CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 79 



usually be grown on walls, even in the south, and there is no finer 

 picture than a good tree of Magnolia on a house. The beautiful 

 Ceanothus of the Californian hills often keep company with these 

 evergreens on walls ; but even in the warmer soils of the home 

 countries they are tender, and their delicate sprays of flowers are 

 much less frequently seen with us than in France, although we 

 cannot resist trying them on sunny walls, and on chalky and sandy 

 soils they have better chances. 



Apart from true shrubs used as evergreens, so frequently seen in 

 Britain, we have some natural evergreen climbing plants for walls, 

 first of all being our native Ivy, in all its beautiful forms, and of 

 varied use for walls, houses, borders, screens, and even summer-houses 

 and shelters. How much better to make bowers in the garden of 

 Ivy, as a living roof, than of rotten timber, straw, or heath! If we 

 make a strong and enduring framework, and then plant the Ivy well, 

 we soon get a living roof, which, with little care, will last for many 

 years and always look well. 



Before the Royal Horticultural Society, and under its auspices, 



Mr Jackman gave a lecture on " Fallacies as to the Clematis," in 



which he supported the practice of grafting the 



Loss of the Clematis, which has already cleared the gardens 



Clematis in of Europe of the most beautiful of the climbers 



gardens. O f the northern world. In that lecture there was 



no word said as to the Clematises of Japan and 



China on their natural roots, either in nature or cultivation. 



In clearing up this question, the first thing to do is to state a few 

 facts about which there can be no dispute among any who are in- 

 terested. The first is the extraordinary beauty of the plants. No 

 conservatory or greenhouse in Europe shelters any plant so graceful 

 in habit or so fine in colour of flowers. Added to this is the precious 

 quality of hardiness and power to resist the rainstorms of our isles. 

 I have grown every obtainable kind in various positions, and never 

 lost a plant from cold. When day after day in July my Roses became 

 bags of ugly mould, and even native plants were sickened by the rain 

 day and night, the large Clematises, on their natural roots, suffered 

 not the slightest injury from the storms. 



The next fact, of which there can be no doubt, is that the gardens 



of Britain and of France have been robbed of the most beautiful race 



of climbers of the northern world. Large gardens, 



The loss. with every advantage of site, soil, and air, are quite 



bare of them. It is not only in our country this 



loss has arisen through mistaken ways of increasing the plants. It is 



so everywhere in France, where we may see in the great nurseries at 



Orleans and Angers masses of the finest Clematises huddled together 



