DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERING SHRUBS. 479 



WISTAEIA. 



[Named by NuttalK in honor of Dr. Caspar Wistar.} 



W. Sintfnsis, The Chinese Wistaria. This, which is 

 sometimes called Glycine, is one of the most magnificent 

 climbing shrubby plants in cultivation. It was formerly 

 treated, at the North, as a tender plant, and might be 

 seen trained to the rafters of the green house, in full flow- 

 er, in March, with its thousands of rich clusters, or pendu- 

 lous racemes of delicate pale-purple blossoms, so numerous 

 that the whole space it occupied seemed to be covered 

 with them. Each raceme is from ten to twelve inches 

 long, and densely filled with its delicate and richly per- 

 fumed flowers. It is easily raised from cuttings or layers. 

 In the open ground, we have known it to make a growth 

 of thirty feet in one season ; and, with us, has not failed, 

 excepting one year in the last twelve, to produce an abun- 

 dant bloom, and that without the least protection. The 

 December previous to the year in which it did not bloom, 

 was a very warm one. The buds prematurely started, 

 and were winter killed ; it however, flowered in August, 

 but not so perfectly as it would have done in the spring. 

 In another locality, in low ground, which is not well 

 drained, the flower buds are frequently killed. The foliage 

 is abundant, and its color a lively, pleasant hue of green. 

 The flowers make their appearance before the foliage 

 starts, the last of May, in the open ground. The plants 

 for the first few years are somewhat tender, at the North, 

 and should be laid down before the winter sets in, and 

 covered with earth, or coarse manure. It grows freely in 

 almost any soil ; but to have strong plants, it is important 

 to have a rich, deep loam. It will not flower till the plant 

 gets strong. 



A new variety with white flowers, has been introduced 

 from China into England, by Mr. Fortune^ and can, at the 

 present time, be obtained at many of our nurseries. 



