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 Mother 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 effects. 
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 ; 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 
