ROCK, ALPINE, FERN, AND WILD GARDENING-. 



189 



me-nots, &c, and in larger ones, plants of much. importance. Such. Ivies as the following are atimir- 



larger stature. ahle for these purposes : — 



Algierense variegata. 



Climbers-There is nothing like Ivy to begin ^£S ssima " 



with. Unfortunately, it is a dreadful monopolist. Elegantissima marginata. 

 Give it a start of an inch, and it will take a yard — 



nay, a whole Rootery if left to itself. This is espe- Clematis ranks next to Ivy for block- wreathing 



Maculata. 

 Maculata latifolia. 

 Rboniboides variegata. 

 Silver-edged. 

 Spectabilis aurea, &c. 



Portion of Rootery with Snowdrops. 



daily true of the larger-leaved Irish Ivy. The 

 writer has known many Rooteries completely ruined 

 by it, that is, if informally varied masses of superb 

 grandeur can be called ruin. All other plants, how- 

 ever, have succumbed to the Ivy. The English, 

 or common "Wood Ivy, is far less grasping, and by 

 choosing some of the many distinct variegated and 

 other less robusjb Ivies, training them round the 

 blocks at starting, leaving them tolerably free, yet 

 curtailing excessive and monopolising extension, the 

 Ivy will perform double functions of the highest 



and clothing, and C. Vitalba, or our Wild Traveller's 

 Joy, is among the most useful and telling of all the 

 Virgin's Bowers for the clothing of the roots in 

 Rooteries. It is, however, even a more dangerous 

 monopolist than the Ivy, and after giving a few 

 turns round a huge root, its head should be tied up 

 into a neighbouring tree, where it may take a run of 

 thirty or fifty feet. Other varieties of Clematis are 

 described under Trees and Shrubs, and for a list 

 of climbers generally we may refer to the hardy 

 section of Climbers and Creepers. Here we can 



