TRELLIS FOR CLIMBING PLANTS. 
63 
serve the proper vigour on the side secluded from the light. It 
is true a poetical illusion has been thrown over the cylindrical 
shapes, by imagining their resemblance to a pillar; but I could 
say something about how nearly they approach the form of a 
chimney-pot. However, their best friends do not recommend 
them on the ground that the plant will succeed better upon 
their favourite shape than any other : many of them, indeed, 
have divided the question, by using only half a cylinder, because 
they find it next to impossible to preserve the same appearance 
on all sides of a circle, and it certainly is better to have a whole 
plant even on half a trellis, than half a plant on a whole cylinder. 
And here it is that the superiority of the flat frame stands pro¬ 
minently forward; the whole of the plant is seen at a single 
glance, every leaf and flower being placed in the very best posi¬ 
tion to please, and, moreover, that position is the one most natural 
and conducive to the general health of the plant. Much has 
been said about the form best suited for grouping with other 
plants of a contrary character. Now I think that climbers never 
do, or will, “ group well ” with shrubs or plants of any descrip¬ 
tion of other than their own character ; they should be grown or 
exhibited by themselves, for all training is artificial, and every 
kind of trellis displays a formality too conspicuous to escape the 
observant eye of taste. This view of the matter reduces the 
question to the mere consideration of what form will best set off 
the plant when in perfection, and I think what I have said will 
make that of easy determination, unless indeed the strictly 
natural mode of supporting them can be received as admissible 
among cultivated objects; this would be to place the branch of 
a tree within reach of the plant, and allow it to take its own 
direction,— a method too negligent in appearance to meet the 
commendation of those who value neatness, though perhaps 
preferable to any kind of training where it is absolutely required 
to mix them with other vegetable forms. On the score of con¬ 
venience, I am also disposed to give the preference to the flat 
trellis, as they occupy less space, will stand where no other 
plant would that is growing in a pot of the same size, even with 
advantage against the back wall of the house, or even two or 
three deep, without injury, observing only to place the strongest 
in the position that is furthest from the light, and the stems or 
branches may be disposed, examined, and cleaned with much 
greater ease and precision, and the constant trouble in turning 
g 4 
