330 MR. W. T. THISELTON DYER ON TnE 



And, first, as to the fruiting of the Wistaria when trained upon 

 a wall or other support. "While travelling in Switzerland during 

 last autumn I spent some days at Glyon, at the eastern end of the 

 Lake of Geneva. In the garden of one of the hotels there is a 

 building, on the walls of which a remarkably fine plant of Wis- 

 taria is trained in the ordinary manner, with its branches spread 

 out horizontally. When I saw it, this was so loaded with the 

 brown tomentose pods as to present quite a singular appearance. 

 I did not take any further notice of the circumstance at the time ; 

 but on seeing Mr. Henslow's statement, quoted above, that the 

 trained Wistaria never sets seeds, the case of the Glyon plant im- 

 mediately occurred to me. I wrote to the proprietor of the hotel to 

 beg him to oblige me with some pods ; and I got a reply in which 

 he promised them, and informed me that they were produced in 

 abundance every year. At the same time I took occasion to 

 mention the matter to my friend M. Casimir DeCandolle at 

 Geneva ; and he wrote to me as follows : 



Geneva, Feb. 24, 1879. 



"It occurs to me that the best way of answering your question 

 concerning Glycine sinensis is by sending to you the two enclosed 

 letters and specimens which I have received from my friends 

 Barbey and Th. Plantamour, one of our best amateur horticultu- 

 rists here. 



" Barbey, whom I met again yesterday, added in conversation 

 that M. Paviat, of Lausanne, told him that you were quite right 

 in asserting that Glycine fruits on the walls of Glyon hotel. 



" Such is not the case, however, with an old and vigorous plant 

 which covers the wall of our country-house at Malagny, and which 

 has never to my knowledge borne any fruit. 



" From that negative observation, as w r ell as from what both 

 Barbey and Plantamour say on the subject, I am led to infer that 

 the fruiting of Glycine trained on walls is much less frequent in the 

 vicinity of Geneva than near the opposite extremity of the lake. 



# * # * 



li Yours sincerely, 



C. DeCandolle." 



It is not necessary to quote the letters which M. C. DeCan- 

 dolle was so good as to transmit to me. It is sufficient to say 

 that M. Plantamour states that at Secheron, near Geneva, the 



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