146 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



HIDALGOA WERCKLEI * 



This recent addition to the ranks of green- 

 house plants, known as the " Climbing Dah- 

 lia," was discovered in the uplands of Costa Rica 

 by Werckle in 1898, where its habitat would 

 seem to be local. Having been placed origin- 

 ally in the hands of Mr. Childs, of New York, 

 a plant found its way to Kew, with the result 

 that its merits were soon recognised. Of rapid 

 growth and simple culture, it is likely to be- 

 come a favourite. Without going into botani- 

 cal details, it suffices to say that, while recalling 

 the Dahlia in some of its characteristics, its 

 climbing habit and fibrous root distinguish it ; 

 the flower also, of a rich colour, is smaller in 

 size, less regular in outline, and quite free from 

 that stiffness inseparable from the Dahlia. The 

 aspect of the plant is good, the elegant foliage 

 rinding its own support by clinging leaf-stalks; 

 the free habit and outline of a Clematis, even 

 the toss forwards of its blossoms, make it a 

 valuable plant. Experiments, particularly in 

 France, have already shown its usefulness. 

 Propagated early and planted out in summer, 

 it there makes rapid growth, blooming freely, 

 especially towards autumn, its buds ceasing to 



open only with the advent of dark days and 

 sharp weather. Quite in the north of France 

 it withstood several degrees of frost uninjured, 

 until hopes were excited of its proving hardy 

 enough to stand the winter. These hopes, 

 however, proved futile. None the less it seems 

 certain that in many parts the newcomer will 

 render real service in the open garden during 

 summer and early autumn. 



On the Riviera and similarly favoured 

 spots its future is assured, for, with some slight 

 protection in severe weather, there is no doubt 

 of its passing the winter unscathed. In this 

 country, treated as Mina lobata, Cobea scandens, 

 and other half-hardy exotics, it is more than 

 probable that the Hidalgoa will prove itself as 

 useful as any of these older favourites. It re- 

 quires a light fertile soil, and some protection 

 from winds — the foot of a sheltered wall for 

 choice, and there, under favourable circum- 

 stances, it will make 10 to 12 feet of vigorous 

 growth in the season. Cuttings rooted during 

 summer may serve as a succession in the green- 

 house, and as stock plants for the spring. 



J. H. B. 



The Shrubbery Beautiful. — I want to 

 marry together great ranks of individual 

 beauties, so that May flowers shall hardly be 

 upon the wane when the blossoms of June 

 shall flame over their heads ; and June in its 

 turn have hardly lost its miracles of colour 

 when July shall commence its intermittent 

 hres, and light up its trail of splendour around 

 all the skirts of the shrubbery. I want to see 

 the delicate white of the Clematis (virgimana) 

 hanging its graceful festoons of August here 

 and there in the thickets that have lost their 

 summer flowers ; and after this I welcome 

 the black berries of the Privet, or the brazen 

 ones of the twining Bitter-sweet. Or, it is 

 some larger group with which we deal — half 

 up the hill-side, screening some nursery of 

 rocks— and a tall Lombardy Poplar lifts from 

 its centre, while shining, yellowish Beeches 

 group around it — crowding it, forcing all its 

 leafy vigour (just where we wish it) into the 



topmost shoots ; and amid the Beeches are 

 dark spots of young Hemlocks — as if the 

 shadow of a cloud lay just there, and the sun 

 shone on all the rest ; and among the Hem- 

 locks, and reaching in jagged bays above and 

 below them, are Sumachs (so beautiful, and 

 yet so scorned), lifting out from all the tossing 

 sea of leaves their solid flame-jets of fiery 

 crimson berries. Skirting these, and shining 

 under the dip of a Willow, are the glossy 

 Kalmias, which at midsummer were a sheet of 

 blossom ; and the hem of the group is stitched 

 in at last with purple Phloxes and gorgeous 

 Golden-rods. I know no limit, indeed, to the 

 combinations which a man may not effect 

 who has an eye for colour and a heart for the 

 light labour of the culture. There is, unfor- 

 tunately, a certain stereotyped way of limiting 

 these shrubberies to a few graceful exotics, 

 and of rating the value of foliage by its cost 

 in the nursery. — Ik. Marvel. 



With coloured plate. 



