THE MOUNTAIN FRINGE. 



Be this as it may, it seems proper to think that at least one 

 important use of the dependent vines, in whatever relation of life, 

 is to call out and develop the gallantry, gentleness, or helpful- 

 ness of the strong oaks. I have the memory of an old legend, 

 that once our blessed Lord suffered one of his saints to become 

 a beggar by the roadside, there to sit all day long, to solicit and 

 receive alms. But he who had all his life been a helper of the 

 poor and a giver of alms, by no means liked this hard fortune, 

 and made complaint of it. But the Lord explained that if there 

 were no poor there would be no charity ; that the helpless are 

 the best gift of God to the helpful ; and that as a 'beggar he 

 was perhaps doing more to save souls, by keeping them gentle, 

 and unselfish, and thoughtful of the weak, than when he went 

 about strong and self-dependent, giving to the needy. 



The artist has given a most admirable representation of one 

 of our most beautiful climbing plants. It is quite common in 

 the woods of New York and the West. It was described in the 

 first years of the century by one of our earliest and most justly 

 celebrated botanists. Professor Rafinesque, who dedicated the 

 genus to Major Adlum, "who is said by Dr. Torrey to have been 

 a distinguished cultivator of the vine." It is sometimes called 

 Climbing Fumatory, from the Latin fumus, smoke, on account of 

 the supposed resemblance of the fine sprays of branches and 

 flowers, in this and related plants, to — 



" Light-winged Smoke ! Icarian bird 

 Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight," 



— the subtile spirit of which, the blue envelope, that wraps the 

 distant hills about, the poet sings of here: 



