VINES AND CLIMBING PLANTS. 825 



additional beauty and interest to it when it appears. Tiiis 

 should be the case in all artificial plantations ; and he who 

 has a true and lively feeling for the beautiful and pictur- 

 esque, will easily understand at a glance where these 

 expressions will be strengthened or w^eakened by the 

 addition of more grace and elegance. A few scattered 

 trees here and there, with whose forms the plans adopted 

 harmonize, draped and festooned with the most appropriate 

 climbing plants, will be all that can be properly introduced 

 in any scene, unless it be of a very artificial character 

 but even these additional accessories, simple as they ma} 

 seem, often produce an effect singularly beautiful, which 

 shows how much in real landscape, as well as in painting 

 depends upon a few finishing touches to the scene. 



Although we are not now writing of buildings, it is not 

 inappropriate here to remark how much may be done in 

 the country, and indeed even in town, by using vines and 

 creepers to decorate buildings. The cottage in this country 

 too rarely conveys the idea of comfort and happiness which 

 we wish to attach to such a habitation, and chiefly because 

 so often it stands bleak, solitary, and exposed to every ray 

 of our summer sun, with a scanty robe of foliage to shelter 

 it. How different such edifices, however humble, become 

 when the porch is overhung with climbing plants, — when 

 the blushing rose-buds peep in at the window sill, or the 

 ripe purple clusters of the grape hang down about the 

 eaves, those who have seen the better cottages of England 

 well know. Very little care and trifling expense will 

 procure all the additional beauty ; and it is truly wonderful 

 how much so little once done, adds to the happiness of the 

 inmates. Every man feels prouder of his home when it is 

 a pleasant spot for the eye to rest upon, than when it is 



