184 



TIIK PARKS AND GAKDKNS OF PARIS, [('map. XIII. 



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CHAPTER XIII. 



Ivy in Paris. 



Anyone who traverses tlie streets of the newer parts of Paris may 

 sec many evidences of tlic graceful way in wliicli Ivy is used to 

 embellisli the court-yards, railings, walls, and the public and private 

 gardens of that city. It would be difficult to give any adequate 

 idea of the charms it imparts to many surfaces that would otherwise 

 be hard and bare. In any city or town, where the air is not much 

 polluted by smoke, the same effects may be easily produced. In cold 

 districts, where evergreens are liable to suffer, it is all the more de- 

 sirable to make judicious use of the most valuable of all evergreen 

 climbers for northern countries. To rob the monotonous garden- 

 railings of their nfikedness and openness, the French use it most 

 extensively, so that even in the dead of winter it is refreshing to 

 walk along by them. And if it does so much for the street, how 

 much more for the garden ? Instead of the inmates of the house 

 ga/ing from the windows into the street swarming with dust, or 

 .splashing with mud, a wall of verdure encloses the garden ; 



