244 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Notes from the Arnold Arboretum 
WiSTEiuAS. All llu! species and varieti('S of Wislei'ia 
have now been arranged on I he lr('llis near the Forest 
Hills Hoad with Hu* exeej)tion of the White-llowered 
form of W. sinensis, IF. ja/ionica and the doLible-llowcred 
form of IF. venasla. The first appears to he an ex¬ 
ceedingly rare j)lanl; it was found hy Fortune in (diinese 
gardens and lii’st lloweri'd in Fngland in 1849, and Wil¬ 
son saw oeeasional |)lanls on the elilfs near lehang in 
e idral China. This plant has never heej> in the Ar- 
horetum. There was a plant in Francis Parkman’s gar¬ 
den in Jamaica Plain which flowered in 1880 hut has 
now disaj)peared; there is said to he a s|)eeimen in a gar- 
dim in Conneetieut, and there are two splendid old plants 
in gai'dens in Opelousas, Louisiana. It is wanted for 
the Arhoretiim eolh'ction. Wisteria japonira is a smal¬ 
ler plant than the other Asiatic s|)eeies, with slender 
stems and small clusters of {)ale yellow' flowors. This 
plaid flowered in the Dana eolleetion at Dosoris. Long Is¬ 
land, in 1879, and once many years ago produced a few" 
flowers in the x\rhoretum. It is a native of the w"armer 
parts of Japan, and not really hardy in the northern 
states. 
There are two American species native of the middle 
and southern stales; tin* best known of these. Wisteria 
frnteseens, is the more northern jilant and is a slender 
vine w"ith short eompaet clusters of eom])aratively small 
fragrant flowors. It is a less show y plant than the other 
species Imt is interesting as the first of the Wisterias cul¬ 
tivated in the United Slates and Euro])e. There is a 
wdiite-flowored variety ('var. ali)a). A handsomer plant is 
Wisteria 7nacrostarhj/a from the Missouri-Louisiana- 
Texas region Imt fortunately ])erfeelly hardy in Massa- 
ehusetts. It has much larger flowers in longer racemes 
than the other American species from wdiieh it can he dis¬ 
tinguished hy its longer ealyx-lolx'S and hy the glandular 
hairs on the calyx and flow er-stalks. A fine form of this 
plant wos once common in gardens under the name of 
Wisteria niagnifira which has often heen incorrectly eon- 
sideri'd a variety of IF. frnteseens. Another form w"ith 
lilue and whit(‘ flowers has heen deserihed under the 
nam(‘ of var. alt) 0 -Wacina. IF. marrostarhya, although 
the flowers are less showy than those of the Asiatic 
species, is a beautiful plant which is too little known in 
gardens. The American Wisterias hloom later than the 
Asiatic species and prolong the Wisteria season for sev¬ 
eral wmeks, 
WiSTERTA VENUSTA.. . The carlicst of the Wisterias to 
flower is IF. vennsta, and although this plant had heen 
sent to the United States and Europe for several years hy 
Japanese nurserymen, nothing w as really known about it 
mdil Wilson’s visit to Japan in 1914 when he found that 
it was a distinct and undese7al)ed species distinguished 
l)y hroad clusters, not more than six inches long, of very 
large flowers on stems an inch and a (juarter in length 
and hy the soft hairs wdiieh cover the lower surface of the 
leaves through the season. This plant, although it has 
long heen grown in Japanese gardens where there are 
very large specimens, is not Japanese, and it is now" be¬ 
lieved to he an albino form of the hlue-flow ered Wisteria 
which is cultivated in Peking and other gardens of 
northern Ehina hut which has not yet heen deserihed hy 
botanists or brought to this country. If this oi)inion of 
the origin of lU. vennsta is correct it should prove hardier 
than any of the other Asiatic Wisterias and perhaps 
make it ])ossihle to extend much further nortlnvard the 
successful cultivation of these plants. The flower-huds 
of lU. vennsta are well developed in the autumn and it i.^ 
the easiest of all Wisterias to bring into hloom in the w in- 
ter hy artificial heat. There is a form with double 
flowers (var. jdena) which is occasionally cultivated hy 
Japanese florists and is known in England. 
Wisteria sinensis growls naturally in central and 
southern China, and is the common Wisteria in the gar¬ 
dens of the United States and one of the most vigorous of 
the hardy climbing plants of the northern hemisphere. In 
New" Engalnd country gardens the flower-huds are often 
killed by cold, and it grow"S better on city houses w"here it 
is more protected than in the country. In the southern 
states, where it often grow"s to the tops of trees more than 
a hundred feet high, and in California it is seen in its 
greatest magnificence. The white-flowered form is the 
only variety of this plant w"hich has yet been found. 
Wisteria floribunda. This is the common Japanese 
Wisteria and is found growing naturally only in the cen¬ 
tral and southern parts of that country. It has smaller 
and more fragrant dowsers in narrow^er and more open 
clusters than the Chinese plant, and blooms here ten or 
twelve days later. This Wisteria is one of the most gen¬ 
erally cultivated garden plants in Japan, and Wilson 
found in a garden at Kasukahe a plant which extended 
over a bamboo arbor one-sixth of an acre in extent and 
w"as covered w"ith flow"er-clusters which measured up to 
sixty-four inches in length. This garden form with the 
long clusters has been distinguished as variety marro- 
botrjfs. On w"ild plants the flower-clusters are some¬ 
times not more than ten inches long, and in their length 
this plant varies greatly. There is a beautiful form w ith 
pure white flow"ers (var. alba) w"hich is becoming com¬ 
mon in this country, another with flowmrs wiiicli are pure 
pink or white more or less tinged w"ith pink (var. rosea), 
and another with leaves blotehed with yellow (var. var¬ 
iegated). There is also a double-flowmred form fvar. 
violarea plena) w"hich was first sent to this country in 
1862 and first flowered here in the garden of Francis 
Parkman at Jamaica Plain. Fortunately this form blooms 
very rarely, for the flow"ers are ugly, something w"hich 
cannot he said of any other Wisteria. Althougji the Jap- 
