32 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



CLEMATIS JACKMANII. 



When visiting the gardens of Lord Polwarth, Mertoun House, near 

 St Boswell's, about the middle of September, my attention was called 

 to a fine plant of the above, covering the whole gable of a house 20 

 feet by 16, and literally one mass of bloom. Growing on an east 

 aspect, its appearance was so extraordinary beyond anything I had ever 

 seen before in Jackmanii, that I requested Mr Fowler, his lordship's 

 gardener, to give me two of his men to assist in counting the blooms, 

 and after carefully going over the plant, we found that there were 

 close on 300 fully-expanded flowers. They possessed a peculiar rich- 

 ness, which arose, probably, from the plant facing the east, and being 

 shaded from the sun after mid-day. I may mention that this plant 

 was put out in its present position about five years ago, and in that 

 time it has attained the above extraordinary dimensions. 



The kitchen-garden here is in the old style of hill and dale ; south 

 from it there is a small flower-garden, principally filled with hardy 

 plants of various sorts, having fine variegated foliage. Viola Perfection 

 and Y. lutea major are largely used here, and with good efi'ect. From 

 this there is a broad walk leading along the bottom of a deep dell to 

 the mansion-house ; on each side of this walk the banks are very 

 steep. Lately a large number of trees have been cut down, and their 

 places filled up with some of the newest and rarest varieties of Coni- 

 fera3, which seem, from the growth they are making, to be just in the 

 place that suits them. 



The park here is of very considerable extent, and Mertoun has 

 many natural advantages which add much to its beauty. The mansion- 

 house is a modern structure of great extent, and stands on the banks 

 of the Tweed, about five miles above Kelso. The trees have been very 

 judiciously thinned, so that fine peeps of the river can be had from the 

 mansion-house both up and down. 



On the south side of the mansion-house there is a very nice flower- 

 garden of considerable extent ; in this, I understand, Lady Polwarth 

 takes great interest. The bedding-out is on a very large scale, and 

 everything is so well done and so neatly arranged, that it gives evi- 

 dence of a skilful and painstaking gardener. 



Returning to the Clematis, the soil in this neighbourhood seems well 

 adapted to its culture. On visiting Gladswood, the seat of John 

 Meiklam, Esq., which lies about three miles north from Mertoun, Mrs 

 Meiklam has quite an assemblage of . those beautiful plants on the 

 wall of the mansion-house, and they are so arranged that the one 

 colour contrasts well with the other. There is the dark-purple C. Jack- 

 manii alongside of the pure white C. Candida; and again, the whitLsh- 



