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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



greenish, flowers, terminating the hranches. The 

 great beauty of the plant, however, resides in the 

 opening orange-coloured pods, which in autumn 

 display the scarlet seeds. 



C. Orixa, from Japan, is a plant of similar habit, 

 but with longer, darker green, firmer leaves. 



Clematis. — A selection of these will be found in 

 the series of articles on Trees and Shrubs. The 

 "best and most effective in the wild garden are our 

 native C. Vitalba, and the South European C. Flam- 

 mula and C. Viticella. 



Cocculus. — This genus, and Men ispermum, are the 

 only hardy representatives of the Moonseed family, 

 both hailing from the United States. Cocculus does 

 not, as might be inferred from its name, furnish the 

 poisonous berries called " Cocculus Indicus," which 

 are the produce of an allied genus belonging to the 

 same natural order. The leaves are minutely pubes- 

 cent, and vary in outline from ovate to cordate, and 

 are entire or sinuately lobed ; the fleshy fruits are as 

 large as a small Pea, and are red when ripe. The 

 inconspicuous greenish flowers are borne in axillary 

 racemes or panicles, and open in J uly and August. 



Convolvulus. — This genus, besides our native 

 Bind-weed, C. septum, is a great pest in rich garden 

 ground, but a beautiful climber in the hedgerow or in 

 certain spots of the wild garden, and furnishes several 

 good plants. For instance, C. Dahurica, with its cordate 

 leaves, and handsome deep rose-coloured flowers ; C. 

 pubescens, with its hastate downy leaves, and large 

 flesh-coloured flowers ; of the last-named species 

 there is a very showy variety with very double 

 flowers. C. altheoides has silvery lobed or dissected 

 leaves, and delicate rose-coloured flowers borne in 

 pairs — it is a South European perennial. C. Scam- 

 monia, which furnishes the scammony of the drug- 

 gist, is also well worth a place in any sunny spot ; 

 its roots do not run or indeed increase to any great 

 extent ; it has hastate leaves, and long-stalked, white 

 or pink-tinted, trumpet -shaped flowers. 



Coronilla varia is a charming perennial, suit- 

 able for planting in company with Ivy amongst a 

 heap of old roots, or by itself amongst low-growing 

 shrubs. Its pretty pinnate Pea-green leaves, and the 

 profusion of pinkish-lilac Pea-shaped flowers, render 

 it one of the most attractive of hardy plants. It is a 

 native of South Europe, and rarely attains a height 

 of more than four feet. On the margins of woods in 

 a few places in this country it has become naturalised. 



Cotoneasters. — Few shrubs make more orna- 

 mental objects under suitable conditions than do 



some of the dwarfer-growing evergreen Cotoneasters. 

 Their dark green leaves form a pretty contrast, both 

 to the white flowers and the abundant crop of red 

 fruit which succeed them. The best as semi-creepers 

 are C. microphylla and its smaller- growing varieties, 

 and C. marginata and C. bnxifolia. 



Eccremocarpus seaber belongs to an order 

 (Bignoniacece) which furnishes but few plants that 

 thrive in the open air in Britain. It is a handsome 

 Chilian climber with much - divided leaves, and 

 orange-coloured tubular flowers. Although it is 

 much cultivated as an ornamental creeper, we have 

 never seen it to greater advantage than in one 

 spot, amongst tall shrubs, where it had become 

 established entirely without assistance. Some of the 

 sweepings-up of a large garden in a Northern county, 

 containing seed-vessels of this plant, were thrown 

 into the corner of a shrubbery, and in a season or 

 two the hedgerow and the nearest shrubs were 

 covered with the splendid flowers of the Eccremo- 

 carpus, the plants amongst which it had to struggle 

 for existence affording the necessary protection 

 against the inclemency of the winters, which often 

 proved almost too much for individuals under ap- 

 parently more favourable conditions. 



G-ualtheria Shallon. — Wherever the soil is of 

 a peaty character, it is well to plant this pretty ever- 

 green shrub from North-west America. It is neither 

 a climber nor, strictly speaking, a creeper, but it 

 throws up abundance of stems, and soon makes a 

 thick undergrowth in dense Pine woods, and in spots 

 where most other shrubs refuse to grow. In some 

 places it is used somewhat extensively, both for the 

 shelter which it affords to game and for the sake of 

 its pretty fruits, of which pheasants are fond. 



G. procumbens, the Ai*omatic Wintergreen, the 

 Creeping Wintergreen, or the Partridge-berry, of 

 the Eastern United States, is a charming little plant 

 with Box-like leaves and slender stems, extensively 

 creeping on or beneath the surface of peaty ground, 

 in which it loves to grow. Both the bright red 

 berries and the foliage have the well-known spicy 

 aromatic flavour of the Sweet Birch of North 

 America; indeed, ib is from them that the oil of 

 "Wintergreen, an article largely used for perfumery 

 purposes, is obtained. This plant grows well under 

 the shade of tall-growing evergreens, and also on cool 

 damp spots, amongst rockwork. 



Hablitzia tamnoides, a perennial twiner, from 

 the Caucasus, is a rapid grower, of elegant habit ; 

 it has a Turnip-shaped root, a furrowed stem, and 

 alternate, long-stalked, smooth, heart-shaped, pointed 

 leaves. The small greenish flowers are collected 



