We have to cut away the decayed parts in the autumn, and that is the only form of pruning these get ! Clematises on trees we never think of pruning. More words have been wasted about pruning than about anything else in gardening. 4 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING of the most beautiful climbers I have ever seen was a Lapageria on the north side of a wall at Caerheys. The finest tea roses, too, are happy on the north side of a wall. After various trials with Bamboo and wire and iron I came to the conclusion that the best trellising can be made from battens of our native Oak. Iron wire is not good, and the galvanised wire is not any better, but stout pencillike wire may serve as a base for the smaller pieces of wood. The vines of Northern Japan and China are a perfect treasure-house of climbers that may be grown almost anywhere. I was so much taken with them that when planting an orchard I put vines on the apple and other trees with superb effect. A " practical " friend who came along said, " What about the apples ? " I said I did not care. As it happened, I got both the beauty of the vines and the apples too. The way these vines have run up the fruit trees is wonderful. Some time afterwards we made a pergola from the house to the stable and put Japanese, American, and French vines upon it. The Virginian Creepers, which have little pads to their fingers with which they fix themselves, are brilliant in woodland. Merely by putting one or two of them at the base of a tree one may, in good soil, get a noble flame of colour in autumn, and without doing harm to anything. The greatest improvement of our day for the climberlover is the pergola, so common in Italy and Southern France. In our country we have the advantage of being able to grow on it a greater number of climbers than the Italians could in their hot sun. Growing such plants on walls involves pruning, and much work that is anything I rather like taking one of the fine forms of Ivy and putting it at the base of a tree, with a stone over it, leaving it to climb up. To show how one may go to work, I may say that we are now planting groups of Hollies, the noblest of all evergreen shrubs, and when we plant a Holly we put a delicate climber against it, a Clematis, or the Flame Nasturtium, as the case may be. Some climbers are so fragile that they do not injure any shrub ; if it does, it can be cut away. Wild roses may also be beautifully treated in a natural way, such as our own Dog rose or the Japanese ramblers people are so fond of. One can only see their highest beauty when they are running over or falling about a tree. Some climbers, too, that become weeds in rich garden soil, may be used with good effect to clothe fences. We have used the Hungarian Bindweed in that way ; it is a handsome plant, but whilst in the garden it ruins everything else, on an orchard fence it is never in the way. W. R. CHAPTER I CLIMBING PLANTS IN GARDENS AND IN NATURE PLANTS of climbing habit occupy an important position among those cultivated by man, either for use or for ornament. It may be said...