The Hydrangeas 



Maries, about 1879, while collecting for Messrs. Veitch 

 and Sons in Japan we have a form which goes more 

 nearly back to the primitive type, for here the blooms 

 are flat clusters, or "corymbs," which have small fertile 

 flowers in the centre and immense pink or mauve 

 sterile florets in a ring round the edge. Indeed, these 

 outer florets may be as much as three inches in 

 diameter. 



In another variety, the hardy acumina, the leaves 

 are rough, long and pointed at both ends, and in 

 this and in many other varieties of this species the 

 corymbs again favour the wild form and recall the 

 Hydrangea in its full glory in Japan, as set forth in 

 the following pen picture. 



" In "June, and until late in the autumn, the wild 

 Hydrangea blooms in every hedgerow. Beside the 

 bright blue which everyone knows and which is so 

 much grown in pots with us, there is another H. hor- 

 tensia var. japonica, which is greenish-white in the 

 centre with purple flowers like a halo around the edge. 

 Another, H. virens, has hard, round, blue balls in the 

 centre, with florets at the dge of pale blue fading to white 

 and even into a kind of rusty pink. It is rather coarse, 

 but most effective, and in bud both are very striking 

 looking, for the \%ole flower head appears like a round 

 green snowball. The prettiest ones of all are the 



graceful slender - stemmed white Hydrangeas. . . . 

 p 229 



