FURNISHING AND FIXING CONTINUED. 89 



end. If this alone were allowed to grow, the result would 

 be the same as before, with a slight angle of the stem at 

 the point of the new departure. But after it is well 

 started, pinch it back close to the main stem and await 

 developments. If the plant is strong enough, you will 

 soon find a bud starting out at each side of the little stub 

 left by the pinching back ; and these will give two equal 

 stems in place of the one. When they have grown as far 

 as you wish, repeat the process of pinching or cutting, 

 and each will give you two more stems ; and so again and 

 again in a manner most interesting. Thus, in course of 

 time, you can train a well-rooted ivy in the shape of an 

 open fan or the semblance of a bush, as shown in the 

 diagram (figure 16). 



To give it something like the form of a tree, you must 

 fix a suitable support. Take three flexible shoots such 



Fig. 17. Fig. 18. 



as boys often get for whips, and put them into the pot 

 about three inches apart to secure the greater firmness. 

 Fifteen or twenty inches above the pot, bring them across 

 each other and fasten them together with a bit of copper 

 wire. Then bend the tops into any form desired, com- 

 pleting it Avith twigs or pieces of wire, and you have a 

 skeleton Avhich needs only a clothing of vegetable life to be 



