246 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



climbing plant may be turned to advantage in another way ; 

 in reclothing dead trees with verdure. Sir T. D. Lauder 

 says, that " trees often die from causes which we cannot di- 

 vine, and there is no one who is master of extensive woods, 

 who does not meet with many such instances of unexpected 

 and unaccountable mortality. Of such dead individuals we 

 have often availed ourselves, and by planting Ivy at their 

 roots, we have converted them into more beautiful objects 

 than they were when arrayed in their own natural foliage." 

 The Ivy is not only beautiful upon trees, but it is also remark- 

 ably well adapted to ornament cottages, and even large man- 

 sions, when allowed to grow upon the walls, to which it 

 will attach itself so firmly by the little rootlets sent out from 

 the branches, that it is almost impossible to tear it off. On 

 wooden buildings, it may perhaps be injurious, by causing 

 them to decay ; but on stone buildings, it fastens itself firm- 

 ly, and holds both stone and mortar together like a coat of 

 cement. The thick garniture of foliage with which it covers 

 the surface, excludes stormy weather, and has therefore 

 a tendency to preserve the walls, rather than accelerate their 

 decay. This vine is the inseparable accompaniment of the 

 old feudal castles, and crumbling towers of Europe, and bor- 

 rows a great additional interest from the romance and his- 

 torical recollections connected with such spots. Indeed half 

 the beauty, picturesque, as well as poetical, of those time- 

 worn buildings, is conferred by this plant, which seeks to 

 bind together and adorn with something of their former 

 richness, the crumbling fragments that are fast tottering to 

 decay : — 



" The Ivy, that staunchest and firmest friend, 

 That hastens its succouring arm to lend 

 To the ruined fane where in youth it sprung, 

 And its pUant tendrils in sport were flung. 



