434 



HOKTICULTURE 



March 19, 1910 



As species worth cultivating for their fruits and as 

 possible forerunners of a new race E. innominatus and 

 E. corchorifolius are strongly recommended. The first- 

 named is a erect-growing and very ordinary looking 

 bramble with pinnately three to five-f oliolate leaves, grey- 

 green in appearance, covered on underside and also the 

 stems with soft hairs. The flowers are pinkish and in- 

 conspicuous, produced in August in terminal thyrsoid 

 panicles 20 to 30 inches long. The berries are of good 

 size, orange-red and of an agreeable sub-acid flavor. 



E. corcliorifolius, the jute-leaved bramble, is a very 

 different looking species with small, ovate, simple leaves 

 (trifid on young shoots) and white flowers opening as 

 the leaves unfold. The berries are oval, of good size, 

 orange-red and of a rich and sweet vinous flavor. The 

 fruits are usually solitary and possess the finest flavor 

 of any Chinese bramble known to the writer. 



There are quite a number of other Chinese brambles 

 well worthy of culture and the above may serve as a sort 

 of introductory selection to the class as a whole. 



One of the great horticultural assets resulting from 

 recent work in China is the number of new, distinct and 

 ornamental species of Vitis discovered and introduced 

 into cultivation. In China forty or more species of 

 Vitis occur wild. The true grape (V. vinifera) is cul- 

 tivated in a few localities and is very probably a genuine 

 native of Cliina also. Several species, for example, V. 

 armata, V. Eomaneti, V. flexuosa and V. sinensis, have 

 edible fruits of fair size and flavor and may be useful 

 to the hybridist. Nearly all have decided horticultural 

 merit and the majority are well worthy of cultivation. 

 Although useful in a variety of ways these new intro- 

 ductions are most effective and ornamental when grown 

 as pillar plants and trained to stout poles. To obtain 

 the best foliage and effect these plants should be pruned 

 hard back in March and the young shoots as they devel- 

 ope neatly tied to the poles. When used to cover per- 

 golas or, when planted at foot of trees, less pruning is 

 required. 



Botanists divide "Vitis" up into several genera 

 but for the purpose of this article they may all be con- 

 veniently gi'ouped under the one head. 



One of the finest of these new Vitis is V. armata, a 

 species growing 20 feet tall, with glaucous, prickly stems 

 and large, cordate leaves of much substance, deep green 

 with metallic lustre above and somewhat glaucous below. 

 The fruits are globose, black, of good size and flavor. 

 The varieties "Veitchii" and "Wilsonae" are forms of 

 superlative merit having even bolder foliage than the 

 type and more brilliant autumnal tints of yellow, orange 

 and bronze, passing to the richest shade of red and crim- 

 son. 



V. sinensis is a strong growing species with very vari- 

 able foliage covered with grey, woolly hairs more espe- 

 cially on underside. These leaves are more or less reni- 

 forme-cordate in shape, either simple, variously incised, 

 or trifoliate. 



V. flexuosa var. Wilsoni is a small growing species 

 five to six feet tall, with neat foliage, shining, metallic 

 green above and bright purple below when young. This 

 is really a charming vine but, unfortunately, of a more 

 delicate constitution than many of the others. 



V. repens is another strong-growing species with 

 smooth, broadly cordate, trilobed leaves on long red- 

 dish petioles. 



Very different in appearance to the ordinary species 

 of Vitis are V. leeoides and V. megalophylla. The first- 

 named is a comparatively dwarf-growing vine six to ten 

 feet tall with pinnate leaves one to one and a half feet 

 long. The leaflets are glabrous, dark, glossy green 

 above and deep claret-purple below. This Vitis resem- 



ViTis Henryana 



l>les the genus Leea in foliage and is quite distinct in 

 every way from any other species. 



V. megalophylla is a wonderful species with much- 

 divided leaves resembling those of Aralia spinosa and 

 two to three feet across. These leaves are dark green 

 above, pale and somewhat glaucous below and glabrous. 

 This species is native of woodlands where it forms a 

 Inige climber scaling to the tops of tall trees. It grows 

 10 to 15 feet in a single season and sliould be hard 

 primed annually. Though it assumes no brilliant tints 



