92 TOWN AND WINDOW GARDENING 



is Honeysuckle ; the Dutch variety for its sweetness, the 

 Japanese for its leaves of yellow, green, and gold. Not 

 for the house, but for pergolas, or as a blind to hide " next 

 door," or for a rustic arbour, what is more cheerful than 

 the Hop, which climbs to the height of many yards in 

 one season, and drops its pretty blooms, that have so queer 

 and pleasant a smell, as merrily in a sunny corner of any 

 town garden as if it were clambering up the hop-poles 

 of Kent or Sussex ? Hop-bines might be used a great 

 deal more freely than they are to hide unsightly out- 

 houses and barren places, but even Hops want a little 

 care ; they must have some good stuff to grow into, and 

 they do like sunshine. Gourds are magnificent for all 

 these purposes. I know one gentleman who so much 

 admires the leaves and flowers of the common domestic 

 Vegetable Marrow that he cultivates it as an ornament 

 and not for eating, much as the King of Siam grows 

 carrots, with whose charming foliage he fell in love when 

 sojourning in England. 



Of all creepers we are familiar with, Clematis Montana 

 is least tolerant of the knife. If we happen to meet with 

 a very old one, that has been allowed to wander unchecked 

 all over the place, and is untidy at the bottom, it is quite 

 useless to attempt to cut and prune it into shape. Such 

 treatment would be certain to destroy ; it is better to take 

 it away bodily and put in a new one. The yearly prun- 

 ing already spoken of may be pursued in safety. Honey- 

 suckles behave much in the same way as to their dislike 

 of too much cutting, otherwise they give no trouble at 

 all, and thrive in any garden soil that is fairly good. Some- 

 times one has to deal with old house-walls whereon neg- 

 lected creepers show unsightly stems, and yet we cannot 

 part with them, because of the value of the upper growth. 

 The best thing to be done — so we find — is to plant some 

 gay perennial climber that will hide defects. One of the 

 best is the Morning Glory [Ipomoea,) If given a sunny 



