58 HOME AND GARDEN 



so strange and interesting to see how the lesser growth 

 can attack and overcome the greater, and because from 

 childhood those spirally twisted and swollen stems, so 

 often met with in the woodlands, have always had for 

 me an almost mysterious attractiveness. 



But none the less do I feel and know that it is one 

 of the most delight-giving of our native plants. No 

 other flowering thing that I know leaps and laughs as 

 does the fragrant Woodbine. It is as if it sang aloud : 

 " Let all who have eyes to see and hearts to feel, 

 be glad with me in the long sweet days of mid-most 

 summer." 



Through the commonest hedgerow it will feel its 

 way, and lightly twine a crown of glory on the head 

 of the humblest vegetation ; and when in our hills a 

 moss-grown Thorn or Juniper dies of old age, the 

 Woodbine will give it glorious burial, covering the 

 hoary branches with a freshness of young life and a 

 generous and gladly-given wreathing of sweetest bloom. 



