128 WISTARIA CONSEQUANA. 
all these circumstances, the profusion in which it blossoms is well nigh without a 
parallel ; a specimen in the gardens of the Horticultural Society having borne, as 
stated in the Botanical Register, no fewer than 675,000 flowers in the past spring, 
the petals of which, according to the same authority, would, if " placed end to end, 
have extended to a distance of more than thirty-four miles." Under a certain 
course of treatment, this plant will also bloom two or three times in one year, and 
besides the flowers remaining open for a considerable period, there is, on account of 
the disposition of the lower ones in the raceme to delay expansion till after the 
others, a free succession of them for fully more than a month, and their delicious 
odour is very generally agreeable. 
With such a multiplicity of pleasing characteristics, it is only wonderful that 
there should be a single garden of any description wherein it is wanting, and we 
trust it will soon be so abundantly increased that even the cottager may adorn his 
little plot or embower his humble residence with so delightful an object. Its 
cultivation requiring no particular skill or care, this can the more easily be 
accomplished ; and if proprietors would allow their gardeners to lay down a few 
shoots annually for the purpose of distributing the young plants among their 
tenants, the aspect of the country might, during the flowering season, be materially 
improved. 
The main items in its treatment are the provision of a light loamy earth, and 
judicious but very close pruning. The former of these may readily be dispensed 
with, and any common soil will be found to suit it ; but pruning cannot be neglected 
without great prejudice to the plant, since the production of flowers is altogether 
regulated by this practice. It should be performed in the winter season, and the 
young shoots vigorously cut back each year. By this means the elder branches 
will be induced to extrude flowering spurs, from which alone can blossoms be 
expected. Plants trained to poles, or preserved in a dwarf state, will necessarily 
need more pruning than those attached to a wall, and a greater display of bloom 
will invariably be the consequence. Specimens growing against a southerly 
elevation are often benefited by a covering of canvass in the early spring months, 
because, owing to the period at which their flowers begin to develop, they are 
liable to be injured by night frosts. 
Some observations on the culture of this plant, with a view to the repeated 
production of blossoms in the same year, are given in the fifth volume of our 
Magazine. It may be propagated freely by layering the younger branches. 
The genus is named in honour of Caspar Wistar, late professor of anatomy in 
the University of Pennsylvania. 
