24 THE BOOK OF CLIMBING PLANTS 



branches to twine about, yields many varieties, ranging 

 from the white alba, through various shades and colours, 

 to deep blue and crimson. Burridgei is a good deep 

 crimson, Dicksoni a deep blue, and rosea a fine pink. 

 Maurandya barclayana is another very attractive plant 

 when treated as a hardy or half-hardy annual. It is 

 generally grown in mixed colours, though the type is 

 violet and is very useful and pretty as a climber. Other 

 less known hardy or half-hardy climbing annuals are 

 Amphicarpaea monoica, with pretty violet and white 

 flowers, and the white-flowered, spiny-fruited Echino- 

 cystis lobata, a gourd-like plant classed by some in this 

 class of annuals, though, perhaps, better treated as half- 

 hardy. 



HALF-HARDY ANNUALS 



All the climbers already named may be treated as 

 half-hardy and, like those which follow, may be sown 

 on a mild hot-bed or a close unheated frame in March 

 or early April. They can also be sown in pans or boxes 

 in a greenhouse, if kept near the glass after the seedlings 

 appear and are supplied with fresh air. For later 

 flowering they can be sown where they are to bloom 

 in the end of April and beginning of May. If raised 

 under glass they ought to be hardened off before 

 planting out, and after being pricked out a little 

 distance apart in boxes. 



The half-hardy Ipomceas are among the most desirable, 

 and the newer forms are even more appreciated than the 

 varieties of I. purpurea already referred to. Those sold 

 in the seed trade as I. grandiflora, which are varieties of 

 the charming I. Bona-Nox, are among the prettiest with 

 their large flowers, called by the way, " Moonflowers." 

 Alba and Hesperus are among the finest of the white 

 ones. The new class called Imperialis is a very beautiful 



