ORNAMENTAL CLIMBING PLANTS. 119 



will not cling to the wall?" True, but it will twine up the stems 

 of the Ampelopsis, and when it has attained a good size its large 

 heart-shaped leaves afford a charming contrast with the other 

 vines ; so that I have been sorry I did not plant many more. 



Again : I wanted a vine that would cling to the wall, and this 

 time I had a place for Bignonia radicans, which I used to 

 advantage. It was placed in a spot bare until then ; but being 

 a true creeper and adhering with great tenacity wherever it can 

 find space, and also a vigorous grower, it soon occupied all the 

 vacant room there was and more. The foliage of this plant ap- 

 pears late in spring, and there is no brilliancy to it in the fall, 

 but the flowers are pleasing, and as 3^ou are well aware are borne 

 in large clusters in August and September. Indeed the vine 

 itself eventually showed but little, being covered b}' the other 

 vines ; but its flowers appearing amongst their foliage produced a 

 handsome effect. 



I also planted there the climbing Hydrangea (Schizophragma 

 hydra7igeoides) , two years ago. It has endured the two winters 

 without any protection and promises well. 



I think we have been long enough at the wall, but I must say 

 that no work that I have done or thought that I have given to 

 any project ever paid better than that. 



Now that I have tried to tell you how I covered my wall, let us 

 see if there are not some other vines that you may be interested 

 in, and would like to know about. At a friend's house, trained 

 to a trellis by the side of the front door, is a very luxuriant vine 

 of Celastrus scandens, or Bitter-sweet. Either with the flowers, 

 which are small and greenish, produced in raceme-like clusters, 

 or with the orange-colored pods opening and displaying the 

 scarlet covering of the seeds, it is one of our handsomest native 

 climbers. Don't you think this was a good place for it? George 

 B. Emerson says it should be cultivated for its picturesque effect. 



Vitis heterophylla is represented in the frontispiece of the 

 "Gardener's Monthly" for 1877, and the following excellent de- 

 scription of this handsome vine is given : " Its great merit in 

 'ornamental gardening is not near as well known as it ought to be. 

 The leaves are first green, but when the plant has something to 

 run on and grows vigorously, they are prettily feathered with 

 white. The deep sky-blue berries, towards fall, give it additional 

 attractions. It grows with great rapidity, very soon covering an 



