Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 51 



selves on the mind as the type of graceful plant-life. 

 Besides climbing P ea-flowers and Cony olvuli , of which 

 the stems perish in winter, we have the great tribes of 

 wild vines, noble in foliage, the many _ H oneysuckles, 

 from coral red to pale yellow, all beautiful; and the 

 Clematidae, varied, and lovely, some with small flowers 

 borne in showers like drops from a fountain jet, and 

 often sweet as Hawthorn blossoms. 



This climbing vegetation may be trained and tor- 

 tured into forms in gardens, but never will its beauty 

 be seen until we entrust to it the garlanding of shrub, 

 and copse, or hedgerow, fringes of plantation, or 

 groups of shrubs and trees. All that need be done 

 is to put in a few tufts of a kind, and leave them 

 alone, adapting the plant to the spot and soil. The 

 large Hungarian—Bindweed would be best in rough 

 places, out of the pale of the garden, so that its roots 

 might spread where they could do no harm, while a 

 fragile Clematis might grow over a tree and star its 

 green with fair flowers. In a wood we see a Honey- 

 suckle clambering up through an old Hawthorn tree, 

 and then struggling with it as to which should give 

 most bloom — but in gardens not yet. Some may say 

 that this cannot be done in the garden, but it can be ; 

 because, for gardens we can select plants from so many 

 countries, and adapt them to our particular wants and 

 soils. We can effect contrasts, in which nature is often 

 poor in one place, owing to the few plants that naturally 

 inhabit one spot of ground. Foolish old 'laws' laid 



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