Man has imitated the plants also in things of a lowlier nature. Cups, vases, pitchers and other utensils were undoubtedly first suggested by similar shapes in plantdom. It is not too fantastic to imagine that the smoking pipe is modelled after the flower known as the Dutchman’s Pipe. An electric wire running down the chain of a suspended lighting fixture looks all the world like a climbing vine. Human jewelry has its prototype among the flowers. Our garden beauties powdered their faces long before their human sisters ever thought of that method of self-adornment. It is said that Greek dancers and athletes sometimes exercised before certain slender plants in order to pattern their bodies after them.
We are not all artists or interior decorators, and yet we can all make use of the artistic possibilities present and inherent in our plant friends. We can cultivate and further the use of plants and flowers in and about our homes. Europe is far ahead of us in this respect. In England, a city house may be ever so frowsy and run-down but it will be sure to have its well-kept window boxes. The suburban homes of labourers and other lowly folk are often veritable bowers of loveliness. The German must have a garden in which to drink his beer. If there is none handy, he builds one, and cool and delightful he makes it. In many European cities, all the houses come out to the building line and even arch the sidewalks. Not a bit of greensward is in sight. Yet shrubs, flowers and vines spring from every sill and balcony and so make the streets to blossom as the Rose.
American cities are too inclined to be barren wastes of brick and stone, with but scant provision for plant beauty. Even the rich, who have their elaborate and beautiful country gardens, seem to forget the plants and flowers when they come to the city. The self-tending Ampelopsis and Wistaria vines are the only plants at all common. Our short summer season and the fact that so many people do not occupy their city homes in warm weather are a little discouraging, but need not shake the enthusiasm of any one really interested in plants. For a few dollars a season florists will assume all care of exterior plants and vines.
The man who has a little plot of ground before his door is indeed fortunate. Even a well-clipped grass lawn is a refreshing asset. Sweet Peas train well against a wall. Pansies flourish in shady spots and Nasturtiums wax beautiful where other plants fail.
A brown stone front, flushed to the sidewalk in the middle of a block, need not go without floral decoration. Even a terra cotta box on either side of the entrance is capable of holding much growing joy. Evergreen shrubs fit well into such surroundings. A window box has great possibilities. In early spring, Crocus, Narcissus and Hyacinth flourish in it to advantage. Ivy-Geraniums of smooth waxy leaves and graceful loose sprays will grow all summer. Vines of various kinds can be trained so as to make very effective window screens.
The subject of home plants is fascinating. It is well to note that it is not always necessary to go in for the more elaborate varieties. It is surprising what a delicate and pleasing decoration is made by so humble a thing as a sprouting Carrot or a Sweet Potato Vine.
Outdoor and landscape gardening are whole sciences unto themselves. In general, a Renaissance house looks best surrounded by formal and well-clipt flower beds. Houses on the Gothic order should have undulating lawns and irregular groups of shrubs and trees about them.
Plants and flowers are the first and original artists. Their creations are our best and most worthy models. We can use them both as examples to be imitated and beautiful objects with which to surround ourselves. They are one of our greatest esthetic inspirations.
CHAPTER VIII
Music in the Plant World
“Many voices there are in Nature’s choir, and none but were good to hear
Had we mastered the laws of their music well, and could read their meaning clear;
But we who can feel at Nature’s touch, cannot think as yet with her thought;
And I only know that the sough of the pines with a spell of its own is fraught.”