148 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April 
Vines for the Decoration of Cottages. 
We have heretofore noticed A. J Downing’s work on 
Country Houses. Every person familiar with his wri¬ 
tings, must have observed the perfect fitness or appropri¬ 
ateness of every part of his ornamental designs; there 
are no incongruous groupings of objects beautiful when 
taken alone—no solicisms in taste. For this reason his 
remarks on the color of houses, their exterior decora¬ 
tions , &c., never fail to be valuable. With the hope of 
interesting our readers, as well as impressing them with a 
more distinct knowledge of the merits of this work, we 
furnish a few additional extracts. The expression which 
a building derives from the aid of external objects, and 
especially from trees, shrubs, and vines, is thus pointed 
out:— 
“ It is upon these latter objects that the true rurality 
of almost all simple cottages depends; and nine-tenths 
of all the cottages that have endeared themselves, through 
their local and living beauty, to the hearts of true poets 
and genuine lovers of nature, have owed most of their 
charms rather to this rurality—this wealth of bower, 
and vine, and creeper, than to any carved or sculp¬ 
tured gables, window heads, or other features bestowed 
by the careful hand of the architect. 
“ Take almost any of those exquisite cottages in an 
English landscape, which charm every beholder by a won¬ 
derful beauty, found in no other land in the same perfec¬ 
tion, and subject it to the dissecting knife of the searcher 
after the secrets of that beauty, and what does he find? 
That not one of these cottages is faultless, in a strictly 
architectural sense—nay, that they abound Avith all sorts 
of whimsical and picturesque violations of architec¬ 
tural rules and proportions, and are often quite destitute 
of grace of form or outline. 
“ But on the other hand, they are so bewitchingly 
rural! Partly, to be sure, by their thatched roofs, and 
latticed windows, and low stone walls, all of which seem 
to grow out of the ground, and to be rather a production 
of nature than of art, (proving incontestibly how genuine- 
is the love of rural life in those avIio build and inhabit 
such cottages,) but mainly through the beautiful vines 
and shrubs that embower them, which, by partly con¬ 
cealing and partly adorning their walls, give them that 
expressive beauty of rural and home feeling which makes 
them so captivating to every passer-by. 
This drapery of cottages—the vines that climb, or trail, 
or creep over them, and around their porches and win¬ 
dows—deserves, then, something more than a passing 
glance from all who would understand the secret of mak¬ 
ing a simple country house beautiful at little cost. For 
it must be remembered, also, that while chiselling or¬ 
naments in stone, or carving them in Avood, soon makes 
a figure in one’s account book, a feAv roots of those vines 
which Avill soon groAv into forms of graceful and perennial 
beauty, may be had for atriflle,or will be gladly given by 
some friend whose garden overflows with its wealth of 
shrubs and climbers. 
“ But, though all vines are beautiful in their appropri¬ 
ate places, they are not all fitted for the decoration of 
rural cottages. Some are only at home Avhen trailing 
over rocky precipices, others when climbing high trees, 
and others, again, are so delicate as to need the support 
of slender trellises in the flower-garden. 
u A vine fitted by nature for the drapery of rural cot¬ 
tages, should unite fine foliage, which holds its verdure 
for a long time, and is not often the prey of insects, with 
a good mas.sy habit of growth. If its flowers are also 
beautiful or. fragrant, so much the better, but by no 
means should fine flowers, Avhich last for a fortnight, lead 
us to forget fine habit of groAvth and good foliage, which 
are constant sources of pleasure. 
“ Besides these requisites, Ave must add, that popular 
vines for a cottage must be such as are perfectly hardy, 
and need no protection, and Avhich have a Avay, for the 
most part, of taking care of themselves—in other Avords, 
which Avill groAv into pleasing or picturesque forms with 
only an hour or two’s pruning or tying up once a year. 
