92 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



for me a handful of the jewel-like berries from the vine, then in 

 full beauty upon the high netting along which are many species 

 of grape from afar. My third (I begin to sound like a charade) 

 was last autumn in the garden of a neighbor and friend in 

 Michigan. Here, in its second year, the little vine had climbed 

 nearly to the top of a pergola and the lovely berries of turquoise, 

 amethyst, and jade were in profusion at the tips of the slender 

 stems. 



It is evident, then, that there is here a comparatively new 

 climbing thing of the first quality, one that should and will 

 spread over the land as its beauties are proclaimed and tried. 

 Pleasant is it to see the expression on the face of the interested 

 gardener as for the first time he sees these fruits of unimaginable 

 beauty and realizes that the charming plant may easily be his. 

 I doubt if there is any fruiting plant anywhere to excel this in 

 the entrancing quality of its autumn harvest. Vitis brevipedun- 

 culata carries berries of like color, though larger, but the leaves 

 of this vine are coarser, bigger, less delicate than these finely 

 cut and thinly distributed ones of Vitis heterophylla. I can 

 imagine no lovelier decorative wreathing of fruit for the table 

 than that of these berries and leaves. Bartlett pears, in that 

 delicious pale yellow which is their mark, and these fruits of 

 Vitis heterophylla in their pale blues, violets and greens, in their 

 loose clusters with the sharply-cut leaves among them — what 

 a thing to set upon one's table for the delight of the eye! 



Having said this much of an available garden subject, the 

 recollection comes to me of another so lovely that it is often in 

 my mind, but which is only for sub-tropic use. This is Nandina 

 domestical that fine, low-growing shrub of Japan, with its grace- 

 ful sprays of pointed leaves held out on stems like tempered 

 wires, and with a fruit of coral-pink almost to defy description. 

 I see now before me the whole picture of the finished grounds 



