CLIMBERS. 155 



By the way, why should gardeners persist in calling the 

 Tropoeolum a " Nasturtium," that is, Watercress ? 



We will add Thoreau's Apios, Everlasting Pea 

 (Lathyrus). Jasmin, Pyracantha, a Climber seldom seen 

 out here, and the homely cottage garden Tea Tree 

 (Lycium). That makes fourteen or fifteen : and you 

 will not easily run the number up to twenty. 



As I have had occasion to mention the Lycium, 

 I will stop to inquire why it should be dubbed " Tea 

 Tree." The shrub is a Solanum, with a flower very 

 like that of the Bittersweet (Dulcamara}. The light 

 blue Ceanothus, a Rhamnus, is another Tea Tree ; and 

 I wonder how many more there are. The famous 

 plant used as a substitute for tea in the New England 

 States, when the trouble arose with England, is allied 

 to the Heaths and Azealas. Paraguay tea is, I 

 believe, a Holly. Chimonantlius fragmns makes such 

 a good tea that there is talk of cultivating it on a 

 large scale. The shrub is common in the Riviera 

 gardens. I have seen specimens eight or ten feet 

 high. The scented yellow flowers appear while the 

 plant is bare of leaves. If we called the Camellia a 

 Tea Tree, it would hardly be tire par les cheveux, for 

 the shrubs are allied ; and we should not be very far 

 wrong if we called the Wild Plum, or Sloe, a Tea 

 Tree ; for we have been buying Sloe leaves all our 

 life under the name of Pekoe and Bohea. 



How scanty the list of British climbing plants 

 appears when we come to reckon up the species which 

 can be grown here in the open air ! First we have 

 all, or almost all, the northern wild and cultivated 

 plants. To these must be added three, which occur 

 here " in the savage state," as a Frenchman would say. 



