162 ACER ACTINIDIA 



wings of the fruit and in the saw-toothed leaves ; and from insigne in the 

 larger leaves (sometimes I ft. across), not so white beneath, with the down 

 confined to the chief veins. 



ACTINIDIA. TERNSTRCEMIACE^:. 



A genus of vigorous climbers inhabiting N. India, China, and Japan. 

 They have simple, alternate leaves, and often unisexual flowers. The 

 fruit is a fleshy berry. Given a good soil they are easily cultivated, and 

 can be grown in the various situations suitable for vigorous climbers, 

 such as on walls, pergolas, on rough poles, or, better than all for the 

 more vigorous ones, on a worn-out tree, if such can be given up to them, 

 which they can cover with tangled growth. All the species can be 

 propagated by cuttings of moderately ripened wood placed in gentle 

 heat. 



A. ARGUTA, Planchon. 

 (Bot. Mag., t. 7497 as A. polygama.) 



An exceptionally vigorous climber, reaching in its native haunts the tops 

 of large trees. Leaves dark lustrous green, 3 to 5 ins. long, sometimes 

 nearly as wide ; broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, edged with unequal bristle- 

 like teeth, the base rounded or sometimes heart-shaped ; almost smooth 

 except for down on the veins and in their axils ; stalk rose-coloured, sometimes 

 bristly, i^ to 3 ins. long. Flower hermaphrodite, fragrant, produced in the leaf- 

 axils, usually in clusters of three ; each flower f in. across, its stalk slender, 

 and \ to | in. long ; sepals green, ovate-oblong, blunt ; petals orbicular, white 

 tinged with green, very concave and incurved, giving the flower a rather 

 globular shape ; stamens numerous, with dark purple anthers ; stigmas 

 (of female flower) radiating. Fruit an oblong, many-seeded, fleshy, greenish 

 yellow berry, nearly i in. long, with an insipid flavour, but eaten by the 

 Japanese. 



Native of China, Japan, and the Amur region. One of the strongest 

 growing of the Actinidias, this is also one of the hardiest. It flowers very 

 well out-of-doors in numerous gardens in the south and west, and is hardy at 

 Kew, flowering there in June and July. 



Var. CORDIFOLIA, Dunn. Leaves ovate with a conspicuously heart-shaped 

 base, more hairy than in the type ; leaf-stalk purple. This, as well as the 

 type, is s: metimes grown in gardens as A. volubilis. 



A. CHINENSIS, Planchon. 

 (Gardeners' Chronicle, 1909, ii., p. 7^ ; Bot. Mag., t. 8538.) 



A unisexual or hermaphrodite climber of vigorous growth, the sterile branch- 

 lets densely covered with shaggy reddish hairs ; flowering shoots more downy. 

 Leaves of the sterile shoots heart-shaped, pointed, from 5 to 8 ins. long, and 

 from 4 to 7 ins. wide ; margins set with stiff hairs ; upper surface dark green, 

 slightly hairy ; lower surface densely clothed with greyish tufted hairs, the 

 midrib, veins, and stalk having larger reddish hairs like those of the young 

 shoots. On the flowering shoots the leaves are shorter and proportionately 

 broader, 2 to 4 ins. long, 3 to 5 ins. wide, somewhat orbicular, but deeply 

 notched at the top and bottom. Flowers i ins. across, at first white, then 

 buff-yellow ; produced on short branches from the year-old wood ; calyx with 

 five roundish woolly lobes ; petals obovate ; stamens very numerous. Fruit 



