160 
ON THE TREATMENT OF GREENHOUSE CLIMBING PLANTS. 
with the blooming beauties of the tropics, revelling under the fostering hand of pro- 
gressive art in all the splendour and voluptuousness of their native habitats. The 
associations with which such objects are invested are innumerable : from poetry, 
from philosophy, from Scripture, they each borrow resplendent robes, and invite as 
truly the sober eye of contemplation, as they fascinate the more susceptible gaze of 
the imaginative. 
We pass from these cursory suggestions as to the nature of the influences of 
which every one acknowledges himself a subject when indulged with the spectacle 
of exotics so far naturalized as to unfold for a season all their beauty in this country, 
to the more immediate intention of the present observations. Freely as annual, 
herbaceous, and even shrubby greenhouse plants are now planted in the flower- 
borders of the leading floriculturists, there is a manifest shyness to venture the 
exposure of their more interesting climatic congeners — climbing plants. It is true 
that what are aptly designated conservative walls exist in most extensive establish- 
ments, and that, by their protection, many plants are subjected to the natural cli- 
mate of Britain ; but these conveniences are only adapted for the more exuberant 
of the shrubby species, while by far the most attractive sorts, such as the herbaceous^ 
tribes, and slender shrubs, are wholly confined to the greenhouse. 
Walls cannot, we must ever maintain, be considered at all suitable for the sup- 
port of climbing plants ; and it is only as they tend to retain heat, and afford shelter 
from cold winds, or when some agreeable verdure is desirable to conceal them, that 
the practice of training exotics against such erections can be recommended. And 
since it is necessary that the plants thus employed should spread over the entire- 
surface of the wall at all seasons, to screen it as much as possible from the observer s 
gaze, there is thus rejected a number of species which cannot be permitted to enjoy 
the beneficial action of a pure, unrestricted atmosphere, unless some other mode 
and different materials be devised and brought into use. Such a method and 
materials it is the purport of this paper to exhibit and explain. 
Arched trellises, constructed of either wood or iron, and generally extended 
over a narrow walk in the flower-garden, or occupying some smaller plot, intersected 
with walks, in a retired part of the pleasure-grounds, are now becoming fashionable,, 
and may subserve the purpose of supporting climbers with tolerable effect. An 
objection, however, attaches to these, which will, we imagine, decide their inferiority 
to some of another description hereafter to be noticed. No single specimen can 
thus be trained so as to show any of the particular characters of the species; nor 
would it produce its flowers on the inner surface of the trellis, from which alone, in 
many cases, they can be viewed. This would be caused by the universal tendency 
of flowers to grow upwards, or towards the light. Indeed, were the blossoms all 
to incline inwards, the space would be too confined, and the light admitted too 
imperfectly, to expand them finely, or render their display, when at its greatest 
height, at all pleasing. All the advantage, therefore, that this kind of trellis can 
be said to aflbrd, is an umbrageous and refreshing retreat from the vehemence of a 
