312 



with flowers about the same size as the last 

 described. It flowers in June, making a dense 

 array of free-flowering stems mottled with dark 

 brown. The leaves are broadly lanceolate and 

 the whole plant scabrous. 



/. ensifolia. — This species flowers a month 

 later than hirta, has smooth and much narrower 

 leaves, is hardly a foot high, and worth grow- 

 ing for its very neat flowers with regularly dis- 

 posed horizontal rays. 



Experienced amateur gardeners will be 

 struck by the strong resemblance of the flowers 

 in the coloured portrait of I. royleana to those 

 of Te/ekia speciosa (Baumgartner), a genus now 

 absorbed in Bupthalmum. This fine species of 

 robust growth and invaluable for a wild garden 

 bears stems 3 feet high in England, with large 

 broad cordate leaves and panicles of ten or 

 twelve flowers; in its native haunts on the 

 Caucasus, as the mountaineer Mr. Freshfield 

 tells us, it grows so luxuriantly that a man on 

 horseback riding amongst it scarcely has his 

 head and shoulders visible. 



C. WOLLEY DOD. 



Edge Hall, Malpas. 



WISTARIAS AS STANDARDS 

 AND BUSHES AND IN OTHER 

 FORMS. 



This, the most beautiful of all climbers 

 ever introduced to this country, isusually 

 left to itself as a huge liane ; but it is really 

 a most amenable plant, and well de- 

 serves to be grown in other ways, e.g., 

 as a standard occasionally , or as garlands, 

 bushes, archways, and climbingup trees. 

 Lovely effects are often seen on the Ri- 

 viera from its free use in gardens, where 

 many trees are completely wreathed in 

 garlands of Wistaria, becoming clouds 

 of blue tassels in April. It does espe- 

 cially well in trees of light leafage such 

 as the Olive and FalsePepper,the climber 

 and its host drooping together in a very 

 pretty way. It is also very effective creep- 

 ing up the tall bare stem of a Pine, to 

 hang in graceful festoons from the upper 



branches, but in such case it is well not 

 to allow the Wistaria to wind spirally 

 upwards as is its wont, for on gaining 

 strength the twisted stem tightens to 

 such an extent as to injure its support. 

 I have seen a great Pine so nearly killed 

 by such strangulation that the climber 

 had to be cut away to save it, the rope- 

 like stems having sunk into the bark in 

 all directions. Guided straight up the 

 trunk, an occasional tie secures it from 

 wind, and once among the branches it 

 threads its own way, and droops with- 

 out doing any harm. By using with it 

 other climbers of good colour like the 

 yellow climbing Roses such as Bouquet 

 d' Or,RevecP Or, and the climbing Cra- 

 moisi, the most beautiful effects in 

 colour are produced. For archways, 

 porches, and verandahs, few climbers are 

 so useful, and the ease with which strag- 

 gling shoots maybe layered and rooted 

 to form the centre of fresh growth, en- 

 ables one plant to cover a great surface. 

 In this way a series of arches may be 

 clothed in time, by layering at intervals 

 any shoots that reach the ground, the 

 new roots giving fresh growth and fur- 

 ther extension. Into one such trained 

 plant branches of other kinds had been 

 I grafted with good effect, the blue and 

 ! white flowered sorts hanging in clusters 

 ! sidebyside. Thedouble flower was also 

 used, but is less graceful in form and of 

 a duller colour, quite inferior to the pale 

 ; shaded blue of the single kind. Thevery 

 long drooping bunches of W.multijuga 

 are graceful and pretty, but it is not 

 nearly so free as the common kind, and 

 the flowers are smaller, of a duller pur- 

 j plish colour, and later in bloom. 



