USE OF HARDY CLIMBING SHRUBS 299 



hue during winter, but in this respect individual 

 plants vary a good deal, the smaller-leaved forms 

 being as a rule the richest in colour. 



The most marked in this respect, and one that 

 from its neat, prettily-lobed leaves is well suited for 

 use in making up button-holes, sprays, &c., is the 

 variety atropurpurea, whose distinctive character is far 

 more marked in winter than in summer. Hedera 

 Helix minima must not be confounded with H. H. 

 conglomerates, though at a certain stage of growth 

 there is some similarity. A three-year old specimen 

 differs from the freer conglomerata form in that it 

 grows more flat both as regards the twigs and the 

 leaves on the twigs. It has more shining foliage of 

 a deeper and more sombre green, with pleasing 

 clouded tints, and further, as the name would suggest, 

 it is a smaller plant in all its parts. It is a beautiful 

 creeper for positions on the rock garden, and is one 

 of the best surface plants, as through it bulbs may 

 spear their growth and flowers without injury. H. //. 

 pedata and H. H. gracitis, both charming varieties of 

 the small-leaxed Ivies, should be in every collection. 



The uses to which Ivy may be put are innumer- 

 able, and with the many beautiful varieties that are 

 now to be obtained their sphere of usefulness has 

 considerably extended. One of the most picturesque 

 methods of growing Ivy is to allow it to clamber 

 over tree stumps placed here and there in suitable 

 parts of the garden. Ivy banks also are very charm- 

 ing, and for carpeting the bare ground beneath the 

 spreading branches of large trees nothing could be 



