THE WISTARIA SINENSIS. 
135 
In the character of a tall shrub, however, or of a pole plant, for placing in the 
beds or borders of conservatories, or as a covering to any of the pillars which 
support the roof, or even pruned into a state of dwarfness, and kept in a pot, or 
made to trail over rock or rustic work in the centre or at the back of a greenhouse, 
it is almost entirely unknown. 
To adapt it for any of these forms or positions, hardly any treatment is requi- 
site, beyond attention to pruning. But it is indispensable that this pruning be 
exceedingly rigid, and be followed up with the greatest strictness. 
The ordinary habit of the plant being to produce very long and comparatively 
weak shoots, it of course commences to form these from the earliest period of its 
growth. Indeed, as soon as a layered branch has become a plant by throwing out 
roots from that part which is plunged in the ground, and which has been partially 
cut through to facilitate the process, it will begin to develop those tenuous 
branches which are peculiar to the species ; and, where a bushy specimen is 
required, the pruning must then immediately be started. 
Nor will it be at all prudent to cease this close pruning until the plant has been 
reared into the desired form, when it will also have acquired that tendency to bear 
short blooming spurs, instead of big branches, which will render the subsequent 
prunings light and trifling. 
By this kind of routine, therefore,— taking care to keep the shoots cut back 
very closely every year at least, and, in the first stages, twice or thrice each season, 
— good shrubby or pillar plants may readily be obtained for the conservatory. 
And we conceive that both the novelty and beauty of such objects would contribute 
powerfully to the adornment of plant structures. 
Still, independently of the suitableness of this Wistaria for attaching to the 
pillars of a conservatory, and for being so confined by pruning as to cover them 
alone, without extending over any other portion of the building, it possesses an 
equally striking adaptation for affixing to poles, whether of wood or iron. 
And here we cannot but digress a little to express our wonder that, in addition 
to those fine climbers which are now, in well kept establishments, made to depend 
so naturally from the roof of the house instead of being retained in that trim, 
restricted form which was once so universal, the interesting open-ground practice 
of training climbers to poles is not freely introduced. A pillar of exotic climbing 
Roses, for example, supported by a pole, and standing out amidst the varied shrubs 
or arboreous plants of the conservatory, would be a most delightful object ; and 
there is scarcely a climber of any description that might not be similarly managed ; 
for, when once they have been brought, by pruning, into a duly compact form, 
with a strong tendency to produce nothing but lateral shoots, these last will, if 
left almost untouched, soon fling themselves out around the stem in every direc- 
tion, and gradually take that drooping and waving character which causes them 
to be so exceedingly graceful. 
The Wistaria sinensis is an excellent plant for this purpose, as the experience 
