I873-] HARD-WOODED GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 33 



blue C. lanuginosa and the dark mulberry rubella. Many of those 

 plants have attained the height of 20 feet, and flower every season in 

 the greatest profusion. Many of the newest sorts have lately been 

 added here, and to all appearance they will grow with the same luxuri- 

 ance as the older varieties. 



At Damside, the seat of the late James B. Duncan, Esq., near 

 Auchterarder, there was a plant of C. lanuginosa put out with the in- 

 tention of covering an old rustic bower : close by there was a large 

 Rose-bush of the old single red, about 8 feet high, and bushy in 

 proportion. Somehow or other, the Clematis was allowed to fix itself 

 on the Rose in place of the rustic- work, and now it has taken complete 

 possession of the Rose, and for the last two seasons it has been one 

 sheet of flower all over the j^lant. At Damside the frost is as severely 

 felt as in any part of Scotland during the winter. But here this 

 plant has stood all the above years without any protection whatever, 

 showing how very hardy the Clematis is, and how well it can adapt 

 itself to circumstances when left alone. John Downie. 



West Coates Nurseries, Edinburgh. 



[Too much cannot be said for Clematis Jaekmanii and its congeners. They 

 thrive on a north aspect with us, and are in bloom now, November 30. — Ed,] 



A PLEA FOR HARD-WOODED GREEITHOUSE PLATTTS. 



Old gardeners, and gardeners in their prime, will remember a time 

 when greenhouse shrubs, or, as they were generally named, hard-wooded 

 plants, were the principal, if not the sole, occupants of the greenhouse 

 in British gardens. The various tribes and genera of New Holland 

 and New Zealand shrubs, along with the Heaths of the Cape, the 

 Camellia, the Azalea, and a considerable gathering of beautiful shrubs 

 from various parts of temperate Asia, were in those days the glory of 

 the greenhouse and conservatory, and all places that claimed to be 

 well appointed ; and in those even which had no such claim, a sprinkling 

 of them found a place and were delighted in. A change has been 

 gradually but surely brought about in this, as in many other matters 

 in gardening ; and now it is as rare to meet with a good collection of 

 these old-fashioned greenhouse shrubs as it is to meet with a gardener 

 much under forty years of age who knows or cares much about them. 

 Heaths, Epacrises, Camellias, and Azaleas, still remain in greater or 

 less variety and numbers about most places. These could not be dis- 

 pensed with on account of their value as winter and spring flowering 

 plants ; they were therefore adapted to meet the changing taste and 

 growing wants of the proprietors of gardens, and have increased in 



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