VI 



ON THE CANARY CREEPER AND OTHER "NASTUR- 

 TIUMS" AND TROPOEOLUMS 



THE Canary Creeper is one of the most familiar of 

 summer ramblers, and at the first glance there is little 

 to connect it with the " Tom Thumbs " of our garden 

 borders, which have round leaves and large, open- 

 throated flowers. Its blossoms are small and crinkled, 

 and its leaves are much cut on the edges (five-lobed). 

 But it is closely related to the so-called " Nasturtiums " 

 in spite of this, for all are Tropceolums. 



The Canary Creeper probably got its popular name 

 from the colour of its flowers, which resembles that of 

 the feathered songsters so often to be found in the 

 parlours of elderly maiden ladies. True, it is sometimes 

 given the name of Canariense y and this would indicate 

 the Canary Islands as its home if it were accurate, but it 

 is not. Canariense or Canariensis is a seedsman's name, 

 and has no support from the botanists. The plant did 

 not come to Britain from the Canaries, but from New 

 Grenada, the year of its advent being 1810. By some 

 odd happening "Canariensis" has become adopted as a 

 popular name, and it is not at all uncommon to hear it 

 used by amateurs in place of Canary Creeper. 



In case the reader is not content to leave the plant 

 without a specific name, and demands that, since he is 

 told that Canariense is not correct, he should be in- 



