90 HORTICULTURE. 



hands of the Widow Winning and her two daughters. They bought 

 it at a bargain, and must have foreseen its capabilities. 



What that house and place is now, it would do your heart good 

 to see. A porch of rustic trellis-work was built over the front door- 

 way, simple and pretty hoods upon brackets over the windows, the 

 door-yard was all laid out afresh, the worn-out apple-trees were dug 

 up, a nice bit of lawn made around the house, and pleasant groups 

 of shrubbery (mixed with two or three graceful elms) planted about 

 it. But, most of all, what fixes the attention, is the lovely profusion 

 of flowering vines that enrich the old house, and transform what 

 was a soulless habitation, into a home that captivates all eyes. Even 

 the old and almost leafless ash-tree is almost overrun with a creeper, 

 which is stuck full of gay trumpets all summer, that seem to blow 

 many a strain of gladness to the passers by. How many sorts of 

 honeysuckle, clematises, roses, etc., there are on wall or trellis about 

 that cottage, is more than we can tell. Certain it is, however, that 

 half the village walks past that house of a summer night, and in- 

 wardly thanks the fair inmates for the fragrance that steals through 

 the air in its neighborhood : and no less certain is it that this house 

 is now the " admired of all admirers," and that the Widow Winning 

 has twice refused double the sum it went begging at when it was 

 only the plain and meagre home of Tim Steady. 



Many of you in the country, as we well know, are compelled by 

 circumstances to live in houses which some one else built, or which 

 have, by ill-luck, an ugly expression in every board or block of stone, 

 from the sill of the door to the peak of the roof. Paint won't hide 

 it, nor cleanliness disguise it, however goodly and agreeable things 

 they are. But vines will do both ; or, what is better, they will, with 

 their lovely, graceful shapes, and rich foliage and flowers, give a new 

 character to the whole exterior. However ugly the wall, however bald 

 the architecture, only give it this fair drapery of leaf and blossom, 

 and nature will touch it at once with something of grace and beauty. 



" What are our favorite vines ? " This is what you would ask 

 of us, and this is what we are most anxious to tell you ; as we see, 

 already, that no sooner will the spring open, than you will imme- 

 diately set about the good work. 



Our two favorite vines, then, for the adornment of cottages, in 



