CHAPTER IX. 



CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 



THE splendid squadrons of the Pine, with 

 crests proud in alpine storm and massed in 

 serried armies along the northern moun- 

 tains : the Oak kings of a thousand winters 

 in the forest plain are lovely gifts of the earth 

 mother, but more precious still to the gar- 

 dener are the most fragile of all woody things 

 that garland bush and tree with beautiful 

 forms and blossoms, like Clematis, Jasmine 

 and Honeysuckle, and the many lace- workers 

 of the woods and brakes. It is delightful to. 

 be able to turn our often ugly inheritance 

 from the builder almost into gardens by the 

 aid of these, from great yellow Roses to Ivy 

 in many lovely forms ; but it is well to take a 

 wider view of these climbing and rambling 

 bushes and their places in the garden and in 

 the pleasure-ground. It is for our own con- 

 venience we go through the labour of nailing 

 them to walls, and though it is a charming 

 and necessary way of growing them it is well 

 to remember that many climbers may be 

 grown in beautiful ways without such labor- 

 ious training. The tendency to over-pruning 

 of the climbers on walls ends often in a kind 



of crucifixion, and the more freely things are trained the better. Proof 

 of this is in the handsome masses of climbers on the high walls of the 

 Trinity College Gardens at Dublin and in many private places where 

 climbers have been liberally and well planted on walls. 



But it should never be forgotten that many of these plants will 

 grow by themselves, like the Honeysuckles, which, while pleasant to 



