CLAYTONIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CLEMATIS. 



399 



variation between deep purple and 

 pure white, and there are also several 

 double-flowered forms. Many varie- 

 ties are mentioned in seed lists, some 

 well worth growing. 



Clarkia may be sown either in 

 autumn or spring, and by sowing in 

 the beginning of September the seed- 

 lings gain strength before the winter, 

 and flower well in early spring, but 

 these autumn sowings are liable to 

 accident, and should only be tried on 

 warm soils. The first spring sowing 

 should take place in the middle of 

 March, when the plants would flower 

 in July. 



CLAYTONIA. A small group of the 

 Purslane order, of which three species 

 are pretty garden plants. C. caro- 

 liniana is a spreading dwarf species 

 bearing in spring loose racemes of 

 pretty rose flowers, and C. virginica 

 (Spring Beauty) is a slender erect plant, 

 with pink blossoms. Both are suitable 

 for warm spots in the rock garden in 

 loamy soils, but C. sibirica, also a 

 dwarf species with pink flowers, requires 

 a damp peaty soil. 



CLEMATIS (Virgin's Bower}. 

 Beautiful climbing shrubs and herbs 

 from northern and temperate regions, 

 and of the highest value for gardens. 

 Among hardy climbers there is no 

 other group of plants that equals the 

 Clematis in variety and in beauty. 



The Clematis vary in habit from 

 herbaceous plants little more than 

 i foot high to woody climbers with 

 stems 50 feet or more in length. Most 

 of the climbing species support them- 

 selves by means of the leaf-stalks, 

 which curl round twigs or other slender 

 objects near. The Clematis flower 

 possesses no true petals, but in their 

 place a coloured calyx consisting of 

 usually four, but sometimes as many 

 as eight sepals. 



The Clematises may be used to 

 cover walls, mounds, arbours, pergolas, 

 and fences, and in the open, where no 

 other support is available, rough Oak 

 branches may be used for them, either 

 singly or set together to form a pyra- 

 mid, while the more vigorous species 

 will run over trees. The most graceful 

 climbing plants of the northern world, 

 for half a century most of them have 

 been lost to our gardens owing to the 

 mistaken mode of increase by grafting 

 these beautiful Chinese and Japanese 

 plants on the common vigorous kind 

 that grows on the chalk-hills of Surrey. 

 Death is inevitable, and few succeed, 



some struggling to establish them- 

 selves in spite of it. I have proved in 

 my own garden for many years that 

 the right and natural way of propaga- 

 tion is by layering, cuttings, or seed- 

 lings of good kinds. The French 

 nurserymen use the Viticella for the 

 stock, which is nearly as bad. The 

 right way is to have nothing to do with 

 grafting or potting. 



C. ALPINA (Alpine Clematis). A very 

 pretty plant flowering in spring. The 

 flowers are nodding, the four large sepals 

 being soft blue with a whitish margin, or 

 sometimes almost entirely white. The 

 flower is 2 inches or more across. Syn. 

 Atragene. 



C. APHYLLA. A leafless species forming 

 masses of long, wiry, roundish, rush-like 

 stems of a dark green colour, on which in 

 axillary clusters the greenish- yellow, fra- 

 grant flowers occur in almost whorl-like 

 formation. At first sight the plant does 

 not greatly attract that is to say, from 

 the point of size or colour of its flowers 

 yet it is worth having for its exceedingly 

 grateful perfume, which reminds one of 

 the Winter Sweet. The stem-growth 

 extends to several feet in length, not 

 greater in circumference than the common 

 Rush. The flowers are bell-shaped, about 

 f inch across, and produced on pedicels 

 1 1 inches long. 



C. ARMANDI. An evergreen species, 

 native of Central and Western China. At 

 first glance this might almost be taken for 

 the New Zealand Clematis indivisa, bear- 

 ing as it does trifoliate leaves of a dark 

 green, leathery texture. The flowers, 

 borne freely in the axils of the leaves, are 

 each 2 inches in diameter, and composed 

 of six or eight segments, thus forming a 

 starry bloom. 



C. CAMPANIFLORA (Bell-flowered C.). A 

 graceful, small bell-shaped flower about 

 i inch in diameter, pale violet or almost 

 white. The flowers are very freely borne, 

 and against the deep green, often finely- 

 divided foliage, they are very effective. 

 The plant is not often seen in gardens, 

 though coming freely from seed. 



C. CALYCINA (Winter-flowering C.). A 

 native of Minorca and Corsica, evergreen 

 with dark brown-angled stems, and during 

 the winter the foliage acquires a fine 

 bronzy hue. The flower is about 2 inches 

 across, yellowish-white, stained inside 

 with oblong, irregular, reddish-purple 

 spots. December to April. In the Lon- 

 don district it ought to have the shelter 

 of a wall to flower well. From its near 

 ally, the following species, it differs in its 

 narrower and more divided foliage.. 



C. CIRRHOSA (Evergreen C.). This 

 evergreen species has been much confused 

 with C. calycina. C. cirrhosa, however, if 

 it comes from the Balearic Islands, is not 

 confined to them, but is a native also of 



