Ill 



victim of the vine's embrace, and in the yard between 

 houses of the Messrs. Phippen, Nos. 118 and 120 Bridge 

 street, a tall spruce supports the graceful creeper. 

 Growing in this manner, the ampelopsis appears to have 

 more brilliant coloring in the autumn, or it may be that 

 the colored leaves show to greater advantage when thus 

 hanging free, than when held against a wall by trellis 

 work. The vine covered tree at the north-west corner 

 of Charter and Liberty street, in Mrs. Chaney's garden, 

 has always seemed to show its coloring to the greatest 

 perfection, and it is one that has annually been ad- 

 mired. 



A parasitic plant grows upon and derives its nourish- 

 ment from the host-plant to which it may be attached, 

 as in the case of the native mistletoe, which grows upon 

 various species of deciduous trees, even as far North as 

 New Jersey. A common parasite here is the dodder 

 (Cuscuta gronovii) whose waxy stems and little clus- 

 tered flowers may be found just at this season on the 

 golden rods and other tall plants in moist fields. 



But the street trees act as hosts for other plants 

 than parasites — we cannot with exactness term them 

 epiphytes even, for trees are not the natural home 

 of these plants. Epiphytes are familiar to us in green- 

 houses, and many species of orchids will serve as 

 illustrations. They are attached to trees in their native 

 haunts, but they do not derive their nourishment from 

 the sap of the tree, for they only are lodged upon it 

 for convenience, as a bird might build its nest there to 

 be out of the way of harm. 



On Chestnut street, for years, a mountain ash grew 

 in the fork of the branches of an elm in front of Rev. 

 E. B. Willson's house, and another is still growing, I 

 think, on a tree farther down the street. 



