CLIMBING PLANTS 197 



grapes, they are all worth growing for the beauty of 

 the foliage — beautiful in the various shapes of the 

 leaves, and most beautiful in their autumnal colours. 

 Some take this colour very early in the season, 

 especially the claret vine, which often takes its rich 

 claret colour before the end of June, and keeps it till 

 the frost strips the tree. I grow several vines simply 

 for the beauty of their leaves, and I especially recom- 

 mend the old parsley -leaf vine, of very delicate foliage, 

 and often ripening its clusters of small, black, and 

 sweet grapes, and the sweet-scented vine of America. 

 I need not say how much of historical and legendary 

 interest attaches to the vine, which makes it doubly 

 attractive, but on which I must not even enter. 



But of all hardy climbers I suppose the most uni- 

 versal favourite is the honeysuckle ; and it is a truer 

 climber than any I have mentioned. The clematis and 

 the vine can be made to climb easily, but they require 

 some help ; the honeysuckle will cling to anything near 

 it, and clasp it tightly, whence its old name of wood- 

 binde, a name, however, which it shares with other 

 wild climbers, as the ivy, clematis, etc. But the name 

 is very appropriate ; for every boy knows, and every 

 wood-labourer likes to cut, the sticks (generally hazels) 

 round Avhich the honeysuckle has grown, 'oftentimes 

 ■finding it selfe so straight and hard about that it 



