WILD FLOWERS white and greenish 



matic oil painting of the Father of our Country is 

 annually decorated with its plumy clusters which are 

 gathered in the fall. The Virgin's Bower is a long, 

 slender, leafy vine, having a round, grooved, and tough, 

 woody fibred, purple stained, green stalk. The small, 

 white or greenish white flowers are imperfect, and the 

 staminate and pistillate blossoms grow on separate 

 plants. They do not possess true petals, but the four 

 or five rounded, oblong, petal-like sepals appear in their 

 stead. The numerous stamens and pistils are light 

 green in colour, and the latter measure an inch in length. 

 The expanded flowers are an inch broad and are 

 delicately fragrant. They are borne on short, slender, 

 green stems, in spreading clusters, at the end of the 

 vine, and from the stalk at the leaf joints. The large, 

 smooth, dark green leaves are set on long stems in pairs 

 and the three, or rarely five, broad, oval, short-stemmed 

 leaflets terminate acutely with long, tapered points. 

 They are slightly indented at the base, and are promi- 

 nently ribbed. The edge or margin is cut into a few 

 sharp, coarse notches or lobes. During September 

 and October the pistillate flowers are followed with the 

 curled, silky, silvery plumes of withered styles, which 

 are even more attractive than the flowers, and they 

 give the vine its greatest charm of fluffy, festooning 

 drapery. This handsome plant grows about a dozen 

 feet in length and spreads along its ways, groping and 

 clinging by its sensitive leaf stems, which support the 

 vine by hooking on to, or even coiling spirally around 

 whatever happens in their course to afford favourable 



237 



