THE VINES OF THE FARM 289- 
Frc. 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. 
Fic. 124. The climbing nightshade-bittersweet. 
