THE IVY, AND ITS USES IN PARISIAN GARDENS. 307 



wHch margin lie will manage to make look well at all times 

 of tlie year — in tlie middle of winter when of a dark hue, 

 or in early summer wlien sliining with tlie young green 

 leaves. 



When the Ivy is planted pretty thickly and kept neatly 

 to a breadth of, say, from twelve to twenty inches, it 

 forms a dense mass of the freshest verdure, especially in 

 early summer, and of course all through the winter, in a 

 darker state. The best examples of this description of edging 

 that I know of anywhere are to be seen around the gardens 

 of the Louvre, and in the private garden of the Emperor 

 at the Tuileries. In the latter the Ivy bands are placed on 

 the gravel walks, or seem to be so ; for a belt of gravel a 

 foot or so in width separates 

 them from the border proper. Tig. 135, 



The effect of these Ivy bands 

 outside the masses of gaj 

 flowers is excellent. They are 

 the freshest things to look 

 upon in Paris during the 

 months of May, June, and 

 July. They form a capital 



setting, so to speak, for the 

 flower borders — the best, in- 



deed, that could be obtained ; edgings in geometrical 



1 M • 1 1 garden, 



while m themselves they 



possess qualities sufficient to make it worth one^s while 

 to grow them for their own sakes. In some geometri- 

 cal gardens we have panels edged with white stone — an 

 artificial stone very often. These Ivy edgings associate 

 beautifully with them, while they may be used with ad- 

 vantage in any style of garden. A garden pleases in direct 

 proportion to the variety and the life that are in it ; and all 

 bands and circles of stone, all unchangeable geometrical 

 patterns, are as much improved by being fringed here and 

 there with Ivy and the like, as are the rocks of a river's 

 bank. 



It should be observed that an Ivy edging of the breadth 

 of an ordinary edging is not at all so desirable as when its 



