306 THE IVY, AND ITS USES IN PARISIAN GARDENS. 



FiG. 134. 



covered by planting the Ivy rather thickly, and giving it 

 some rich light soil to grow in, that a perfectly dense 

 screen is formed. Railings that spring from a wall of some 

 height around the larger houses are covered as well as those 

 that almost start from the ground. Frequently the tops of 

 the rails are exposed, and often these are gilt, while wire 

 netting on the inner side supports the Ivy firmly. 



One day, as I was passing near the Hotel de Ville, and 



looking at its tra- 

 ceries, my eye was 

 caught by some- 

 thing more attrac- 

 tive than these : a 

 gilt-topped railing 

 densely covered 

 with Ivy, and be- 

 tween the mass of 

 dark green and 

 the bared spikes at 

 the top a seam of 

 light green foliage, 

 here and there 

 besprinkled with 

 ^ long beautiful ra- 

 cemes of pale 

 purplish flowers. 

 _;=::^^iJ'.j!''' Tj^at was the Wis- 



Tliis figure also ^^^^i^^ of the 



the grating over most beautiful of 



China^s daughters, 

 here gracefully 



throwing her arms round our Hibernian friend, and forming 

 a living picture more pleasing to the eyes of a lover of nature 

 than any carving in stone. If there are tall naked walls near 

 a Parisian house, they are quickly covered with a close car23et 

 of Ivy. Does the margin of the grass around some clump of 

 shrubs or flower beds look a little angular or blotchy ? If 

 so, the Parisian town gardener will get a quantity of nice 

 young plants of Ivy, and make a wide margin with them, 



Railings densely covered with Ivy 

 shows the wide asphalte pathway 

 the ground at the hase of one of the trees, and the 

 cage used to protect its stem. 



