ON SOME ORNAMENTALS 



of growth. One of these is said to bear excellent 

 fruit. 



At three years of age, when the first blossoms 

 appeared, the strongest plants were about fifteen 

 feet high. Among the thousands of seedlings, 

 there is enough difference in the form of foliage, 

 rapidity of growth, and other characteristics to 

 show that the plant is susceptible of improvement 

 even in the first generation of seedlings from wild 

 stock 



Experiments in hybridizing these new plants 

 with Lapageria, and further experiments in selec- 

 tion, in the hope of securing a new vine that com- 

 bines with other good qualities the property of 

 fruit-production, are contemplated. As yet this 

 series of experiments is only at its beginning, but 

 I mention it as illustrating one of the many lines 

 of investigation, looking to the development of new 

 varieties of ornamental vines, that invite the exper- 

 imenter. 



The clematis is a plant that 

 improves with acquaintance. 

 There is a great variety among 

 the forms already under culti- 

 vation and through hybridiza- 

 tion with wild species, still great- 

 er variation may be induced. 



