136 VINES 
has itself chosen. Because of this difficulty 
attendant on transplanting it, the plant is less 
popular than its beauty deserves, except with 
those “‘May-flowering parties,” which gather the 
wild flower by the armful, raise nothing with 
which to replace what they take, and are, thereby, 
rapidly assisting in the extermination of the 
delicate little native of our woods. 
Under satisfactory conditions, arbutus will 
grow very rapidly, and soon make a handsome 
dark-green mat. These conditions involve a 
well-drained soil, light in texture, and the entire 
absence of any “fussing.” If you can supply 
these wants, and once get the plant started, 
leave it severely alone, for it will do more 
by itself than you can ever persuade it 
to do. 
A good trailer or ground cover for a sunny 
location is the partridge berry (Mitchella repens). 
This vine is very hardy, flowers in early spring, 
and makes, with its small leaves and loose, jagged 
style of growth, a very attractive show. 
If you should ask me, as a man once did, if I 
know of a plant that will grow where nothing 
else will, I would recommend, as I did to him, 
Pachysandra terminalis. That man’s erstwhile 
bare yard is now a mass of the “vine with the 
