Out-Door Monuments 



nected the two in more intimate fashion. 

 Nothing is more beautiful than the way in 

 which the French use ivy to drape the ped- 

 estals of their open-air statues j and even 

 when these stand, as I think they should 

 not, in the centre of open lawns, the mis- 

 take is partly condoned by the unifying 

 creepers. So far as I remember, the French 

 never surround a statue with a high growth 

 of loose-leaved ornamental plants or a wide 

 pattern-bed of flowers. 



The distinction betw^een right and wrong 

 methods of treatment is, in this case, per- 

 fectly clear. The creepers unite themselves 

 with the monument and unite it with the 

 ground, while the big foliage-plants or pat- 

 tern-beds supply a third element which has 

 no intimate relationship with either turf or 

 stone. The good effect of vines on pedes- 

 tals may be studied in a few places in this 

 country also, as on the pedestal of the Web- 

 ster in Central Park. One would like to 

 see them planted around the statues on the 

 Mall as well, and afterward carefully re- 

 strained from undue luxuriance ; for the 

 stone-work should be draped, not wholly 

 225 



