ADLUMIA CIRRHOSA.--This grows quickly, and the fern-like leaves, covering almost the twining stems, possess much beauty; the flowers are white. A biennial, but sows itself freely. North America.
AKEBIA QUINATA.--A most distinct Japanese creeper with five-lobed leaves and twining stems; although generally grown in a greenhouse, where it flowers in January or February, it is quite hardy in mild sea-shore places, and bears its monoecious flowers in April or May. The rich wine-purple flowers are borne in axillary grape-like clusters, and their translucent petals are very beautiful as seen between the eye and the light. It likes a rich, deep, loamy soil, and is increased by suckers or layers. Although introduced to our gardens from Chusan in 1845, it has never become very abundant, but it deserves a place for its distinctive character.
ALOYSIA CITRIODORA (Sweet Verbena).--Another popular name for the _Aloysia_ is Lemon plant; it is a fragrant pale-green leaved bush, not very hardy, and therefore best placed when against a sunny wall. Except in quite the south of England and Ireland, it is generally wise to cover over the stems with a straw mat and heap ashes over the roots. It is often seen as a large bush against the sea. We have seen it thus on the Carnarvon coast. Chili.
AMPELOPSIS.--Now included with the Vines (_Vitis_).
APIOS TUBEROSA.--This has pea-shaped violet-scented flowers. It is sometimes pretty rambling over a shrub. North America.
ARISTOLOCHIA SIPHO (Dutchman's Pipe).--Frequently planted against a wall; its leaves are very large and handsome, and the dull-coloured flowers, owing to their shape, have given rise to the popular name.
ATRAGENE ALPINA.--A hardy wall climber, and known under the name of _Clematis alpina_. It enjoys a lime soil. A native of Europe.
AZARA.--The best known of these is _A. microphylla_; it is not one of the hardiest of shrubs, but in many gardens, especially where sheltered and by the sea, it covers much space with dense glossy leaves; the flowers are white, small, and give place to orange-coloured berries in autumn. It is quite a shrubby wall plant.
BENTHAMIA FRAGIFERA.--Now known as _Cornus capitata_, but in gardens its old name will long be retained. In Devon, Cornwall, and in Wicklow, Cork, and Kerry, and elsewhere in Ireland, this fine shrub flowers and fruits luxuriantly as a bush on the border or lawn, but in less favoured places it needs the warmth and shelter of a wall. It is a native of Nepaul, and is readily increased from home-grown seeds, and the plant, like all its allies, is a rapid grower in any deep, rich, loamy soil. Quite small bushes of this plant and the common _Arbutus Unedo_ are often very handsome as seen laden with fruit in South and Western Ireland.