Close to the House 



If a site is very broken and rocky, and if 

 the architect has done his work well, the 

 planting of a few vines against his walls 

 may often suffice to bring them into a close 

 enough union with jNIother Earth. It is 

 a pity, however, that when vines alone 

 are thus relied upon, a single kind should 

 usually be chosen for repeated planting. 

 A little thought given to the selection of 

 different kinds which harmonize yet con- 

 trast would produce more beautiful efiects. 

 It is well on a city house to let a single 

 plant do the whole work of clothing the 

 walls. Here there is no question of uniting 

 house and site, of making a naturalistic ef- 

 fect j and we do not want picturesque vari- 

 ety on a street facade, even though it be 

 a very broad one. A symmetrical archi- 

 tectonic effect should be preserved ; and for 

 this a wisteria trained on two or three wires 

 reaching to the roof, or a closely clipped 

 covering of Japanese ivy, is the best re- 

 source. But on a country house of the ir- 

 regular, picturesque kind which must be 

 built on a broken site, draperies composed of 

 a single creeper are undesirably monotonous. 



71 



