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 ; 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 between 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 
