CHAP. II. DECORATIONS. 37 



with short crossbars, has a pleasing effect when employed for 

 supporting creepers, such as Ipomoea rubro-coerulea, Quamoclit, 

 &c. ; but in this case strings should be stretched from the cross- 

 bars to pegs, fastened in the ground in a circle at some distance 

 from the base of the pole, the creepers being planted just along 

 the outside of this circle, and trained up the strings. Thin or 

 split bamboos would answer better than the strings. 



In the Government Botanical Gardens stout iron rods have 

 of late been introduced for the support of scandent shrubs; 

 these are let into solid masonry, sunk in the earth. Their chief 

 merit is their durability. They are of course very expensive, 

 not so pleasing in appearance as supports of wood, and I cannot 

 but think, with the excessive heat they acquire under a fierce 

 sun, must be injurious to the young slender shoots of some kinds 

 of plants. 



Around scandent shrubs of too large growth for a single pole 

 to support, such as Combretums and the yellow Solfaterre Kose, 

 four bamboo poles are usually sunk in the ground, and united 

 firmly by bars above and below, as well as by bars crossing 

 diagonally. 



A very pleasing contrivance for growing creeping plants is, 

 either at some spot where footpaths intersect, or in a corner of 

 the garden where the footpath takes a turn at right angles, 

 to erect at each angle a pillar of masonry, about six feet high 

 and fourteen inches in thickness. To the sides of these pillars 

 attach a trellis of bamboo, and upon their summit erect a sloping 

 roof of trellis. Structures of this kind may unquestionably be 

 made to look very ornamental, overgrown with plants always in 

 blossom, like Pharbitis Leari, or Cryptostegia granditiora ; but 

 some persons might possibly object to them, from fear of snakes 

 and other vermin being concealed within them. 



For creepers grown in pots, trellis-work of bamboo, or frames 

 of iron, may be contrived of various devices. Common examples 

 of this kind of ornament are represented in figures 4, 5, 6. For 

 some plants, such as Ferns, Achimenes, &c., hanging baskets 

 are much used in England, and considered very ornamental. 

 In this country, however, the unremitting attention such 

 things demand in the way of watering will perhaps be 

 thought to entail more trouble than they merit. Several of the 

 Orchids, notwithstanding, are grown in this way, and baskets of 



