Vines and Vine-covered Houses 
By CHARLES ALMA BYERS 
All in an oriel on the summer side, 
Vine-clad, of Arthur’s palace toward the stream. 
They met. - Tennyson 
A l^OLf E vine-clad houses, vchether castles, pal¬ 
aces, or cottages, there is a certain romantic 
charm. It has always been so—since mytho¬ 
logical times, at least,—and probably it always will 
be. Artists have ever pictured lor us the crumbling 
ruins of ancient castles, covered with clinging vines, 
and when have not the poets and other writers loved 
to weave romances around a 
prince and a princess and a 
\ ine-clad palace 
Verily, vine-covered houses 
have always received from 
artists and authors a great deal 
of attention. And why Is 
it not because the clinging 
vines give to the house an 
artistic and picturesque ap¬ 
pearance ? And w'as it not 
because of this that they have 
woven around such houses the 
charm of romance tor 
the probable emphasizing of 
the answer to these questions, 
the reader’s attention is invited 
to the accompanying illustra¬ 
tions. 
The writer will not under¬ 
take, however, to advocate the 
use of decorative vines for all 
houses and all locations. I hat 
would be to advocate the car- 
rying of the attempt tow ard the 
creation of “romantic charm’’ 
too far. There are any num¬ 
ber of styles of houses and any 
number of houses so located 
that will not permit, with good 
taste, the use of such decorations, especially in the 
matter of homes in the city. At the same time, how ¬ 
ever, there are, in our opinion, a large number of 
homes, in both the city and country, that can be 
greatly improved in appearance by the proper use of 
decorative vines. 
It is, of course, impossible to set down a rule for 
vine decorations that can always be follow ed. 1 he 
best that can be done is to offer a few suggestions. 
In the first place, vines can often be used to good 
advantage in covering up architectural blemishes. 
A plain, uninteresting side of a house can often he 
made attractive and picturesque in appearance by a 
BOSTON IVY COVERING A PALM 
few^ well trained vines. Rough and inappropriate 
fences and barns and other out-buildings are also 
often improved in the same way. But vines are not 
only suitable for the covering of blemishes. They 
may be used with good taste for decorating parts of 
the exterior of many houses in which no architectural 
discrepancies appear. They are particularly suit¬ 
able for decorating the drive- 
w-ay entrance and may in¬ 
variably be well used to twine 
about outside chimneys, veran¬ 
das and balconies. In fact, 
the purposes for which they 
are suitable are most numer¬ 
ous, and therefore the decora¬ 
tor must be left mainly to the 
exercise of his own judgment. 
To name the styles of archi¬ 
tecture to which decorative 
vines are suitable and unsuit¬ 
able is also a matter difficult 
to be definite in. Vines have 
been used for decorations 
around frame, brick, rock and 
concrete buildings, and it is 
Impossible to say that they 
appear more suitable to one 
style than to another. And 
even in the matter of the loca¬ 
tion of the house it is equally 
difficult to devise a rule to be 
followed. The most that can 
well be said on the subject is, 
that, being used mainly to 
create or to emphasize an 
effect of picturesqueness, deco¬ 
rative vines should be used, 
where, in the opinion of the user, they will really 
enhance the general appearance of the house without 
marring the effect of that particular landscape, w hich 
is sometimes possible in the city. 
There are many kinds of vines used for decorative 
purposes. I'he ivies, however, are probably the 
kind in most common use, and the'Boston or Jap¬ 
anese ivy, technically known as Ampelopsts trtcus- 
pidata, is very much in favor at present. 1 his is a 
vine very similar to the Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis 
quijiquefolia), practically the only difference being 
that the former has a three-lobed leaf and the latter 
a leaf of five lobes. Both shed their leaves in the 
