24 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



The grape, also, seems to be passing through a 

 similar transition, and to he taking its time about 

 it. In "Bible Times" — some thousands of years 

 ago — the vine-dressers had much to say about the 



"fruitful" and the "unfruitful" 

 vine: a perversity that they could 

 only deplore but not explain. To- 

 day the microscope shows us that 

 some vines bear perfect flowers and 

 consequently fruit, while others re- 

 tain a semi-dioecious trick of put- 

 ting forth staminate flowers and 

 are consequently sterile of fruit. 

 I discovered two vines of the latter 

 sort in our vicinity — a puzzle to 

 the natives — which each year put 

 forth quantities of blossoms but 

 never bore a grape, even in a 

 The adjoining sketch will show 

 the difference between the sterile and the fertile 

 blossoms. 



GRAPE FLOWERS 



grape year. 



Virgin's Bower — Clematis virginiana 

 July-August 



A lovely climbing vine, profusely covered with 

 bunches of white, fragrant flowers which, after 



