GENERAL REVIEW. 



should be gradually hardened off after the young leaves appear. 

 The plant rarely fruits in this country ; and this, Mr Meehan 

 thinks, is the result of some deficiency in the supply of food, 

 not that it requires either insect or artificial 

 agency to effect fertilisation. Layers root 

 freely ; and to obtain a number of plants, 

 one of the long, slender branches may be lay- 

 ered and a cut made, or the branch girdled at 

 every joint so as to induce it to produce roots, 

 and develop the latent buds at each of the 

 nodes throughout its entire length. A still bet- 

 ter and more expeditious plan is to dig up the 

 thick roots and cut them into lengths of 3 to 

 4 inches, after which plant them in boxes, and 

 place them on a gentle dung-bed or other slight 

 genial bottom-heat, so as to excite vegetation, 

 and aid the production of adventitious buds. 

 Grafting in February or March on thick pieces 

 of its own roots is, however, one of the best 

 possible methods of multiplying this plant. S0- 

 phora and Cerris may also be increased in this 

 manner, or on seedlings of their respective types. 

 The white-flowered variety of Wistaria may be 

 grafted on roots of the common or normal form 

 as a stock ; but it does equally well on its own 

 roots on warm dry soils, especially if planted 

 near a sunny wall. A double-flowered variety 

 of W. sinensis has been imported by Mr James 

 Hogg, a well-known American nurseryman, from 

 Japan, the purplish rosette-like flowers being borne in grace- 

 fully drooping clusters, as in the normal form. A figure of this 

 plant will be found in the * Garden,' ii. 51. 



R oof-grafting, 

 Wistaria. 



THE PASSION-FLOWER FAMILY (Passifloracece)* 



This is a small natural order, represented in our gardens by 

 something like a hundred species and varieties of Passifloras 

 arid Tacsonias. They are nearly all climbing plants. The true 

 Passiflora arborea is, however, an erect-growing shrub or small 

 tree. All the species may be most easily propagated by herba- 

 ceous cuttings, taken off when the plants start into growth in 



* For a revision of the species and remarks on germination, fertilisation, 

 movements of reproductive organs, c., see 'Trans. Linn. Soc.,' 1871, vol. 



