ON THE DRAPERY OF COTTAGES AND GARDENS. 91 



the Northern States, are the double Prairie Rose., and the Chinese 

 Wistaria. Why we like these best is, because they have the greatest 

 number of good qualities to recommend them. In the first place, 

 they are hardy, thriving in all soils and exposures ; in the second 

 place, they are luxuriant in their growth, and produce an effect in 

 a very short time — after which, they may be kept to the limits of a 

 single pillar on the piazza, or trained over the whole side of a cot- 

 tage ; in the last place, they are rich in the foliage, and beautiful in 

 the blossom. 



Now there are many vines more beautifid than these in some 

 respects, but not for this purpose, and taken altogether. For cottage 

 drapery, a popular vine must be one that vrill grow anywhere, with 

 little care, and must need no shelter, and the least possible attention, 

 .beyond seeing that it has something to run on, and a looking over, 

 pruning, and tying up once a year — say in early spring. This is 

 precisely the character of these two vines ; and hence we think they 

 deserve to be planted from one end of the Union to the other. They 

 will give the greatest amount of beauty, with the least care, and in 

 the greatest number of places. 



The Prairie roses are, no doubt, known to most of you. They 

 have been raised from seeds of the wild rose of Michigan, which 

 clambers over high trees in the forests, and are remarkable for the 

 profusion of their very double flowers (so double, that they always 

 look like large pouting buds, rather than full-blown roses), and 

 their extreme hardiness and luxuriance of growth, — shoots of twenty 

 feet, in a single year, being a not uncommon sight. Among all the 

 sorts yet known, the Queen of the Prairies (deep pink), and Superba 

 (nearly white), are the best. 



We wish we could give our fair readers a glance at a Chinese 

 Wistaria in our grounds, as it looked last April. It covered the 

 side of a small cottage completely. If they will imagine a space of 

 10 by 20 feet, completely draped with Wistaria shoots, on which 

 hung, thick as in a flower pattern, at least 500 clusters of the most 

 delicate blossoms, of a tint between pearl and lilac, each bunch of 

 bloom shaped like that of a locust tree, but eight inches to a foot 

 long, and most gracefully pendant from branches just starting into 

 tender green foliage ; if, we say, they could see all this, as we saw it, 



