Oft THE FLORIST. 



extent we ought to have done, or notice the new productions, 

 and. we think, with some reason. We hope, however, that 



this article will help to make amends for any omission under 

 this head. 



IN PRAISE OF CLIMBING-PLANTS. 



Good reader, imagine a bright morning in July, with all the acces- 

 sories that your imagination can rill up as incidental and belonging 

 to the country at that particular season. On such a morning, being 

 " out for the day," I step out of the railway-carriage at the pretty 



little hamlet of in Herefordshire, and wend my way through 



green lanes, and across blooming fields, to the garden of an old 

 friend. It is but a small one — a very small one ; but to me it is, as 

 far as it goes, the beau ideal of a garden. Neither does it derive any 

 of its charms from choice exotics. The plants it contains are of the 

 most ordinary character, yet there is an indescribable air of beauty, 

 of elegance, about the whole, that at once takes you by surprise, and 

 charms you to admiration. 



Now, there are many points in this little garden to which I would 

 refer ; but I dare not trust myself to speak of them in detail, or I 

 know not when I should drop my pen ; but of the principal attrac- 

 tions I will, with your permission, say something ; promising, how- 

 ever, to be brief. The great source of beauty in the garden, then, 

 is its climbing and creeping plants. They scramble over the banks, 

 twine around the trunks of the trees, and weave festoons over head, 

 as they fling their fragile stems from bough to bough. The Honey- 

 suckle, Clematis, a few Roses, and the Periwinkle, are conspicuous. 

 Sometimes they are exhibiting their beauties alone ; in other places 

 in combination. In yonder corner is an old decaying oak mantled 

 in Ivy ; but a climbing Rose has mingled its branches, and numerous 

 glowing buds and blossoms are studding the deep-green foliage, add- 

 ing a beauty not to be described by the pen. On that nook of lawn 

 a few iron rods have been fixed, and some plants of our common 

 Honeysuckle induced to cover them ; and there they are, a very 

 pyramid of beauty, and their fragrance pervades the whole garden. 

 Here is a mass of Ivy wandering at its own free will as a shrub on 

 the lawn, mingled with Roses and Honeysuckle, forming a mass 

 superlatively beautiful. Every tree has its climbing companion ; 

 pillars and trellises are covered with them ; creepers in the shrubbery, 

 climbers on the trees, trailers on the ground. 



Our gardens have not half enough of such plants. Say what 

 you will, gardeners are essentially prosy and formal in their tastes. 

 If they admit a few of the plants of which I speak, it is only to 

 plaster them to a wall, or torture them into the intricacies of some 

 hideous wire-work. In such instances they are out of place. Plant 

 them in situations suitable, and give them at least a full share of 

 liberty ; and who can say how much they are capable of beautifying a 

 garden ? Try them. Crayon. 



