THE KUSTIC LANE AND WOODSIDE. 189 



incrusted with lichens, its walls are sure to be covered 

 either with the climbing sumach or the Virginia creeper ; 

 for these plants seem designed by nature as the native 

 embroidery of all neglected places and buildings. On 

 many accounts, the most interesting plants are the climb- 

 ers and creepers. Whether it be that we associate them 

 with the idea of dependence on their part and of protec- 

 tion on the part of the tree or other object that supports 

 them, or whether their ascent may suggest the idea of 

 motion and progression, causing them to resemble a liv- 

 ing creature, they never fail to interest the spectator, and 

 to fill his mind with many poetic images. 



The Virginia creeper possesses all the advantages of the 

 English ivy, save that it is 'not an evergreen. But its 

 deciduous character is not to be regarded as a defect, since 

 if it were an evergreen it would want its annual attrac- 

 tions of scarlet and crimson that distinguish it in autumn. 

 In this particular it is not surpassed by any production 

 of the American forest, except the red maple. These 

 colors render it very conspicuous in October, when it sur- 

 rounds the trunks and branches of some of the tallest 

 trees with its -garlands of crimson, hiding them under its 

 own splendid frondage. There is not a rustic lane where 

 it is not seen creeping over the fences and mixing its 

 glowing tints with other wayside plants. It is particu- 

 larly luxuriant by the woodside ; for though it is com- 

 mon in the deep forest it grows feebly and is deficient 

 in leaves until it gains the summits of the trees. It 

 needs the broad eye of day, and prospers only upon trees 

 that stand outside of a wood. No other climbing plant 

 is so generally used in New England as a drapery for 

 houses and fences, taking the place occupied in Europe 

 'by the ivy. Many old houses are covered by it, and 

 many an old stone-wall is completely enveloped in its 

 foliage. 



