CHAPTER VIL 



DKAPEKY FOR TREES AND BUSHES. 



The numerous hardy climbers wliicli we pos- 

 sess are very rarely seen to advantage, owing- 

 to tlieir l)eing stifHv trained against walls. 

 Indeed, the greater number of hardy climbers 

 have oone out of cultivation niainlv for this 

 reason. One of the happiest of all ways of 

 using them is that of training them in a free 

 manner over trees ; in this way many beautiful 

 effects may be secured. Established trees 

 have usually exhausted the ground near their 

 base, which may, however, afford nutriment 

 to a hardy climbing shrul). In some low trees 

 the graceful companion may garland their heads ; in tall ones 

 the stem only may at first be adorned. But some vigorous 

 climbers could in time ascend the tallest trees, and there can be 

 nothing more beautiful than a veil of such a one as Clematis 

 montana suspended from the branch of a tall tree. A whole 

 host of lovely plants may Ije seen to great advantage in this 

 way, apart from the well-known and popular climbing plants. 

 There are, for example, man}- species of Clematis which 



