1872,] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
181 
Ivies—Plain and Variegated. 
But few nortli of Delaware can grow Ivy 
as a climber and be sure of it. We have seen 
in favored situations in Hew England the 
side of a stone house covered with it, and in the 
city of Hew York it will often flourish for 
several successive winters. At last comes an 
unfavorable winter, and away goes the work of 
years. Through many 
of the Southern States 
the ivies do splendid¬ 
ly, but their success 
there is far eclipsed 
by that upon the 
Pacific coast. A few 
days ago we saw ivy 
leaves from Wash¬ 
ington Territory that 
would cover one’s 
our nurserymen and florists offer a dozen or 
more varieties at 25c. to $ 1 each, according to 
size and rarity. Ivy roots readily from cut¬ 
tings set in moist soil in a shady place, or if a 
hand, palm, fingers, and all. Still, in all places not 
excessively inclement, ivy can be grown as an 
edging, or to make a bed by itself. A slightly 
raised bed covered with ivy looks w r ell upon a 
lawn, the darker green of its foliage making a 
pleasing contrast with the lighter shade of the 
grass. A well-kept edging of ivy is particularly 
elegant, and though it may take a full year to 
establish it, the result is well worth the trouble. 
As to the different species of ivy, wo frankly 
confess that we know nothing positive about 
them. Several yea,rs ago the late Berthold See- 
manu “did up” the.ivies, and told us that what 
we had been calling Irish ivy was Hedera Gana- 
riense , and made us unlearn many other things 
we thought we knew'. A few years later came 
Shirley Hibbard with his classification of ivies. 
He not only knocked Seemann’s arrangement 
into “smithereens,” but that of every one else, 
and came out with an original renaming of old 
things made out of wdiole cloth. Between See- 
mann the botanist and Hibbard the egotist the 
nurserymen are in a poor case as to names. The 
variegated ivies, as a general tiling, have a hard 
time of it during our hot summers. They are 
beautiful in house culture, but lose their mark¬ 
ings under our summer suns. Some years ago 
Mr. George Such, of South Amboy, H. J., gave 
us a bit of what w T as then a new Japanese Ivy, 
and is now called in the catalogues Hedera Ja- 
ponica versicolor. It has been subjected to all 
the slights and exposures that any plant should 
meet w r itb, and yet year after year it has grown 
freely, and put out its beautifully variegated 
leaves as cheerfully as if it had received the 
best of care. The form of the leaves in this 
plant is so changeable, that it is difficult to say 
what the normal shape is. The coloring is no 
less whimsical. Some leaves are merely edged 
with white, others are half white and half 
green; sometimes one will come all white, and 
again a tinge of purple will be pleasingly inter¬ 
mingled with the white and green. We give 
an engraving of a small branch of this variety 
of the natural size. We think it probable that in 
even very cold localities the hardier Ivies can be 
grown as edgings or as beds, provided a good 
covering of leaves be given to protect them 
during the winter. The catalogues of most of 
branch be layered, it will root at every joint, 
and produce as many plants as there are joints. 
A Variegated Grape-Vine, 
We sometimes come across plants in cultiva¬ 
tion which are puzzles. That which w T e call 
the Variegated Grape-vine is one of these. We 
find it in some catalogues as a Gissus, and in 
VARIEGATED GRAPE. 
another as a Vitis, while an esteemed friend in¬ 
sisted last summer that we should come and 
see his beautiful variegated Ampelopsis. To ex¬ 
plain these names a little, Gissus is one applied 
to some beautiful green and hot-house climbers 
of the grape family; Vitis is the grape proper, 
and Ampelopsis we best know as the Virginia 
Creeper or American 
Woodbine. As the 
later botanists have 
been unable to find 
any points in these 
three genera which 
seem of sufficient im¬ 
portance to keep them 
separate, the three are 
by some united into 
one — Vitis , the grape. 
This helps us with 
the plant in question, 
which has been so 
bandied about under 
different names that 
we are well content to call it a variegated grape¬ 
vine, even if the fruit does not come up to our 
idea of what a grape should be. In foliage this 
vine is much like that of the grape in shape, 
very irregular at the extremities of the shoots, 
and beautifully mottled with white and green. 
The berries when ripe are of the most charming 
blue, about the size of pepper-corns, and upon 
bright crimson foot-stalks. This vine is one 
which will either give great satisfaction or pro¬ 
duce disappointment, according to the position 
in which it is grown. If planted in a place 
where it is shaded the greater portion of the day, 
it will produce handsomely-marked leaves, but if 
exposed to full sun the foliage 
will be dull and unsatisfactory. 
This variegated grape is not a 
new plant, as we grew it some 
twelve years ago. Our speci¬ 
men was unfortunately placed 
in an open exposure, and it 
made so poor a show that we 
were quite disgusted with it. 
Since then we have seen it in 
the grounds of others, grown 
in the shade, with the mark¬ 
ings quite as distinct as those 
shown in the engraving. 
Crossing and Hybridizing. 
Dr. Denney has given in the 
Florist and Pomologist (Lon¬ 
don) some interesting articles 
upon cross-breeding Pelargoni¬ 
ums. His accounts of his ex¬ 
periments and their results are 
of great value to those con¬ 
cerned in producing new seed¬ 
ling Pelargoniums and other 
florists’ plants, but are not of 
Sufficient general interest for 
ns to reproduce them. There 
are two points made by Dr. D. 
which should be kept in mind 
by those who aim at raising 
new varieties of fruits and 
flowers by hybridizing or 
cross-fertilizing. He finds that, 
provided the two parent plants 
are of equal health and vigor, 
the male plant exercises the 
greater influence upon the pro¬ 
geny. That is, the resulting 
seedlings will be in more re¬ 
spects like the parent from 
which the pollen is taken than like that which 
received the pollen and bore the seed. It is like¬ 
ly that this holds true with other plants. The 
