THE CLIMBING plants have a place of their own in garden decoration, a place that cannot at all be filled by any other plants. Screens are necessary for the veranda or for covering out-buildings, and when wanted something of an ornamental character is desirable. It is a well known fact that the plant foliage is the most cooling shade that can be devised, and it also furnishes a rest to the eye and mind. An awning will keep the sun from our rooms or from the veranda, but it does not furnish a cooling, refreshing shade, as does the foliage of our climbing plants.

Nature seems to have provided climbing plants for this very purpose, and in the greatest profusion where they are the most needed. The most vigorous and beautiful in the world are indigenous in the woods of nearly all our states, growing to the summits of lofty trees, covering walls and fences in the most artistic manner, and creeping over and among rocks where but little other vegetation will thrive. The different sorts of vines may be distinguished as creepers, twiners, climbers and trailers. The creepers are those that 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, of which the honeysuckle is the best example, rise by winding round and round objects with which they come in contact. Climbers rise by their tendrils laying hold of twigs of trees, or fixing themselves in crevices and supporting the vine till its large arms have wreathed themselves upon some other support - a grape vine, for instance, or if they are without tendrils, they rise by the mere force of their growth overlaying the branches of trees, and finding support by hanging over them, like the wild roses. Trailers, are those that prefer to creep upon the ground, like the low vine blackberry.

Prominent among our native creepers is the well known.

Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis Quinquefolia)

Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis Quinquefolia), often callled the American ivy, though it has but little resemblance to the true ivy, except in its power of adhesion to the bark of trees and to walls, and in the fact that it forms an equally luxuriant mass of foliage upon them. In a deep, rich soil this plant is of very rapid growth, attaching itself firmly to wood or stone buildings, or to the trunks of old trees, and it soon covers these objects with a fine mantle of rich foliage. In very rich soil, where there is sufficient moisture, it has but little resemb-ance to the plant we are accustomed to see. In such a situation the leaves are very large and of a deep glossy green, and of very great substance. Nothing can be more admirably adapted 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 great beauty is in autumn, when its scarlet and orange foliage is so brilliant and contrasts so finely with the cedar on which it naturally climbs.

Ampelopsis Tricuspidata

Ampelopsis Tricuspidata, known to the trade as Ampelopsis Veitchii, and popularly as Boston ivy, a native of Japan, is a very beautiful species, more compact in habit than the foregoing, and with very bright, dark foliage, flushed with red in summer, changing to brilliant crimson in autumn. It is an 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. 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 left to itself, it will cover any surface quite as evenly and regularly as though it had had artificial training.

Ampelopsis Bipinnata

Ampelopsis Bipinnata, commonly known as pepper vine, and as Vitis bipinnata, by Torrey and Gray, a native species, common in West Virginia, Ohio and southward, is a free-growing hardy climbing plant, of very graceful habit and beautiful foliage differing 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 gigantic Lygodium scandens. To cover a veranda it is by far the most desirable of the species.

Akebia Quinata

Akebia Quinata, a neat Japanese climber, is a hardy vine of delicate appearance, 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 produced in clusters, of a dark purplish-brown color, and are very sweet-scented. In a light, rich soil, it will grow to the height of 40 feet, and a growth of 15 feet in a single season is quite common.

Aristolochia Sipho

Aristolochia Sipho, or the Dutchman's Pipe, is one of our most beautiful native climbing plants. In habit, it is both a climber and twiner, and is, therefore, unsuited for walls; but its great heart-shaped leaves, from seven to twelve inches in diameter, borne with tropical luxuriance, make a finer exhibition of massive foliage for covering verandas, trellises or other artificial constructions than anything else 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 importance in selecting plants for arbors or verandas. Its flowers are extremely curious, being the shape of a siphon or hook, with a long, pendent 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. It grows equally well either in sun or shade.

The Wistaria

Not the least pleasingly ornamental of this class of plants is the wistaria. While W. frutescens, with its lilac flowers in elegant racemes, is an old garden favorite in this country, W. sinensis is the finest and most popular of the genus in European gardens, and has become a good deal of a favorite in this country also. The typical form has pale purple flowers; but there is also a pure white variety of great beauty, and another very fine sort called W. macrobotrys, remarkable for its very long racemes. For arbors, trellises and pagodas, W. sinensis is a very handsome ornamental plant, and in southern and mild localities it may be grown as a standard on the lawn, with an open trellis or framework to support the branches. Any good rich soil is suitable for wistarias, but they prefer those that are light and warm, and delight in a sunny location.

The Common Trumpet Creeper, Bignonia (Teco-Coma) Radicans

The Common Trumpet Creeper, Bignonia (Teco-Coma) Radicans, is a native plant of considerable beauty and usefulness. It is a true creeper, with long pinnate leaves, composed of from 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 branches become bare with age. The leaves appear late in the spring, and are not brilliant in autumn. Its magnificent trumpet-shaped flowers are from three to four inches in length, born in immense clusters in August and September, and are a lively orange color. This plant is not fitted for small grounds, its home being by the roadside, or on old trees, or in groves that are not in themselves particularly pleasing. C. L. Allen.