38 MY GARDEN 



name for him, because we never know where to have 

 him ; but he received it for other reasons. Eccremo- 

 carpus scaber merely calls for respectful mention. 

 Adlumia cirrhosa won't prosper with me, which is 

 hard, for I admire this little North American biennial 

 exceedingly. I am frightened of rhus toxicodendron, 

 the poison vine, though to see it in autumn is a good 

 sight. I knew a great gardener who tamed the poison 

 ivy charmed it, apparently. He could handle it 

 without hurt; but most people suffer more or less 

 from contact with the wicked thing. Celastrus scandens 

 I do not find specially attractive. It grows tremen- 

 dously, but I have as yet failed to note the beautiful 

 fruit of the catalogues, though my plant is now an 

 adult in flourishing circumstances. Abobra viridiflora 

 lives beside this staff vine, and annually twines her 

 dainty foliage into the hardier thing. But I have seen 

 neither her fragrant inflorescence nor scarlet berries. 

 There may be some conspiracy between these two 

 plants to deny me fruition. Another year of sterility 

 will have to see them separated. Abobra might pos- 

 sibly do better if dug up and treated like a dahlia ; 

 but I find so much to do in my garden that I am 

 most unwilling to disinter anything which can safely 

 be trusted underground. My Cape bulbs with their 

 last dying foliage wave imploring messages to me to 

 remove them, and either pot or store them against the 

 accumulated horrors of our early springtime ; but 

 only in certain cases do I take the least notice. Many 

 of them surprise themselves by their constitutions, 

 and come braced and healthy to business in April ; 



