Ground-Pine
Deep in the shadowy woods, often where pine-trees are growing, you will find the ground-pine. Clinging close to the ground, curling in feathery, green clusters on its vine-like root, it runs for yards over the surface, while its root, lying along the top, sends down slender rootlets into the earth. Push away the dry leaves or pine-needles that usually cover the root, and you can pull up long strips and soon gather enough to make the prettiest kind of festive decorations.
Festoons of the ground-pine are very pretty on walls, stair-banisters, porch-railings, over picture-frames, and hanging from chandeliers, and this ready-made evergreen rope is as suitable for outdoor as for indoor decoration, as beautiful in summer as in winter.
When you want to "dress-up" in the woods use the ground-pine for trimmings. Loop it over your skirt and make a wreath for your hair. Last summer at camp we used the ground-pine in this way and the little girls, arrayed for a dance, never looked prettier. For table decorations at camp and for decorating the tent doorways the ground-pine is charming.
[Fig. 85] shows how the short, curled clusters grow on the long root, and [Fig. 86] gives a wee pine-tree made of one cluster picked off the root and planted in an outdoor doll's garden.
This is what our American writer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said of the ground-pine:
"As I spoke, beneath my feet
The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath."