THE VINES OF THE FARM 



289 



Fig. 123. An herbaceous climber — climbing buckwheat. 



Of low-growing vines there is endless variety. They 

 twine, they climb, they sprawl. A few of the finer flowering 

 sorts, such as climbing roses and honeysuckles and apios, have 

 already been mentioned. Many of the lesser ones have 

 charming foliage. No gems glisten more brightly than do the 

 pendent fruits of the nightshade-bittersweet (fig. 124). 

 Nothing in the world is more beautiful than the delicate 

 tracery of these low-climbing things, commingling with and 

 garlanding the bushes. 



Precious to the gardener are the vines, most slender and 

 fragile of nature's "lace-workers of the woods and brake". 

 With them he may quickly cover the unsightly shed or fence 

 with roods of blossoming verdure. He may overspread the 

 bare walls left by the 

 builder with a mantle 

 of varied green and 

 brown wrought in ex- 

 quisite design. He 

 may throw a filmy 

 mantle of life over 

 the top of mutilated 

 shrubbery. Nature 

 sets him splendid 

 models in every 

 thicket and by every 

 brookside. 



Fig. 124. The climbing nightshade-bittersweet. 



