General Notices. 235 



thev are superior to any other tart-fruit, and, as they would come in late in 

 autumn, could not fail to find a welcome at table when our native fruits 

 were ripe or dead. The white bryony formed an object of tlie greatest 

 beauty, growing up the face of a tall clipped yew hedge at Caenwood, in 

 the kitchen garden. This plant attached itself by its tendrils to the hedge ; 

 and, as it belongs to Cucurbits, it gives an admirable lesson to cucumber 

 growers, for it formed a perfect fan, with rays nine feet long, without the 

 aid of man. The cucumber is a plant adapted by nature for a similar 

 situation ; for its beautiful tendrils tell that thy were never made to crawl, 

 but to climb. But I need not go farther than to the pea for an example of 

 the value of living props : hundreds of persons would grow peas if they had 

 sticks to prop them with. I saw a neighbor with a row of peas well slicked 

 with a couple of rows of living beans, which, by a special blunder, had been 

 sowed after the peas were covered with the soil. 



The cultivation of climbers is a field too great to be entered upon here, 

 and yet too important to be passed over in silence. I have, therefore, 

 thrown out these hints in passing, and leave it to the lovers and admirers of 

 this class of plants to carry it out, resting assured that the scarlet trumpets 

 of that splendid climber, the trumpet-flowering honeysuckle, alone, will 

 proclaim by their few and feeble specimens the truth of what I am endeavor- 

 ing to show — namely, that, for want of a prop, we lose the services of the 

 most beautiful plants that could adorn a garden, ay, and the services too of 

 valuable esculents. But to return to the rose. The umbrella form of 

 trellis is well suited to show to advantage certain kinds of roses. Now the 

 dwarf or weeping ehn, engrafted on the common elm, forms an elegant head 

 of this form ; and as these artificial drooping -headed trees are monsters, and 

 grow slowly, they may be kept in dressed ground in small compass for 

 iiiany years. The one which 1 have before me has been four years planted ; 

 and one or two others, about ten years planted, have yet but very small 

 heads. I may here mention that the young shoots of the elm resemble an 

 immense pinnate leaf, and thus the leaf of the rose harmonizes better with 

 the foliage of the elm than I was led to expect before I made the comparison 

 with the rose and elm twigs united. 



The weeping ash makes an admirable trellis for a climbing, or rather 

 a trailing rose, and, having pinnate leaves, the harmony of the foliage with 

 that of the rose is complete. Nothing but a figure drawn accurately to a 

 scale can give an idea of the excellent habit of this tree, standing as it does 

 on a clean single stem, and forming a globular head with a fine bold outline, 

 which may be varied by pruning to form an umbrella or semi-globular head, 

 or may be allowed to feather down to the ground, and form an egg-shaped 

 tent. 



Every weeping tree gives the idea of being depressed, and its very nnme 

 "weeping" implies a lack of comfort ; therefore, it should not be alone, 

 but have a partner, whose rosy face should look upward, and at the same 

 time look light and cheerful. To intertwine a weeping ash with roses would 

 seem to mingle joy with its weeping, and make a striking contrast, since it 



