98 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



If a quick-growing foliage plant, with inconspicuous flowers, 

 be desired, there is no climbing annual that can beat the common 

 hop, humulus lupulus, but a more satisfactory variety for garden 

 decoration for clothing an arch or a trellis is the Japanese 

 hop, humulus japonica. Its foliage is of a deep rich green colour, 

 and its leaves are more shapely and more deeply cut than those 

 of our native hop. 



Ornamental gourds are very easily grown, and are worth 

 cultivating for the curious variety in shape of their fruit. They 

 require the culture afforded the vegetable marrow, which means 

 that if they are to be seen to perfection they must be planted out 

 in rich soil and be generously treated in regard to stimulating 

 manures. The following is a list of the most ornamental gourds : 



Abobra viridiflora (wax) Lagenaria clavata (club) 



Coccinea indica (scarlet fruit) siphon 



Cucumis anguinus (serpent) Cucurbita melanosperma (variegated 



Dipsaceus (teasel) fruits) 



Dudaim (balloon) Cucurbita pepo (profusion of small apple- 



Erinaceus (hedgehog) and pear-shaped fruits) 



Cyclanthera explodens (bombshell) Momordica (warted fruit orange 



By the aid of a few of the annuals mentioned a newly-made 

 garden may speedily be clothed with beautiful climbing plants. 

 They will at least cover bare and ugly places until the first frosts 

 of autumn come to cut them down. In the meantime plans can 

 be laid for substituting permanent subjects for those that are of 

 an ephemeral nature, though I hope I have indicated clearly 

 enough the desirability of using at least a few annual climbers 

 in the decoration of the garden every year. 



Of all the evergreen climbing plants that help to clothe British 

 gardens with foliage even in the depth of winter, there is none that 

 is better known or more extensively grown than ivy. Nor is its 

 popularity unmerited, for the ivy, or hedera, to give it its botanical 

 name, is an accommodating plant, and it is easy to cultivate. 

 Almost every garden in the land displays one or more specimens 

 of ivy, but for the most part and one notes it with regret the 

 attention of amateurs is confined chiefly to the coarser and 



