CHAPTER IX. 



CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 



THE splendid 'squadrons^' of the Pine, with 

 crests proud in alpine storm and massed in 

 serried armies along the northern moun- 

 tains the Oak kings of a thousand winters 

 in the forest plain are lovely gifts of the earth 

 mother, but more precious still to the gar- 

 dener are the most fragile of all woody things 

 that garland bush and tree with beautiful 

 forms and blossoms, like Clematis, Jasmine, 

 and Honeysuckle, and the many lace-workers 

 of the woods and brakes. It is delightful to 

 be able to turn our often ugly inheritance 

 from the builder almost into gardens by the 

 aid of these, from great yellow Roses to Ivy 

 in many lovely forms; but it is well to take 

 a wider view of these climbing and rambling 

 bushes and their places in the garden and in 

 the pleasure ground. It is for our own con- 

 venience we go through the labour of nailing 

 them to walls, and though it is a charming and 

 necessary way of growing them it is well to 

 remember that many climbers may be grown 

 in beautiful ways without such laborious 

 training. The tendency to over-pruning of 

 the climbers on walls ends often in a kind 

 of crucifixion, and the more freely things are trained the better. 

 Proof of this is in the handsome masses of climbers on the high 

 walls of the Trinity College Gardens at Dublin and in many private 

 places where climbers have been liberally and well planted on walls. 

 But it should never be forgotten that many of these plants will 

 grow by themselves, like the Honeysuckles, which, while pleasant to 

 see on walls, are not less so on banks, or even on the level ground. 



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