WISTARIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



WOODSIA. 



8 7 I 



trees. In the end, no doubt, the Labur- 

 nums will get the worst of it, but mean- 

 while the two flower together, and the 

 pale blue-purple racemes of the Wistaria 

 and the golden ones of the Laburnum 

 make a fine contrast. An old Oak that 

 has seen its best days would be a suitable 

 support for it. In getting this or any 

 other climber to grow on living trees, the 

 difficulty is at the start, chiefly because 



The White Wistaria, Tresserve. 



of the living roots of the tree on which it 

 is to grow, and then the Wistaria should 

 be planted well away from the trunk 

 where sun and rain can reach it. A good 

 plan is to sink a large tub with the bottom 

 knocked out, and fill this with good rich 

 loam and leafmould, and by the time the 

 Wistaria has filled this with roots it will 

 be able to hold its own. 



It now and then makes very graceful 



standards at least in the good situations 

 in the south, and bowers and the most 

 beautiful lacework of summer-houses may 

 be formed with this climber alone. For 

 example, a strong framework of tent 

 shape might easily be covered with it. 

 The timbers or irons of the roof might be 

 close enough for the foliage of the Wistaria 

 to cast a slight shade over the interior, and 

 the motive for such a thing would be the 

 grace and beauty of the shrub when in 

 flower, garlanding it, and forming a 

 temple of graceful bloom. 



W. CHINENSIS. The oldest kind intro- 

 duced and so far the most beautiful. Its 

 single and double white forms are beautiful, 

 although neither of them flowers with anything 

 like the freedom of the true plant. The 

 double blue form is a poor thing, and in wet, 

 stormy weather these double varieties are more 

 liable to damage. 



In the VAR. MACROBOTRYS the flowers are 

 of a paler shade of blue-purple, and the 

 racemes are longer, the flowers being farther 

 apart. A variegated form is not worth a place. 



W. BRACHYBOTRYS. Although nearly 

 seventy years since a Wistaria under this name 

 was brought to Europe from Japan by Siebold, 

 but little can be said of it. Judging 

 by published figures, it appears to be 

 no more than a dwarf variety of IV. chinensis, 

 with racemes of the same blue-purple flowers, 

 only shorter, as the specific name suggests. 

 Var. alba has been spoken highly of in the 

 United States, but I have never seen it. 



W. MULTIJUGA (Japanese Gtycine]. A 

 very beautiful plant with racemes often 

 between 2 ft. and 3 ft. long, flowering a 

 fortnight later than the Chinese Glycine, the 

 blossoms much less closely packed on the 

 spikes. The colour is not invariably the 

 same in different plants, but it is always a 

 variation of delicate lilac and white. The 

 variety alba has flowers wholly white, and 

 there are two forms of the plant in cultivation, 

 one with shorter racemes. 



W. JAPONIC A. The plant, a rare climber, 

 sometimes met with under this name belongs 

 to the closely allied genus Millettia. The 

 flowers appear in small racemose clusters in 

 June and July, and are white. 



W. FRUTESCENS. This is the only species 

 found wild in the New World. It is a 

 climber, but not a strong grower, the 

 flowers pale blue-purple, arranged densely in 

 racemes 3 ins. to 8 ins. long in June. There 

 are two varieties in cultivation, one, magnifica, 

 has racemes over I ft. in length ; the second is 

 a white form. W. J. B. 



WOODSIA. These pretty deciduous 

 hardy Ferns are admirably suited for 

 a northern position in the alpine or rock- 

 garden. As they are impatient of sun- 

 shine, drainage should receive special 

 attention, and they should have a mixture 

 of fibry peat and loam, which has some 



