THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
15 
will thrive. The different sorts of vines may be distin¬ 
guished as creepers, twiners, climbers and trailers. The 
creepers are those which throw out adventitious roots 
from their stems as they climb, by which they attach 
themselves to the bark of trees and rough walls, like 
the Virginia Creeper and English Ivy. Twiners, 
Honeysuckles for instance, rise by winding round and 
round objects with which they come in contact. 
Climbers, rise by having tendrils which lay hold of 
twigs of trees, or fix themselves in crevices, and sup¬ 
port the A r ine till its large arms have wreathed them¬ 
selves upon some other support—grape vines, for in¬ 
stance,—or without tendrils, by the mere force of their 
growth overlying the branches of trees, and finding 
support by hanging over them, like the wild Roses. 
Trailers are those which prefer to creep upon the ground 
like the low-vine Blackberry. Prominent among our 
native creepers is the well-known 
VIRGINIA CREEPER, 
Ampelopsis quinquefolia, often called the American 
Ivy, though it has little resemblance to the tine Ivy, ex¬ 
cept in its power of adhesion to the bark of trees, and 
to walls, and in the fact that it forms an equally luxuri¬ 
ant mass of foliage upon them. The leaf is composed of 
five irregularly serrate leaflets, radiating from a com¬ 
mon point of intersection. These are usually quite 
glossy on the upper surface. In a deep rich soil the 
plant is of very rapid growth, attaching itself firmly to 
wood or stone buildings, or to the trunks of old trees, 
and soon covers these objects with a fine mantle of rich 
foliage. Nothing can be more admirably adapted than 
this plant for concealing out-buildings and disguising 
the unsightly stone fences which are so common and so 
great a deformity in many parts of the country. Its 
flowers have no beauty, but it is well worth growing as 
an ornamental plant, from the brilliant scarlet and 
orange which its leaves assume in autumn, and which 
look particularly well at that season when, intermingled 
with those of the common Ivy, or with the Cedars, on 
which it naturally climbs, from the fine contrast they 
afford, and as Thoreau says of the Red Maple, ‘ ‘ its virtues, 
not its sins, are as scarlet.” 
A. tricuspidata, known to the trade as Ampelopsis 
Veitchii, a native of Japan, is a very beautiful variety, 
more compact in habit than the foregoing, and has 
very bright, dark foliage, flushed with red in summer, 
changing to brilliant crimson in autumn. It is a rapid¬ 
growing, slender climber, provided with short-branched, 
tendril-like holdfasts, each branch of which is provided 
with a sucker or disc, by means of which it holds fast 
to the surface with which it comes in contact, whether 
stone, brick or tree-bark. Its slender stems are at first 
provided with simple cordate-toothed leaves lying 
closely over each other; as it gains vigor, they become 
three-lobed, and eventually they are divided to the base 
into three leaflets. It is a most elegant miniature 
creeper, and, like our native species, will endure and 
thrive well in the smoke and dust so common in many 
of our cities. The flowers are, as in the other species, 
inconspicuous. It clings so closely by its suckers that 
when once started against a wall no further attention 
will be required to keep it in position, and wall cover 
any surface quite as evenly and regularly as though it 
had had artificial training. 
Ampelopsis bipinnata (see illustration) commonly 
known as Pepper Vine, and Vitis bipinnata, by Torrey 
and Gray, a native species, common in West Virginia, 
Ohio and southward, is a free-growing hardy climbing 
plant, of most graceful habit and beautiful foliage, dif¬ 
fering from all the others of its class by reason of its 
much-divided leaves, blue-green color, and free habit 
with moderate growth. When properly trained, a plant, 
viewed from a distance, might be mistaken for a gigan¬ 
tic Lygodium scandens. It seeds more freely than any 
of the other species, producing myriads of Grapes that 
are not edible. 
THE AKEBIA, 
a Japanese climber, is a hardy vine of delicate appear¬ 
ance, of rapid growth, and suitable for large arbors or 
trellises, in sunny or shady situations. It will twine 
around old trees, completely covering the branches, 
from which it will hang in graceful festoons. It is one 
of our earliest-flowering climbers; the flowers are pro¬ 
duced in clusters, of a dark-brown color, and are very 
sweet-scented. In a light, rich soil, it will grow to the 
height of forty feet, and we have seen a growth of fifteen 
feet in a single season. 
THE ARISTOLOCHIA SIPHO, 
or Dutchman’s pipe, is one of our most beautiful, native 
climbing-plants; in habit it is both a twiner and 
climber, and is, therefore, unsuited for walls; but its 
great heart-shaped leaves, from seven to twelve inches 
in diameter, born with tropical luxuriance, make the 
finest exhibition of massive foliage for covering veran¬ 
das, trellisses or other artificial constructions of any¬ 
thing we know of. Not only is the foliage large, clean 
and perfectly healthy, but it is entirely free from insect 
enemies of all kinds—a consideration of great impor- 
. tance in selecting plants for arbors or verandas. The 
flowers are extremely curious, being the shape of a 
syphon or hook, with a long pendant pouch, of a 
yellowish-brown color, borne in May or June. It is 
indigenous in the Middle States, climbing to the tops 
of the tallest trees. For its perfect development, it 
should have a deep, rich soil, and a moist situation, 
either sun or shade. 
THE COMMON TRUMPET CREEPER, 
Bignonia {Tacoma) radicans, is a native plant of con¬ 
siderable beauty and usefulness; it is a true creeper, 
with long pinnate leaves composed of seven to eleven 
leaflets. It adheres to the bark of trees and to walls 
with the same tenacity as the Virginia Creeper, and its 
growth is equally vigorous, but its vigor tends more to 
the top, so that the trunk and large branches become 
bare as it grows old. The leaves appear late in the 
spring, and are not brilliant in autumn. Its magnifi¬ 
cent trumpet-shaped flowers are from three to four 
inches in length, borne in clusters in August and 
September, and are of a brilliant orange color. It is a 
superb vine to grow on old evergreen trees that are not 
in themselves pleasing. This plant can also be trained 
into tree form, making a very beautiful specimen for the 
lawn. 
The Bignonia grandiflora, or large-flowered Trumpet 
Creeper, is a Chinese variety with much larger, more 
open and equally brilliant flowers of similar color, and 
with similar foliage to the Trumpet Creeper, but not 
quite so vigorous, and in this latitude is not perfectly 
hardy. There are several other species, but none of 
more merit, that are hardy, than those we have 
described. 
