ON SOME ORNAMENTALS 



Several years ago, while on a trip in northern 

 Canada, I found patches of clematis on half-woody 

 slopes, growing in a region where the thermometer 

 sometimes goes fifty or even sixty degrees below 

 zero in the winter regions where the deep wells 

 do not thaw out altogether during the entire sum- 

 mer, always having a coating of ice about their 

 walls. 



The hardy clematis found in this region bears 

 dark blue flowers that are fully three and a half 

 inches in diameter, being about as large as those 

 of the cultivated varieties known as the blue Jack- 

 manni, the blossoms of which they also resemble 

 in color. There are two or three wild species in 

 the same regions, namely C. Fremonti and C. ligus- 

 ticifolia, plants that bear rather inconspicuous 

 flowers of a greenish white color, but having long, 

 feathery seed coverings that give them interest, 

 and being in addition strong growers. 



I have already named these among the species 

 of clematis that were used in hybridizing experi- 

 ments. 



It was to be expected that plants having strains 

 of such hardy species in their heredity would 

 develop some varieties of great hardiness. And in 

 this the expectations were not disappointed. A 

 more extended series of experiments than I had 

 planned to undertake would be necessary to fix 



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