426 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



house and conservatory decoration. Other new 

 strains have been raised in the Botanic Gardens 

 at Kew, Cambridge, and elsewhere, by crossing 

 several tall-growing species, such as Heritieri 

 and multiflora, with the garden Cineraria, thus 

 obtaining height of plant, a looser habit, and 

 a larger head of flowers. 



Insects. — These can be destroyed by fumi- 

 gation, but the applications must be slight, or 

 the bottom leaves are certain to suffer. A 

 better method, yet involving a little more 

 labour, is to keep always on hand a supply of 

 tobacco water in a vessel sufficiently large to 

 admit of the plants being dipped, when any are 

 found affected. If timely means are thus taken 

 as soon as any aphides are discovered, they are 

 easily kept under. 



Clematis. — The wild species of Clematis 

 are dealt with in another part of this work. 

 Beautiful as most of them are, they cannot be 

 compared to the purely garden types with 

 which we have now to deal, either in the size 

 and brilliant colouring of the single flower, or 

 in the showiness of the plant as a whole. They 

 have been obtained by intercrossing C. Viticella, 

 C. patens, C. lanuginosa, and C. florida. A new 

 group has lately been added by Messrs. Jack- 

 man of Woking, by crossing C. coccinea, a 

 North American species, with the garden varie- 

 ties. 



The first hybrid raised appears to have been 

 C. Hendersoni, distributed in 1835, from C. Viti- 

 cella and probably C. integrifolia. It is interesting 

 now chiefly because it is one of the parents of 

 the important Jackmani race. In 1850 seed- 

 lings from C. patens were raised at Libourne in 

 south-west France. Shortly after, Mr. Anderson- 

 Henry of Edinburgh crossed the same species 

 with C. lanuginosa, introduced from China by 

 Fortune a few years before. In 1858 Messrs. 

 Jackman & Son, "Woking, crossed C. lanuginosa 

 with C. Hendersoni and a variety of C. Viticella, 

 and amongst the seedlings thus obtained the 

 famous C. Jackmani appeared. Other breeders 

 of Clematises are Messrs. Simon Louis Freres 

 of Metz, C. Noble, Cripps & Son, and R. Smith 

 and Co. of Worcester. 



Few hardy climbers provide so gorgeous a 

 display of flowers, spread over so long a time, 

 as the garden Clematis. In the open ground 

 it may be trained up rough poles or trellises 

 or massed in beds; or allowed to ramble over 

 old tree-stumps, or roots, or rock-work. Some 

 varieties are useful in the cool greenhouse, 

 either planted out and trained up the rafters 



or pillars, or cultivated in pots and trained on 

 wire cages. 



The soil in which the Clematis thrives best is 

 a rich, not too heavy loam. It likes chalk or 

 lime, and if this substance is not present the 

 ground should be dressed with it occasionally. 

 The Clematis is a gross feeder, and a good annual 

 mulching of rotted manure is of great benefit. 

 At the first planting the ground should be 

 thoroughly trenched, and if it be of a heavy 

 nature a good proportion of leaf-soil should be 

 mixed with it. If light and sandy, it should be 

 strengthened by adding stiff' loam. 



Pruning should be done about the end of 

 February, when it is easier to pick out the 

 dead portions than it is in midwinter. As a 

 general rule the aim should be to cut out 

 weakly, unnecessary growths, and to shorten 

 back the others. Many varieties, if left alone, 

 are apt to form a few bare stalks at the bottom, 

 and a huge, top-heavy mass overhead. The 

 Jackmani group may safely be cut back each 

 year to within a few inches of the previous 

 year's wood. For C. lanuginosa, and hybrids 

 from it, less pruning is needed. The groups 

 centring round C. patens and C. florida respec- 

 tively need little or no pruning, for they flower 

 in spring and are not so vigorous as the others. 



Pot Culture. — The cultivation of Clematises in 

 pots has been brought to a high'state of perfection 



Fig. 526.— Pot-grown Clematis Princess of AVales. 



in recent years. The most convenient method 

 is to grow them on into 14-inch pots, training 

 the shoots over balloon-shaped trellises made of 



