HARDY ORNAMENTAL VINES. 



395 



this and Vitis inconstans are probably two of the most widely-grown 

 garden plants of the present day. 



The self-supporting habit of Vitis inconstans, its neat appearance and 

 beautiful autumn tints, probably account for the great appreciation which 

 this plant receives, added to the fact that it withstands the smoke and 

 heat of towns. In the cities of the United States of North America, and 

 in London and other large centres of Europe, Vitis inconstans is met 

 with in all situations. It adorns equally the palace and the cottage. A 

 variety of this species called purpurea has purple foliage when young, 

 which becomes bronzy- purple when mature, and retains this tint more or 

 less throughout the season. 



Vitis leeoides is very curious, and, as its name implies, bears a re- 

 semblance to the allied genus Lcea, of which the beautiful stove plant 

 Leea amabilis is a familiar example. The leaves are pinnate, composed 

 of five leaflets, which measure from 4 to 4^ inches in length, and from 

 H to 2 inches in width. The margins are serrate, and the apex acuminate. 

 All parts of the leaf are glabrous, the under-surface purplish in colour, 

 and the upper bright green. It is a Chinese species, and was raised from 

 seed at Coombe Wood (figs. 95, 96). 



Vitis megaphylla. This is one of the most remarkable of all the species 

 of Vitis in cultivation, and one of the most distinct of the new additions 

 from China. There is no other Vine at all like it. In appearance the 

 foliage resembles that of some of the pinnate-leaved Araliads, or of the 

 well-known Tecoma grand flora on a large scale. The individual leaves are 

 compound, pinnate or bipinnate, 18 or more inches in length, composed of 

 four pairs of leaflets, the lowest two pairs being themselves usually pinnate. 

 The leaflets are from 5 to 6 inches in length, broadly ovate-lanceolate 

 or oblong-ovate in outline, with coarsely serrate margins. The upper 

 surface is dark rich green, and the underside glaucous green, glabrous in 

 all its parts. The petiole is grooved along its upper surface, swollen at 

 the paints w T here the leaflets originate, and pale green in colour except 

 where exposed to the light, these portions assuming a reddish -purple 

 tinge. The stems are of the same pale glaucous green as the petioles, 

 and are swollen at the nodes. 



It is a rapid and vigorous grower, and at Coombe Wood in 1903 quite 

 young recently- planted examples made shoots 10 feet in length in open 

 borders (figs. 86, 97). 



I 'itis obtecta, another Chinese species, has digitate leaves, consisting of 

 three to five leaflets, resembling a miniature Horse-chestnut. The 

 terminal leaflet is the largest, and measures from 4 to 5 inches in length, 

 the smallest about 2| inches. They are oblanceolate in shape, emarginate 

 along the basal portion, and serrate along the apical third of the leaf. 

 The apex projects into an acuminate point, about half an inch in length. 

 The inflorescence is a much-branched panicle. 



Vitis Bomaneti, also called Ampelovitis Romaneti, was first discovered 

 by Pere David in 1872 or 1873 in the mountainous regions of Southern 

 Shensi, Central China, whence he sent seeds to Romanet, who successful ly 

 cultivated it in France, and in compliment to whom it was named. 



It is a handsome Vine with large bold leaves, densely covered with 

 white woolly tomentum on the under-surface, on which and on the petioles 



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