GALEGA 



LABURNUM AND BROOM ORDER wistaria 337 



and the reddish flowers are produced 

 during the early summer months in 

 crowded racemes. The variety alba has 

 white flowers. 



Culture and Propagation. — This 

 species was once generally cultivated in 

 greenhouses, but it has been proved fairly 

 hardy out of doors in the neighbourhood 

 of London. It grows better, however, in 

 the milder parts of the south and west 

 in warm and sheltered places. It will 

 grow in loamy soil and leaf mould, and 

 may be increased by seeds and cuttings in 

 the same way as I. gerardiana. 



I. gerardiana (J. florihunda). — ■ A 

 pretty Himalayan low branching shrub 

 with shortly stalked pale grey-green leaves, 

 glaucous and hoary beneath. Flowers in 

 July, purple-pink, 10-20 on an erect 

 raceme. Seeds are ripened &eely. 



Culture and Propagation. — This may 

 be grown as a bush or against a wall, and 

 in bleak districts may require protection 

 in winter. It thrives in loamy soil with 

 leaf mould, and is easily raised from seeds 

 sown under glass ; or may be increased 

 by cuttings of the young shoots in sandy 

 or peaty soil. It is an excellent plant for 

 massing boldly in beds on the grass. 



GALEGA (Goat's Eue).— A genus 

 with 3 species of smooth, erect, ornamental 

 perennial herbs. Leaves oddly pinnate ; 

 leaflets entire, veined. Stipules some- 

 what arrow-shaped. Flowers in axillary 

 and terminal racemes. Calyx teeth 

 nearly equal. Standard petal obovate- 

 oblong, with a short, narrow claw ; wings 

 oblong, slightly adhering to the somewhat 

 mcurved, blunt keel. Stamens 10, united. 

 Pod linear, roundish, pointed. 



Culture and Propagation. — Galegas 

 like a rich, loamy soil and sunny situa- 

 tions, and will flower year after year if 

 left undisturbed. It is advisable, how- 

 ever, either to divide them, say, every 

 third or fourth year, or to give them 

 fresh soil. They may be increased by 

 dividing the rootstocks in early autumn or 

 in spring, the latter season being perhaps 

 better on the whole ; or by sowing seeds 

 in the open border in spring. Cuttings 

 of the non-flowering shoots may be 

 inserted in cold frames during the 

 summer months and kept close for a 

 time. 



Galegas are very useful and ornamental 

 plants for massing in the flower border or 

 even in beds by themselves. 



G. officinalis [Common Goat's Hue). — 

 A native of South Europe, 3-5 ft. high. 

 Leaves lance-shaped, smooth, sharply 

 pointed ; stipules broadly lance-shaped. 

 Flowers in summer, blue, in dense 

 clusters. The variety albiflora (or (?. 

 persica) is a very handsome plant with 

 white flowers, and bicolor has white and 

 blue flowers. 



Culture do. as above. By pinching 

 off the withermg flowers and thus pre- 

 venting the development of seeds, the 

 plants often flower a second time in 

 autumn ; but this is a strain on them. 



G. orientalis. — A Caucasian perennial, 

 2-4 ft. high, with creeping roots and 

 simple flexuous stems. Leaves ovate, 

 pointed, smooth ; stipules broadly ovate. 

 Flowers in summer and autumn, blue, in 

 more or less erect clusters. 



CuUu/re da. as above. 



WISTARIA (Grape-Flower Vine; 

 Shoes and Stockings). — A genus with 

 4 or 5 species of high-chmbing, deciduous 

 shrubs, with oddly pinnate leaves, small 

 stipules, and drooping terminal racemes. 

 The 2 upper teeth of the calyx short and 

 somewhat imited ; the 3 lower ones 

 longer. Standard petal large ; wings 

 oblong sickle-shaped, usually free from 

 the blunt, incurved keel. Stamens 10, 

 the upper one free or united with the 

 others near the middle. Pod elongated, 

 alternately swoUen and constricted. 



Culture and Propagation. — Wistarias 

 — especially the common one — grow in 

 almost any soil, and flower profusely for 

 many years without the slightest attention 

 to roots or soil. They are easily increased 

 by layering the young shoots in summer, 

 and cutting them away the following 

 spring. Cuttings will root only with great 

 difficulty, and grafting a shoot on to the 

 roots is sometimes practised ; but neither 

 of these methods is an improvement on 

 the easier operation of layering. 



For covering the walls of houses, 

 arbours, trellises &c. the value of the 

 Wistaria is well known. Grown as a- 

 standard with the branches creeping or 

 trained to a framework, the plants look 

 very effective on lawns when clothed with 

 their weeping trusses of delicate blossoms. 

 Of the species described below, the com 

 mon Wistaria chinensis is undoubtedly 

 the finest and most useful, and it is never 

 likely to be supplanted as one of the most 

 ornamental woody climbers in cultivation. 



