342 



MY GARDEN. 



FIG. 785. Bryonia dioica. 



advice, I procured some, and found the statement to be correct. We 

 have now generally a good brood of young swans, which feed so 

 greedily upon this weed, that but little remains in my water. The 

 female plant alone exists in this country, and the flower is shown 

 in the wood engraving. 



Amongst the climbing plants we have the Bryony (Bryonia dioica, 

 fig- 785), a plant which, when old, has a root 

 as large as two or three parsnips. Its growth 

 ./* is particularly elegant, and an occasional plant 



jf is welcome amongst the shrubs. 

 ^ 



Not so beautiful in growth, but having a 



finer effect in fruit, the Nightshade (Solatium 

 dulcamara, fig. 786) rears itself over the shrubs, 

 and produces its enticing scarlet bunches of 

 poisonous berries. It is so great an ornament 

 amongst shrubs, that I have not the heart 



to extirpate it. 



We have two beautiful flowering plants which are great pests, as 

 they will make their appearance where they 

 are not wanted. One is the common Con- 

 volvulus, or Bindweed, which in my garden 

 attains the height of twenty feet in a single 

 season, and then sends forth its charming 

 white flowers. The best way to destroy it 

 is constantly to pull off its young shoots 

 during spring and summer. Doing this once FIG. 7 86. -soianum dulcamara. 

 or twice will not hurt the plant, any more than we hurt our asparagus 

 plants by decapitating them ; nevertheless, by perseverance the plant 

 becomes exhausted. The other climbing plant which is a great pest 

 to us is the wild Hop, as it will pertinaciously grow over our 

 hedges. It is very beautiful, but destroys the hedge, and so we 

 are obliged to treat it as we do the wild Convolvulus. 



We are also troubled in places with that most exquisite flower the 

 Lesser Bindweed (Convolvulus arvcnsis, fig. 787). This grows in the 



