192 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



ing stems as that of the hop or bryony, the reverse 

 of that of the bindweed. One of our poets, in 

 dwelling upon the charm of the woodbine, describes 

 how 



"With clasping tendrils it invests the branch, 

 Else unadorn'd, with many a gay festoon 

 And fragrant chaplet ; recompensing well 

 The strength it borrows with the grace it lends." 



The writer of these lines, less observant than was 

 meet, falls into the popular fallacy that a plant that 

 climbs necessarily does so by means of its tendrils, 

 but the greater number of climbing plants the 

 honeysuckle amongst them have no such aids, nor 

 feel the need of them. 



Another climber, an admirable background plant, 

 is ivy. It has, moreover, the valuable property that 

 it will grow well in situations too shady for most 

 other plants, and will therefore clothe with verdure 

 spots that might else be bare. As the gardeners 

 who make it a speciality will supply us with over a 

 hundred named sorts, varying in size, and form, and 

 colour of leaf, x the choice may well become bewilder- 

 ing, and it is clearly best to visit the nurseryman's 



1 Thus aureomaculata has mottled yellow leaves ; aurantia 

 greyish green foliage ; marmorata large green leaves edged 

 with creamy-white ; luteola has its foliage green with a grey 

 mottling and a broad edging of pale yellow. Digitata has its 

 leaves cut up into deep fingers, while others are heart-shaped 

 or triangular in form. 



