THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE 
169 
adds a charm unknown to all other 
climbers. The tubers are hardy and 
grow larger from year to year. The 
tops die down every fall but grow again 
very rapidly in the spring. 
The vines are the hardiest, surest 
growers, even under adverse conditions, 
of anything I have ever noted. I will 
cite a few cases. 
One spring soon after planting an 
underdrain became clogged and the 
running water flooded part of the plan- 
tation all summer long. 1 supposed 
that there the crop would be ruined but 
the tubers turned out just as good as 
those in drier ground. 
Again, in my yard I had a large tub 
over two feet deep constantly filled 
with cold running water from a spring. 
One summer 1 noticed a vine growing 
up from the bottom of that tub. When 
it reached the surface I pulled it up 
and a cinnamon vine tuber was at the 
bottom. The vine had grown fully two 
feet, with numerous leaves, at all times 
entirely under water. 
So much for growing in water. Now 
for the opposite extreme. One autumn 
I went into the dark cellar where I 
store the tubers in winter, and discov- 
ered a lot of vines climbing over the 
tables and shelves as best they could. 
All of these, one measuring twenty-two 
feet, had come from one large tuber ac- 
cidentally left on the clean cement floor. 
They were as white as snow and had 
grown without soil or water, in total 
darkness. 
The tubers in growing will penetrate 
anything softer than stone. I dug a 
very curious one that had reached a 
large clamshell embedded hollow up in 
the soil. In its attempt to go through 
the shell the tuber formed a spiral 
three times around and then gave it up. 
I kept this freak tuber on my desk all 
winter, using it as a paper weight till 
planting time in the spring. 
The most extraordinary freak vine I 
ever produced grew about ten years 
ago. It had variegated leaves, beauti- 
fully striped with white and green in 
about equal proportions. It was mar- 
velously beautiful and came true from 
planting both bulbs and tubers. I was 
sure 1 had found a fortune — but, alas, 
I lost all by an unfortunate accident. 
I have been on the constant lookout for 
another, but among all the millions I 
have grown for the seed and florist 
AN ARBOR OF CINNAMON VINES. 
trade in the past fifty years I never saw 
another like it. Nature is ever pro- 
ducing strange freaks, sometimes at 
long intervals, and I am still looking. 
Into the chill of the Winter air 
Creep the vigor and warmth of Spring, 
And all about, with abandon rare, 
Her largess she doth fling: 
For Spring is the wizard without compare, 
That, marshalling forces everywhere, 
Doth make of this earth a place so fair, 
The poets of it sing. 
— Emma Peirce. 
A CINNAMON VINE TUBER. 