“ For cottages at the north, one of the best hardy vines 
is the Yirgina creeper, (better known as the American 
Ivy, or five leaved Ampelopsis,) a Avild plant which grows 
with wonderful luxuriance, and attaches itself Avithout 
any assistance to wood or stone, by the fibres it throws 
out from its stem. Its leaves, glossy green in summer, 
but turning to the finest crimson before they fall in au¬ 
tumn, the rapidity of its growth, and the absolute no- 
care-at-all which it requires, will commend it as perhaps 
the best of all plants, when the effect of foliage is desired 
in as sh^t a time as possible, as Avell as for concealing or 
adding to the beauty of any part of a blank wall of a 
cottage.* 
u The Chinese Wistaria, iioav perfectly naturalized in 
the Middle States, is one of the finest vines for the pillars 
of the cottage porch or veranda. It will extend its shoots 
to 40 or 50 feet, if allowed, Avhile it may be kept within 
the limits of a small column, if desired. Its long pen¬ 
dent clusters of delicate pearly lilac floAvers, have a strik¬ 
ingly elegant appearance Avhen properly scattered over 
the shoots in May, and its abundant light green foliage 
has a pleasing effect, whether for trellis, wall, or veran¬ 
da. f 
“ Climbing roses are also great favorites for pillars and 
porch trellises. The most deservedly popular for the cot¬ 
tage, are the Boursalt and the Double Prairie roses—be¬ 
cause they have fine foliage, groAv very rapidly and luxu¬ 
riantly, blossom profusely, and are perfectly hardy in all 
parts of the Union. The Amadis is the best variety of 
the Boursalt, and the Queen of Praries and Baltimore 
Belle the best Double Prairies for cottage decoration. 
Amateurs avIio Avish to add a still further charm, and are 
willing to bestoAv a little more care on them, may, by 
budding the long shoots Avith Bourbon roses, have a suc¬ 
cession of fine flowers every day during the whole groAv- 
ing season. 
“ In the Southern States, the fine Noisette roses, such 
as Cloth of Gold, and Solfaterre, take the place of the 
Prairie roses of the north. 
u Among the honeysuckles—the “ lush woodbine” of 
the poets—there are two admirably adapted for cottage 
adornment, viz: the Japan or EAmrgreen Honeysuckle, 
(Lonicera japonica%) and the Trumpet Honeysuckle, 
(both scarlet and straAv color.) The former is delicious¬ 
ly fragrant, and blooms all summer, holding its masses 
of rich, dark green foliage till mid-winter; and the lat¬ 
ter, though not fragrant , grows in fine masses, and flow¬ 
ers most abundantly at all times. Neither of these hon- 
ey-sucklcs is infested with the insects Avhich deform some 
of the other species, and render them unfit to be planted 
near a cottage windoAV. 
“ For cottages of stone, brick, or rough-cast, there is 
no climbing plant in the Avhole Avorld equal to the Ivy— 
the evergreen Ivy of Europe. Its dark green foliage 
forms at all seasons of the year, the richest drapery that 
ever festooned or Avreathed either castle or cottage; and 
Ave need say nothing of the associations without number, 
Avhich the mere sight of this plant always brings to the 
mind. 
“ The Ivy does not thrive very Avell in NeAV-England, 
except in sheltered places, for the winters are rather too 
severe for it; but in all other parts of the Union, .it grows 
* In some of the elm forests of of Western New-York, growing 
on the broad lowlands, this plant presents a most conspicuous and 
striking appearance, when its leaves change color in autumn. The 
branchless trunks of the trees, to a height of sixty or seventy feet, are 
not unfrequently covered from bottom to top with an uninterrupted 
mass of brilliant crimson, and even many of the larger limbs up 
among the dense green of the forest, are enveloped in the same fiery 
gloAv. Eds. Cult. 
t One of the finest plants of the Wistaria in this country is now 
growing on the ground? of Thomas Hogg, at Yorkville, near New- 
York- It covers an arbor, some fifteen feet in length and breadth, 
and there were the past season about four thousand racemes of flow¬ 
ers, each raceme being nearly large enough to fill one’s hat. Eds. 
Cult. 
$ Chinese twining Honeysuckle of some. 
