to be planted, to work 

 out its own problem of beauty without fur- 

 ther attention. This and the European Ivy 

 are the two climbers, above all others, for 

 the exteriors of our rural stone churches ; 

 to which they will give a local interest great- 

 er than that of any carving in stone, at a 

 millionth part of the cost. 



The common Trumpet Creeper all of you 

 know by heart. It is rather a wild and 

 rambling fellow in its habits ; but nothing 



