Chap. II.] 



THE PARC MONCBAU. 



39 



have all the wild beauty of nature in our gardens, and may as 

 ■well resign ourselves to the compass and the level, the defined 

 daub of colour and pudding-like heaps of shrubs, had some faint 

 force when our materials for gardening were few ; but considering 

 our present rich and, to a great extent, unused stores from every 

 clime, and from almost every important section of the vegetable 

 kingdom, it is demonstrably false and foolish. 



There is a graceful way of using hardy climbers here which, 

 improved and modified, deserves to be generally practised. The 

 numerous cultivated hardy climbers are rarely seen to advantage, 

 owing to their being stiffly trained against walls. The greater 



Japanese Honeysuckle on Stem of Birck-tree^ Pare Monceau. 



number of hardy climbers have gone out of cultivation, owing to 

 their being generally ill-placed and ill-treated. One of the 

 happiest of all ways of using them is that of training them in a 

 free manner against trees ; by this means many beautiful effects 

 may be secured. The trees must not, as a rule, be those crowded 

 in shrubberies. They must stand free on the turf. Established 

 trees have usually somewhat exhausted the ground near their base, 

 which may, however, afford nutriment to a hardy climbing shrub. 

 In some low trees the graceful companion may garland their 

 heads ; in tall ones the stem only may at first be adorned. But 

 some vigorous climbers could in time ascend the tallest trees, and 



