Louis XIV had his Versailles, and his elegant queen her embowered Triannon; but the simple charms of Triannon proved more inviting to the cultivated minds of the court, than the gorgeous pile and artificial gardens at Versailles.
We devote too much time to the cultivation of exotics, and too lightly value the vines and shrubs of our native soil. Again, we sacrifice rich foliage that lasts for a season, to gaudy flowers that last only for a brief period. The double prairie rose is a very delightful sight—for a single week—and during the remaining season it is a miserable brier, commonly wormy and lousy. Yet the prairie rose is in common use as an ornament for the veranda, while the jessamine, the woodbine, the wisteria and the luxuriant honeysuckle are, put in less conspicuous places, or their cultivation wholly neglected.
It may be cited as an evidence of improving taste in the rural art, that rustic work, which imparts to a place an expression of delightful rurality, is taking the place of images, porcelain vases, etc., that long have been conspicuous objects in almost every parterre. The perfection of beauty to which this work may be carried has been admirably illustrated in Central Park, New York City, and widely copied by gentlemen of taste. Few objects are more pleasing than rustic arbors or even rustic urns over-running with foliage.
Among the most pleasing vines for embellishment of rural seats are the honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica and the trumpet vine), the woodbine, the jessamine and the American ivy. For adorning stone work, the English ivy is very rich, though it grows imperfectly in our Northern latitudes.
The woodbine forms a massive drapery for a cottage porch. It has a rich marine hue in summer, and it is very richly tinted in autumn after the early frosts. The Japan honeysuckle is deliciously fragrant, and it retains its dark lustrous foliage until mid-winter. Unlike many climbers this honeysuckle, together with the trumpet vine, is not liable to be infested with insects. The feathery clematis, known also by the names of the virgin’s bower and the traveller’s joy, is a pretty creeper for walls and fences; and the common hop vine may be made to add beauty to the dove-cote and the martin boxes, when these are placed after the old English manner, upon poles.
The American ivy is one of the most prolific of foliage vines. The leaves when they are young are of a delicate pea-green color, but they become dark and lustrous as the season advances. They are very gorgeous after the early autumn frosts, displaying the richest tints of orange and vermillion. The ivy forms a sort of net-work for old crumbling walls, and it is indigenous to stormy places.
There is a slender vine very common in the Eastern States that is seldom used for ornamental purposes, to which we would especially invite the attention of the florists. It is called the ground nut, (Apios tuberosa.) Its foliage is dark, thick, and very graceful. The flowers are remarkable. They are dark purple in color and present a peculiar waxy appearance, in dense predunculate, axillary racemes. Their odor is wonderfully sweet, and it is so powerful and inexhaustive as to fill perpetually the air. The vine entwines itself among low bushes in its native state. A florist of our acquaintance supplemented the charms of her trellises of roses by entwining these vines among the branches. Her rooms were filled with fragrance whenever the windows were thrown open during the whole of the hot season. The flowers of the ground nut vine last for a very long period. Remember this vine in your summer rambles.—Working Farmer.
Clean the Cellar.—The Boston Journal of Chemistry says: “Diptheria, typhoid, and scarlet fevers, and many other most serious illnesses, have their origin in cellars both in city and country; and we can do our readers no greater service than to urge them to see that at all times they are in a dry, sweet, wholesome condition. Why should farmers and farmer’s families, living in the country away from the pestilential vapors of the cities, be so subject to attacks of malignant diseases? There is a reason for it, and we can point it out. They arise from the indifference manifested to the observance of hygienic rules and the violation of sanitary laws. Cleanliness is essential to health, and it is just as necessary in the country as in the city. A family living over a foul cellar is more liable to be poisoned and afflicted with illness than a city family living in its polluted atmosphere, but without cellar or basement filled with fermenting roots and fruits. There is far more sickness in the country among husbandmen than there ought to be. With plenty of pure air, water, and exercise, the evil imp Disease ought to be kept at bay, and he would be better if an observance of certain hygienic conditions were maintained. Bad conditioned cellars, small, close sleeping rooms, stoves—these are all agents of evil, and are fast making the homes of farmers almost as unhealthy as those of the dwellers in cities. Are not these suggestions worthy of consideration?”