THE IVY, AND ITS USES IN PARISIAN GARDENS. 305 



and even less, to half a guinea each, while some of the 

 rarer kinds go much higher, and strong well-grown specimens 

 of all are of course much more expensive than the small 

 and young plants to be bought for the prices above 

 given. 



The Ivy, and its Uses in Parisian Gardens. 



The Irish Ivy is a very old friend that is often seen beauti- 

 fying old walls and like positions, and one, as we may have 

 thought, sufficiently appreciated and employed. Gaiety and 

 grace I was led to expect in Parisian gardens, but that they 

 should take up our Hibernian friend, so partial to showers and 

 our mossy old ruins, and bring him out to such advantage in 

 the neighbourhood of new boulevards and sumptuous archi- 

 tecture, was not to be expected. That " a rare old plant is 

 the Ivy green when it creepeth o'er ruins old," we Britons 

 all know, but that it is no less admirable when mantling 

 objectionable surfaces with its dark polished green in winter, 

 would not appear to have yet sufficiently dawned upon us. 

 Apart from the fact that the Ivy is the best of all evergreen 

 climbers, it is the best of all plants for softening the aspect of 

 town and suburban gardens in winter, not to say all gardens. 

 The Parisian gardeners know this fully, and they, taking it 

 out of the catalogue of things that receive chance culture, 

 or uo culture at all, bring it from obscurity and make of it 

 a thing of beauty. 



To rob the monotonous garden railings of their naked- 

 ness and openness, they use it most extensively, and there 

 are parts about Passy where the Ivy, densely covering the 

 railings, makes a beautiful wall of polished green along the 

 fine wide asphalte footways, so that even in the dead of 

 winter it is refreshing to walk along them. And if it does 

 so much for the street, how much more for the garden? 

 Instead of the inmates of the house gazing from the windows 

 into the street swarming with dust, or splashing with mud, 

 a wall of verdure encloses the garden ; privacy is perfectly 

 secured; the effect of any flowers contained in the garden 

 is much heightened ; and lastly, the heavier rushes of dust 

 are kept out in summer, for so admirably are the railings 



