OUR COUNTRY H O M E 



loaves are not eaten by the insects, and remain a fresh green 

 until frost. 



The virgin's-bower pulls itself over the low bushes with its 

 interlocking leaf stems and turns its delicate starry flowers and 

 later its great clusters of bearded seed to our admiring gaze until 

 Christmas-time. We must not forget the wild pink morning-glory 

 or the rose-tinted hedge bindweed, which when kept within bourfds 

 are ornamental. But the dodder how perfectly its Frisian 

 name expresses it " A tangled hank of silk ! " Has anyone a 

 good word for it ? I shudder when I hear there are ten distinct vari- 

 eties. We may be thankful that we have but one, and that it is an 

 annual. It is a parasite of the worst character, for its long brittle 

 threads wind tightly about the stems of its victim and stifle the 

 circulation of the sap until the whole plant withers and blackens. 

 Its masses of tiny white flowers appearing in bunches upon the stem 

 of the victimized plant resemble those of the poison ivy ; fortunately 

 it withers at the first touch of frost, but if one is unwilling to wait 

 for that propitious moment, a lighted torch applied to bush and 

 parasite is an absolute remedy. 



The climbing false buckwheat too I find myself compelled to 

 regard as an enemy when it invades my dogwood and spiraea 

 and twines about the aromatic sumac, and flaunts its pale green 

 blossoms arrogantly above the top of my rarest rose. 



The matrimony vine has its good points although it needs a 



certain environment to show them well. With proper and careful 



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