VISCUM VITIS 663 



Kew from Austria growing on an oak (which, contrary to the mistletoe, it 

 favours). Although the oak grew vigorously, the parasite never flourished 

 or grew much, and after lingering ten or twelve years, died. Probably our 

 climate is not sunny enough for it. It is deciduous, and bears its fruit in a 

 terminal spike of four or five pairs. 



VITEX. VERBENACE^E. 



Of this large genus of Old World shrubs and small trees, two species 

 can be grown on walls in the southern parts of the country. They require 

 a sunny spot and not too rich a soil. Propagated by cuttings. 



V. AGNUS-CASTUS, Linnceus. CHASTE-TREE. 



A deciduous shrub of free, spreading habit; young shoots covered with a 

 minute grey down. Leaves opposite, composed of five to seven radiating 

 leaflets borne on a main-stalk i to 2^ ins. long; leaflets linear lance-shaped; 

 2 to 6 ins. long, \ to f in. wide; tapering gradually towards both ends, not 

 toothed; dark green above, grey beneath with a very close felt; stalks of 

 leaflets \ in. or less long. Flowers fragrant, produced during September 

 and October in whorls on slender racemes which are 3 to 6 ins. long, some- 

 times branched, and borne in numbers on the terminal part of the current 

 season's growth, at the end and in the leaf-axils, the whole forming a large 

 panicle. Corolla pale violet, tubular, \ in. long, with five expanding lobes; 

 stamens four, protruded; calyx funnel-shaped, downy, shallowly lobed. 



Native of the Mediterranean region; cultivated in Britain in 1570. Near 

 London it needs the protection of a wall; given this it is quite safe. A 

 plant has lived on a west wall at Kew for at least forty years. It flowers 

 freely in warm seasons, and its crowd of panicles is sometimes very effective. 

 The entire plant has an aromatic, pungent odour. The popular name is said 

 to come from 1;he Greeks, whose women at the festival in honour of Ceres 

 strewed their beds with it. There is a white-flowered variety, ALBA. 



V. INCISA, Lamarck. CHINESE CHASTE-TREE. 



Introduced in 1785 from China, this species is rarely seen at the present 

 time. It requires the protection of a wall, and in competition with the 

 many finer plants adapted for wall cultivation, it scarcely keeps its place in 

 gardens. It has digitate leaves like the preceding species, the leaflets 

 being usually five, but varying from three to seven in each leaf. They differ 

 from those of V. Agnus-castus in having distinct stalks, up to I in. long; in 

 being coarsely toothed, and in being sometimes \\ ins. wide. Flowers violet- 

 blue, arranged in distant whorls on slender racemes 6 to 9 ins. long, the whole 

 forming a large, thinly furnished panicle terminating the shoots of the year; 

 calyx downy, deeply and sharply lobed. A deciduous shrub up to 10 ft. 

 high, 



VITIS. VINE. VITACE^E. 



(Including Ampelopsis, Cissus. Parthenocissus.*) 



Vitis shares with Clematis the distinction of being the most important 

 genus of hardy climbers in gardens. The flower beauty of Clematis is 



