THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 413 



BITTER SWEET. 



We have for years admired the shrubby Bitter Sweet of our woods, and have 

 transplanted it to various locations with success. This beautiful vine is some- 

 times called "Wax Work, on account of its beautiful clusters of orange colored 

 berries, so showy and elegant in winter. It grows wild all about here, in hazel, 

 sumac, and woody barrens; is easily transplanted, often coming up from sec- 

 tions of roots. It is also called Staflf-trce, from its habit of winding around a 

 small tree, making a twisting staff of it. 



Suel Foster in Neltuor's Magazine suggests the following employment of this 

 vine which is new to ns, and there is no question but it would be strikingly 

 beautiful. He says: Plant an American Arbor vita3, and keep the top cut 

 back so it will grow bushy and low, and plant the Bitter Sweet by the side of 

 it, and give it good soil, and mulch on the surface of the ground, then in win- 

 ter when there is so little in the front yard to admire, it will be the observed of 



all observers. 



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Mr. Wm. Falconer, in the Rural New Yorker, writes suggestively concerning 

 vine clad trees as follows : I never saw the trumpet creeper appear so beautiful 

 as in the Southern States, where, on the outer edge of a river bottom timber 

 belt, it almost hid from sight the trees it grew on. I never saw the wild 

 clematis look so fine as in a Avood in New Jersey, where Mr. Taplin pointed out 

 to me a tree literally covered with the vine, which hung in massive drapery to 

 the ground, and was then in bloom. It is a common thing to train Jackman's 

 and other kinds of garden clematis up among the branches of trees, where, 

 when in bloom, they have a fine effect. The Virginian creeper is sometimes 

 treated in the same fashion for the brilliant effect of its foliage in the fall. 

 The Chinese wistaria is one of the best of vines for this use, and the Periploca, 

 akebia, and honeysuckles may likewise be used to good advantage. The Can- 

 ada moonseed and climbing waxwork will enjoy themselves exceedingly among 

 the lower branches of the trees, and the Dutchman's pipe delights in such 

 liberty. Bare stems of trees may be covered with Japanese ivy — Ampelopsis 

 tricuspidata. On many a farm is a wooded ravine, and this is just the place 

 for vine-clad trees. I remember, when visiting Robert Douglas, at Waukegan, 

 111., with what glowing pride the veteran "Forty-niner" brought me in front 

 of a wooded ravine near his house, that I might see the splendid effect of the 

 trees upon the distant bank, whose limbs were bending with the load of drapery 

 which they supported, and with what a gleam of satisfaction he pointed out the 

 many trees — big trees now — he had planted there, the vines that he had 

 encouraged to grow upon them, and the undergrowth, both herbs and shrubs, 

 that he set out there. He had snatched from desolation an unsightly, gloomy 

 chasm, and planted it with trees, and shrubs, and vines, and thus secured what 

 is to-day one of the prettiest ravines or glens in Illinois. 



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The New York Tribune in a more utilitarian strain talks in this way of grape 

 vines upon trees: Grape vines are trained upon trees to a large extent in parts 

 of Italy, which next to Greece perhaps, is the oldest European home of the vine. 

 Our American vines, of stronger and far-stretching growth, are still more at 

 home upon trees, and more averse to being confined to stakes or stools tlian the 

 compact and close growing Vitis vinifer. They seem to prefer a living tree to 

 a dead one ; their leaves apparently enjoying the exhalations from those of the 



