126 FAMILIAR GARIJEX FLOWERS. 



destroyed by vermin. The heat being reduced below 00°, 

 the ]ilant improved in health, but did not fully recover. 

 Early in Ano-ust, the gardener, D. ]\IeLeod, removed it 

 from the wall of the peach-house, set it in a pot of vege- 

 table mould, and tied its branches to a stick. In the 

 montli (if September it lost all its leaves. It was kept all 

 the winter on the floor in the darkest and coolest part of 

 the greenhouse, in which situation the mould in the pot 

 was frozen three different times during the winter. In 

 the l)eginning of Marc'h it showed flower buds, and the 

 plant w^as removed to a more favourable situation in the 

 house ; but no leaves were put forth till the last week in 

 March, when the flowers were nearly expanded. Thus the 

 plant was prepared for life in the open air, and when at 

 last it was trusted wholly to nature proved hardy enough 

 for the climate of Britain, and capable of giving joy to 

 its humblest possessor — for of glass, fire, pots, and careful 

 tendance, it needs absolutely none. The familiar Aiicnha 

 Japonica went through the same kind of probation, being 

 nearly killed in heat, and restored to health only by being 

 treated as a hardy plant full}' caj)able of taking care of 

 itself. When we speak of it as the wistaria (irot wis- 

 teria) we commemorate C. Wistar, an American botanist, 

 to whose honour it was dedicated by the botanist Nuttall. 



The wistaria is a member of the great order of 

 papilionaceous or fabaceous plants ; in other words, it is a 

 member of the happy family of peas and beans. There are 

 alxiut a dozen species in the books, but they obtain littU» 

 attention, and it may be said that for all practical pur- 

 ]iiises in the decoration of the garden we have onlv one, 

 wliich is the ]ilant now before us. But this beauty has 

 given us a fair child, known as the white Nvistaria, an 



