514 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



it is becoming. Strip away from the Epglish cottages, that are so 

 much admired, the vines that cover, and the shrubbery , that em- 

 bowers them, and they would look as bald and coinmonplaoe as the 

 most ordinary rural dwellings in Anierica. The only diflEprenoe 

 would be, that an English cottage, stripped of drapery, would shov)r 

 plain brick walls, and tile or thateh roof— ours, woodejn clap-board- 

 ing and shingles. Architecturally, however, liie English cottages—^ 

 four-fifths of them — are no better than our own; but they are so 

 , ajfeciidraasie^y embosomed in foliage, that they" touch the hegjt of 

 the traveller more than the designs of Palladio would, if /they bor- ^ 

 dered the lanes and load-sidefe- 



As no decoration is so cheap as vines, I was one day exjJressing 

 my regret to an English landscape-gardener, that, the "7 w^ 

 neither a native of America, nor would it thrive in the northeni 

 States, without considerable care, "You Americans are an un- 

 grateful people," said h«) ; " look at that vine, clambering oyeryohr 

 der building, by the side of the ivy. It is, as you; see, more luxuri- 

 ant, more rapid in growth, and a livelier green than our ivy. It is 

 true, it has neither the associations nor- the evergreen habit of the 

 ivy ; but we think it quite as beautiful for th& purpose of covering 

 walls and draping cottages."- The plant he eulogized was the Vir- 

 ginia Creeper (Ampdopm guinguefoUa), an old favorite of minq, 

 and which we are jiist be^nning rightly to estimate at home as it 

 deserves.* • , , ' 



The Derby Arboretum. — Derby is an ,interesting old towji, 

 «ad I passed a day there with much satisfaction, What I particu- 

 larly wished to see, however, was the public garden or pleasura- 



* BTothing can be more brilliant-, as your readers well know, than the' 

 Virginia Creeper in the autumn woods at home, where it frequently climbs' 

 up the leading stem of some evergieen, and shineEi, in its autumBal glory, 

 like foliage of fire, through the dark foliage of a cedar oi' a hemlock. If 

 grows in almost every part of the country, and will ding to walls or wood- 

 work, like the ivy, without anyiartificial aid; We believe this vino ie lessi 

 freijuently planted than it would be, from many persotis confoun3ing it 

 with the poison sumac vine, which a little resembles it. The Virginia 

 Creeper is, however, perfectly harmless, and may be easily known from the 

 poison vine, by the latter bearing only tjiree leafletB to a leaf, while the 

 Virginia Creeper has five leaflets. 



