310 NOOKERIES ON THE HOME GROUNDS. 



lopsis in contemplating the charms of the Japan ivy, for few 

 things are more effective in our tangled wild-wood corners 

 than great masses of the common Virginia creepers — A. 

 qtdnquefolia. How its piled-up leaves festoon the tree 

 trunks with overlying masses of shining green in summer 

 and of scarlet and blood-red in autumn every one familiar 

 with fall effects must remember. Of an entirely different, 

 but none the less very effective, nature is the Virginia silk 

 — Periploca Groeca, — with long, pointed, shining leaves, 

 small flowers, and brownish-red stems, reaching out with 

 almost unrivalled speed of growth away up the stem of the 

 tree. For the adornment of the upper part of the trees 

 and I'ock masses we must not forget the rich clusters of foli- 

 age and charming garlands of flowers of the purple and 

 \vhite wistarias. Wistarias, allowed to reach out, flower 

 and leaf most abundantly in their upper parts, and are, 

 therefore, specially adapted for garlanding a tree or roof 

 far up in the air without reference to covering its lower 

 part. Then there is the neat-leaved akebia ; the bold and 

 picturesque, large, light-colored leaved Dutchman's pipe; 

 the autumn-crimsoned purple-berried bitter-sweet, all lovely 

 climbers for our purpose. But of all charming climbers, I 

 verily believe the clematis must bear the palm. The vari- 

 ety of color and form of its flowers seems endless, extending 

 as it does, from the noble, dark-purple Clematis Jachmani 

 to the delicate, small, white and yellow flowers of 0. ftam- 

 mula and O. apiifolia. And they are equally fine in the 

 nookery, whether carpeting bare spaces of ground or gar- 

 landing and draping rocks and trees. 



Before leaving a subject thus closely allied to the very 



