600 VINES AND CREEP ER8. 



1816, but was little known in this country until within thirty years. 

 'There is no twining vine that will mount so rapidly, or that will 

 cover so great a space. Planted at the foot of a lightning-rod it has 

 been seen to mount to the top of a five-story house within four 

 years after planting. Mr. Fortune, the great botanist, gives the 

 following account of a famous vine which he saw in a Japanese 

 city: — "On our way (May 20th)' we called at Nanka Nobu to see 

 a large specimen of Glycine ( Wistaria) sinensis which was one of 

 the lions in this part of the country. It was evidently of great age. 

 It (the trunk) measured at three feet from the ground, seven feet in 

 circumference, and covered a space of trellis-work 60 x 102 feet. 

 The trellis was about eight feet in height, and many thousands of 

 the long racemes of glycine hung down nearly half way to the 

 ground. One of them which I measured was three feet six inches 

 in length ! The thousands of long drooping lilac racemes had a 

 most extraordinary and brilliant appearance." On page 244 some 

 wistaria vines, in Germantown, Pa., are mentioned, which have 

 covered the head of a lofty hemlock tree, and almost hid it from 

 sight under their own more luxuriant growth. If the vine has an 

 opportunity to keep on growing vertically, it soon loses its foliage 

 towards the bottom. It should therefore have a place for hori- 

 zontal expansion in order to exhibit its greatest beauty, unless 

 wanted to cover tree-tops. The foliage is composed of long pinnate 

 leaves of many leaflets. The flowers appear in May and June, and 

 again in August. They are borne in great abundance in long loose 

 pendulous racemes from eight inches to several feet in length, ar^d 

 are mostly of a pale-blue or lilac color. 



The Chinese White Wistaria, W. (G.) sinemis alba, is a re- 

 cently imported variety with white flowers ; otherwise resembling 

 the preceding. 



The W. brachybotria is a variety with shorter racemes of more 

 fragrant light-blue flowers. The W. brachybotria rubra is a variety 

 with reddish-purple flowers. The W. magnifica is a new variety 

 with lilac blossoms, believed to be a cross between the Chinese 

 wistaria and the American species ; the W. frutescens alba is t 

 white-flowered seedling of the latter. 



