330 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



feet in length and seems as trainable as smilax or 

 the asparagus vine. Here are also woody trailers of 

 moonseed, with its minute white flowers in the axils 

 of leaves that might pass at first glance for one of 

 the many varieties of wild grapes; the hyacinth 

 bean, with its deliciously fragrant chocolate flowers 

 tinged with violet, that is so kind in covering the 

 unsightly underbrush of damp places. And here, 

 first, last, and always, come the wild grapes, showing 

 so many types of leaf and fruit, from the early ripen- 

 ing summer grape of the high- climbing habit, having 

 the most typical leaf and thin-skinned, purple berries, 

 that have fathered so many cultivated varieties; the 

 frost grape, with its coarsely- toothed, rather heart- 

 shaped, pointed leaf and small black berries, that are 

 uneatable until after frost (and rather horrid even 

 then); to the riverside grape of the glossy leaf, 

 fragrant blossoms and fruit. 



One thing must be remembered concerning wild 

 grapes: they should be planted, if in the open sun- 

 light, where they will be conspicuous up to late summer 

 only, as soon after this time the leaves begin to grow 

 rusty, while those in moist and partly-shady places 

 hold their own. I think this contrast was borne in 

 upon me by watching a mass of grape-vines upon a 



