ON THE DRAPERY OF COTTAGES AND GARDENS. 93 



Where you want to produce a bold and picturesque effect with 

 a vine, nothing will do it more rapidly and completely than our 

 native grapes. They are precisely adapted to the porch of the farm- 

 house, or to cover any building, or part of a building, where expres- 

 sion of strength rather than of delicacy is sought after. Then you 

 will find it easy to smooth away all objections from the practical 

 soul of the farmer, by offering him a prospect of ten bushels of fine 

 Isabella or Catawba grapes a year, which you, in your innermost 

 heart, do not value half so much as five or ten months of beautiful 

 drapery ! 



Next to the grape-vine, the boldest and most striking of hardy 

 vines is the Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia sipho). It is a grand 

 twining climber, and will canopy over a large arbor in a short time, 

 and make a shade under it so dense that not a ray' of pure sunshine 

 will ever find its way through. Its gigantic circular leaves, of a 

 rich green, form masses such as delight a painter's eye, so broad 

 and effective are they ; and as for its flowers, which are about an 

 inch and a half long, why, they are so like a veritable meer- 

 schaum the pipe of a true Dutchman from " Faderland" that you 

 cannot but laugh outright at the first sight of them. Whether 

 Daphne was truly metamorphosed into the sweet flower that bears 

 her name, as Ovid says, we know not ; but no one can look at the 

 blossom of the Dutchman's pipe vine, without being convinced that 

 nature has punished some inveterately lazy Dutch smoker by turning 

 him into a vine, which loves nothing so well as to bask in the warm 

 sunshine, with its hundred pipes, dangling on all sides. 



And now, having glanced at the best of the climbers and 

 twiners, properly so called (all of which need a little training and 

 supporting), let us take a peep at those climbing shrubs that seize 

 hold of a wall, building, or fence, of themselves, by throwing out 

 their little rootlets into the stone or brick wall as they grow up, so 

 that it is as hard to break up any attachments of theirs, when they get 

 fairly established, as it was to part Hector and Andromache. The 

 principal of these are the true Ivy of Europe, the Virginia Creeper, 

 or American Ivy, and the " Trumpet Creepers " (Bignonias or Teco- 

 mas). 



These are all fine, picturesque vines, not to be surpassed for cer- 



