19G 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



{July, 



and sholU'i- to ourdoor-sicj) ^^\• our grounds. But 

 wore it just now found as with tinted wood and 

 fruit, heralded as from some far-off 11 owery land, 

 people would ji" \vild after it, as they often have 

 for thin<;s not half so lovely. 



Nature has denied the IMtter-sweet the hloom 

 and fraj^ranee which are the rulinir charm of so 

 many of its fellow climbers. JJut she has made 

 it their ecjual a.s a decorative plant, by the rich, 

 green shelter of its leafy mantle and its sturdy 

 stretch of vine. With nauj;;ht else, it is fit to 

 deck and shield alike, the humblest and the most 

 ambitious home. Flowers and perfume are 

 tleeting ; but the rich foliitge of the Bitter-sweet 

 holds against the scorching sun a dense and 

 spreading growth of brightest green, outlasting 

 the breath and tinge of llowers. 



]iut the signal glory of the plant, compassing 

 the year, is the clusters of its berries. From the 

 size and tinge of tiny grapes till the early frost 

 strips the wrap of white and gold from its coral 

 fruitage, the plant at every step puts on new and 

 changeful features ; each gain toward ripeness, 

 brings to deft woman a dainty store for tasteful 

 decoration. 



First, following its modest bloom, come little 

 globes of lively green. These soon swell and 

 change their tint to a greenish-bronze. A little 

 further toward the chilly nights of early frosts, 

 slender gaps in those tawny globes reveal the 

 white wrap, hiding the flashing glint of its ripen- 

 ing seeds. Those opening slowly, widening more 

 and more, unmask the glorious store within, of a 

 fiery fruitage. By and by, as the early frost 

 thins and brightens its foliage to a tenderer tint, 

 the Bitter-sweet bears to Autumn a blazing 

 crown of clustering coral clasped in lips of gold. 



This fruitage of our climber, plucked and 

 stored at each stage of this advance, yields a 

 wondrous harvest for adornment. For every 

 place and posture becoming winter bouquets 

 and unfading garlands, it furnishes unrivalled 

 aptness and grace ; and its little green clusters, 

 laid by to dry, while they still hide and tightly 

 clasp their treasure, or when first the fiery glint 

 of gold and scarlet flash from tiieir opening screen, 

 or garnered after the frosts from its still unfal- 

 len and tender tinted leaves, uncovers its blazing 

 store to the full sunlight, the Bitter-sweet, at 

 each' pha.se, offers no end of help to decorative 

 taste. No outcome of the seasons in fruit, leaf, 

 or blossom, so brightens the home, so helps out 

 the dearth of flowers or faces the wintry gloom, 

 with such blazing fireside tint and cheer. 



Out doors, smiling above the threshold, it wel- 

 comes the lodgment of the driftin;; snow and peers 

 gaily out from its chilly mantle. Through the 

 ice storm's crystal sheath it slieds a hopeful 

 glow. Down over the porch, a window caj) 

 drooj)ing, it greets, with rival ray, the flash 

 from the blazing hearth. Sheltered only a little 

 from the thnish of the winter's wind, and its 

 coral fruitage clings, defiant of the frost, and 

 wears a joyousness all through its gloom and 

 storm. Thus endowed, the Bitter-sweet brings 

 to the home abright companionship, and bridges 

 with hope of coming Sj)ring and tlowers in the 

 stretch of its garlands, along the woodland spray. 



Within doors, amid the festivities of Christ- 

 mas, the dawnuig year, in home or temple, or 

 in public hall, those stored-up pluckings from 

 along its way to ripeness, cheer all through the 

 winter's gloom. They bring to the matron apt 

 and blithesome succor in her graceful struggle 

 to brighten and fith' deck, when bereft of the 

 grace and perfume of summer flowers. 



The Bitter-sweet, out of those stored-up cul - 

 lings from its growth and harvest, offers in itself 

 every form and tint for a rich winter bouquet. 

 But wreathed into evergreen festoons, tufted 

 amongst them and other bright seed pods and 

 berries, or with them and autumnal leaves, dried 

 ferns, grasses, and. ^the feathery seed whorls of 

 the wild white Clematis, fringing and crowning 

 the mirror, gaily bordering the paintings on the 

 wall or gi'ouped with them and living plants in 

 vase or hanging basket, the Bitter-sweet beyond 

 any bloom or growth of the year, helps in the 

 welcome of the holidays, and keeps up bright- 

 ness and cheer in the household, till the longed- 

 for coming of the flowers, whose loveliness its 

 ])rilliant treasures measurably replace our 

 climber. So rounds the year with its cheery 

 presence, made brighter by the dainty placing 

 of deft woman ; that, if in the transmigration of 

 souls the human ever takes on the form and 

 essentials of the plant, I pray for mine — its lodg- 

 ment in a Bitter-sweet. 



One of the loveliest lessons T have ever seen 

 in Nature's handling of color and tasteful plant- 

 ing, was our climber, belting the wealth of its 

 glowing harvest over a group of New England 

 cedars. On a bright, dewy morning of early 

 Autumn, beside a little rest in the climb of a 

 hilly country road, I came upon a group of some 

 half-dozen well-grown, thrifty, young cedars. 

 They stood in easy distinctness around one 

 of stouter form and taller spire. Every 



