The Wild Morning-Glory
In your walks through the fields and along the country roadsides have you ever noticed the wild morning-glory? Of course, you have seen it and, perhaps, gathered some blossoms, only to find them in a short time wilted in your hand or turned into little, long bags, puckered at the top as if drawn up with a string.
Fig.44 - This is the way the Wild Morning Glory looks.
When I say noticed, I mean have you thought about the flowers while you looked at them? Have you noticed their shape and beautiful color, and have you seen the great difference between the green leaf of the wild morning-glory and that of the cultivated one?
Fig.45 - The Wild Morning Glory blossomed after it was gathered.
The wild morning-glory leaf ([Fig. 44]) is more beautiful in shape, the vine is more graceful, and the blossom just as lovely as the cultivated morning-glory, and all this beauty need not be left behind when you gather the wild flowers which are to make the rooms of your home charming.
While I write this, July 7, there stands on a table in our living-room a tall glass vase, wide at the top and holding plenty of water. It is filled with a mass of wild morning-glory-vines, and there are four new, entirely open, pink and white blossoms while others are just twisting open.
Four days ago, when out for a walk in the country, I gathered the vine by the roadside where it grew in the company of daisies, buttercups, and wild mustard. Lifting themselves up into the light, where the warmth of the morning sun could open the buds and where the leaves could breathe in the fresh air, some of these trailing vines had wound themselves in masses around tall, strong weed-stalks.
I gathered the vines, weed-stalks and all, breaking them off close to the ground; and now these stalks hold most of the vines upright in the vase, while other sprays droop gracefully over the edge and hang down almost to the table-top. Only one or two flowers were in bloom when I found the vines, but there were quantities of green buds which I hoped would open later, and that is just what they are doing. It is like having wild flowers growing in one's window. And as for decoration, nothing can be more beautiful ([Fig. 45]).
Trailing vines always make pretty decorations, and many wild ones keep fresh a long while when given plenty of water. Some have flowers, some have not, but in any case they are worth gathering when you have large vases to fill.