WINTER MEETING. 247 



vation is given them. However, the fact that we find them growing^ 

 even in rich profusion, in waste places without cultivation, should not 

 prevent their being given careful attention and culture. Many of them' 

 respond quickly to good culture, and they may be greatly improved 

 by it. 



In the Missouri Botanical garden or Shaw's garden, of St. Louis, 

 may be seen a great many of our native plants. They have been taken 

 there from their wild state, and furnish excellent examples of what 

 may be done with them by intelligent culture ai^ artistic skill in plant- 

 ing. The arboretum particularly abounds in the most beautiful wild- 

 wood flowers. One of the most attractive features of the whole 

 grounds is a little bog planted to wild marsh plants, including shrubs, 

 grasses, sedges, pitcher plants, ferns, ladies' slippers, Irises, fly-traps, 

 and hundreds of species too numerous to mention. Throughout the 

 grounds one frequently meets our native vines and masses of these 

 wild flowers. Even to him who all his life has tramped through masses 

 of them in our fields and woods they are of great interest, and he 

 wonders how he could have been acquainted with them so long and 

 never before half realized their beauty. To the European who has 

 never before seen them, they are simply gems and treasures he never 

 before dreamed of. They call forth all his enthusiasm, and appeal to 

 his feelings much as a choice orchard or rare exotic does to ours the 

 first time we see it. 



Of the plants which I am about to mention, I have seen nearly all 

 in their native habitat, and also under cultivation at the garden ; so I 

 hope to select a list sufficient to prettily plant a home with such sorts 

 as may be readily transplanted and grown. 



A.mong the most essential plants for home adornment are the 

 vines. Among them I will first mention the Virginia creeper fAmpe- 

 lopsi quinquefoUaJ. It abounds generally in the woods, in nearly all 

 low grounds, and climbs both by rootlets and by tendrils. Aside trom 

 twisting like the tendrils of the pea, its tendrils put out discs which 

 enable the vine to cling, even to the walls of buildinge, if artficially 

 supported until vigorous growth begins. All have seen it mantling the 

 forest trees, climbing nearly to their tops. Many a gnarled, dead oak 

 is converted into a thing of beauty by haviog its limbs thickly fringed 

 by this clinging vine. It succeeds in almostany exposure, and is a fine 

 cover for the walls of buildings, verandas and porches, summer-houses, 

 etc. In autumn its leaves turn to a bright crimson, and remain so for 

 several weeks before falling. Its purple fruit, which it retains into the 

 winter, is not the least beautiful of its features, and gives it a very rich 



