HOME SURROUNDINGS. 159 



as is commouly used for grape-vines. Let it be parallel 

 with the house, on the south or west, since these are the 

 points where the summer's sun rests all the day long, and 

 about eight to ten feet from it make a slatted roof sloping 

 from the wall, and then plant rapid-growing vines of all 

 kinds and train them up the arbor. It is really wonderful 

 how quickly an efficient shade can be obtained in this sim- 

 ple Avay ; and the effect is charming — the various shades of 

 green, dotted all over with the buff, orange, and white of 

 the thunbergias, the light yellow of the jessamine, and the 

 vivid scarlet of the cypress ; one or two of the swift-grow- 

 ing wild, or, better still, Scuppernong grape-vines will help 

 greatly to make the green background for the vivid flow- 

 ers, and by and by these grape-vines may be left in undis- 

 puted possession of the arbor, furnishing not only a leafy 

 screen, but an abundance of grapes. 



AVhile the vines are growing up the sides of the arbor, 

 how about its roof? "We want shade under that too, want 

 it at once to keep the sun, when high in the heavens, from 

 peeping down inside our green wall and heating the wooden 

 walls of our house. 



An awning stretched over the slatted roof is just the 

 thing, not a water-proof one either, but one which will 

 ward off the fierce rays of the sun while allowing the rain 

 to pass through it, because you want a flower-bed under 

 your window, and flowers need rain. 



Under such an awning as we have in our mind, and, we 

 may add, shading our study, plants will grow that could 

 not be raised in Florida without some such shelter ; here, 

 under the reflected sunlight that sifts down to the ground, 

 hyacinths, pansies, violets, fuchsias, and geraniums wax 

 exceedingly beautiful and grow apace under the sheltering 

 care of bagging stuff; yes, just those coarse bags in which 

 oats, coffee, and corn are sold; rip them open, sew them 



