AND CONSEEVATOET, 181 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSEEVATOET CLIMBEES. 



Incidentally a few trailing and climbing plants have been 

 already treated of, but it is time we gave them a little attention 

 as constituting a distinct class, possessing certain characteristics 

 in common. And it may be proper in the first place to remark 

 upon their importance as elements in the furniture of a plant- 

 house. It is simply impossible without their aid to produce 

 the rich efi'ect of a covered garden which we look for in a 

 conservatory, and the lack of which fills us with a sense of 

 coldness and opportunity wasted. It matters not how well 

 the borders, stages, and other parts near the ground line of the 

 structure, may be furnished, the eye will travel upwards, and 

 if pillars and roof are alike unclothed, the feeling that there is 

 something wanting will be painful. On the other hand, a 

 judicious selection of twining and climbing plants will not 

 only fill up a void, but present forms of beauty distinct in 

 many respects from those that characterise the plants of the 

 ground line. The lovely tracery of a tacsonia or lapageria seen 

 against the sky as the plant follows the lines of the roof is a 

 feature of the highest value, and the necessity for it increases 

 with every advance in the dimensions and pretensions of the 

 conservatory requiring to be furnished. 



Coming to practical matters we are bound to say that small 

 plant houses devoted chiefly to working purposes should not 

 be cumbered with climbing plants at all. If they thrive they 

 will be in the way, and will impede the light, but as they must 

 be grown in pots, the probability is that they will not thrive, 

 and that is a fatal reason for avoiding them. Having blown 

 hot and cold with the same breath, we proceed to remark that 

 as a rule, climbers should always be planted in borders or not 

 at all, but we feel bound to admit that we have grown many 

 fine examples of first rate plants of this class and have seen 



