324 The American Flower Garden 



the stem that, on opening at evening, are pure white and especially 

 fragrant, to attract the night-flying moths; but after fertilisation, 

 the corollas turn pale yellow. " Quite over-canopied with luscious 

 woodbine" was a reference to the honeysuckle, not to our five- 

 leaved ampelopsis, in Shakespeare's " Midsummer Night's Dream." 

 There is a coral honeysuckle, too, that caters to the ruby-throated 

 humming-bird, which "likes any colour at all so long as it 's red." 

 This vine is particularly beautiful over rocks. 



Although not entirely evergreen either, the Japanese akebia 

 opens its five-fingered leaves so early in the spring and retains them 

 so late into the winter that one can hardly grudge it a resting time. 

 Its early flowers are insignificant small, curious, purplish, spicily 

 fragrant affairs and it seldom fruits in this country; but it is very 

 hardy, it is free from the attacks of worms and caterpillars, it grows 

 rapidly and its foliage is charming. One admirer of the vine, which 

 is by no means so much used as its merits deserve, speaks enthusi- 

 astically of the delicate silhouettes that its palmate leaflets form 

 against a moonlit sky where he sees them embowering his porch. 

 I know an old red picket fence around a farmhouse that is surpris- 

 ingly effective because of its akebia drapery. Native clematis 

 flings white, fleecy festoons over the vines' dark background in 

 autumn. It does not resent a near neighbour. 



Exquisite airy grace characterises most of the lovely clematis 

 clan. To frame landscape pictures seen from porches and cover 

 trellis and pergolas with clouds of misty bloom in early autumn, 

 no vine can outdo the variety paniculata. Flammula is choice, it is 

 deliciously fragrant, its bloom at midsummer is most welcome, 

 but its constitution is rarely robust. It usually seems like the fragile 

 sister of the family. The brilliant red-cupped coccinea is never 

 more effective, perhaps, than when used with the fleecy flowered 



