ON SOME ORNAMENTALS 



So all in all the clematis must be ranked among 

 the most beautiful of vines. 



My work with the members of this tribe has 

 been largely with the types that are known horti- 

 culturally as Jackmanm lanuginosa. These have 

 large blue and white flowers, sometimes inclined 

 to red and pink. 



I have raised these plants very extensively from 

 the seed for many years. By selection, several 

 varieties were produced that bore very handsome 

 double flowers of peculiar form, varying in color 

 from blue, pink, and ashy gray to pure white. Some 

 of the new varieties also have exceedingly large 

 broad petals with the flowers of unusually rounded 

 outline, not unlike the form of a dahlia. 



Several of the best varieties of these improved 

 Clematis vines were introduced through a dealer. 

 But it was subsequently related that the clematis 

 disease had destroyed most of these. This disease 

 is a kind of rot, usually ascribed to the same cause 

 that destroys lilies and many other plants in culti- 

 vated soil. It is probably bacterial, and is always 

 associated with thrips, millipeds, and eel-worms, 

 which probably serve to disseminate the germs. 



Subsequently I began a series of hybridizing 

 experiments, using the Clematis coccinea as the 

 original seed parent. 



This species is herbaceous and has scarlet, 



[219] 



