60 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



them not only means of support but protection from 

 cold, chilling draughts. In eastern North America 

 there are many native climbers of great beauty and 

 ornamental value and the variety available for the 

 embellishment of gardens situated in cold northern 

 districts is much greater than many suppose. A 

 selection of these I now propose to pass in brief re- 

 view. 



Unquestionably the most beautiful of all climbers 

 hardy in cool temperate regions is Wistaria, every- 

 where so deservedly popular and widely cultivated. 

 Now the name Wistaria was given in 1818, by the 

 American botanist, Nuttall, to an American plant 

 (W. frutescens), which had been in cultivation in 

 England since 1724, as Glycine frutescens, in honor of 

 an American physician Dr. Caspar Wistar, Professor 

 of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. In 

 1818, John Reeves, an officer of the English East 

 India Company, sent from Canton, China, to England, 

 a climber which received the name Glycine sinensis. 

 In 1825, De Candolle, a Frenchman, correctly referred 

 this plant to Nuttall's genus Wistaria. To-day, and 

 for many decades past, Wistaria and Wistaria sinensis 

 have been synonymous in the popular mind. Indeed, 

 comparatively few people know that here in eastern 

 North America there are native species of Wistaria, so 



