1876. ] 
VINES AND VINE-CULTURE.—CHAPTER IX. 
73 
TKOP^OLUM POLYPHYLLUM. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
ROP.®OLUMS are not sufficiently appreciated by cultivators, though some 
of the dwarf compact-growing annual forms of T. majus are often used for 
bedding purposes. T. Lohhianum^ it is true, with some of the forms which 
have been bred from it, is occasionally seen illuminating the roof and 
pillars of a cool conservatory, and the formal beds of the summer parterre, but 
how seldom we now see specimens of the exquisitely elegant greenhouse pot- 
climbers, T. tricolorum^ hrachyceras^ or azureim^ and in how few gardens the 
brilliant hardy T. speciosiim, and the very interesting subject of our present 
illustration ! We owe our thanks to a veteran lover of flowers, Mr. G. Wheeler, 
of Warminster, for a grand specimen, of which Mr. Fitch has represented as 
much as the size of our page would permit, and we trust the picture may in¬ 
duce many of our readers to inquire for and cultivate the plant, the prostrate 
habit of which is represented, from a photograph, in the subsidiary figure on our 
plate. The flowers are of a rich golden colour, and the foliage of a glaucous green, 
Mr. Wheeler, who grows this plant very successfully, writes thus:— 
“ Tropceolum j^olypliyllum is a hardy tuberous-rooted plant from the mountains 
of Chili. Being impatient of confinement, it seldom thrives under pot-culture, 
and the most suitable place for it is the open border or the rockery, with plenty 
of soil for the rambling tubers. Most common garden soils suit it. When a bed 
of this plant is well established, the ground is covered with a mass of foliage, and 
it makes a grand display in June ; after blooming for a month or so, the foliage 
disappears for the season, and the ground may be occupied with summer plants 
without detriment to the Tropseolum tubers, which will send up their flowering- 
stems again in the spring. It does not climb as the other tuberous species do, 
being decidedly decumbent, lying flat on the ground, and throwing its pretty n 
glaucous foliage and golden-yellow flowers upwards. In deep porous soil the 
tubers descend from 2 ft. to 3 ft. below the surface, out of reach of frost, which may 
damage them if close to the surface, but at 6 in. below they may be considered 
safe. If permitted to take its natural course, it will take care of itself.”—T. Moore, 
VINES AND VINE-CULTUEE. 
Chapter IX.— The Setting of the Fruit. 
'HE flowering period and that of the setting of the fruit, are anxious times 
to most cultivators of the Grape Vine, especially in the case of early 
forcing, so much being dependent upon the state of the weather, and con¬ 
sequently upon the careful management of the temperature and the 
atmosphere *of the house. Vines in good robust health set their fruit in a general 
way quite freely under the proper conditions, but sickly ones do not, and the 
more sickly they are the less satisfactory is the setting. 
• By the “ setting ” of the fruit is meant the proper fertilisation of the ovary, 
3rd series.—IX. H 
