Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/142

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JAPANESE GARDENS

this form of fence. It is not unknown in the United States, though it is not employed nearly so much as it might be. People who do not desire privacy, and who are generous enough to wish the public to enjoy the sight of their smooth and sloping lawns and flaming flower-beds, but who still want a line of demarcation at the edges of their property, could use these little low fences to great advantage, covered with Nasturtiums, with white or yellow Jasmine, with climbing Roses, with Passion Vine, or with any of the hundred and one creepers which combine profusion of bloom and colour with density of foliage; and the effect would be charming. And in that land where bamboo is not, but wire is, the result desired could be obtained at little or big cost, as the owner pleased. Variety of effect would be endless.

Another style of open fence, although not a common one, is of living Bamboo, set in at a sharp angle, and tied in a lattice pattern. It is exquisitely pretty, with the delicate leaves and shining green or yellow stems outlined against the sky. Our Willows, which in appearance so closely resemble the Bamboo, although they are far removed in species, could be used with good effect in the same way. A pergola of Willows, leading to the ornamental water which so many gardens boast nowadays, would be a charming thing, first to leap out in the spring, and last, when its silvery leaves have turned,