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.

BERBERIDOPSIS CORALLINA.--Mr. Burbidge writes in the _Garden_: "The
finest specimen of this beautiful and distinct evergreen climber I ever
saw was on the stable wall at Lakelands, Cork, when that noble place was
in the hands of the late Mr. William Crawford, a great lover of garden
vegetation. It is a native of the Chilian Andes, introduced in 1862. It
likes a deep peaty soil or loam and leaf-mould on a moist bottom, and,
like the _Lapageria_ and its dwarf cousin _Philesia_, it enjoys a
northern or shaded aspect, rarely thriving for long together in full
sunshine. Its flowers resemble those of the Berberis, but are much
larger, have pendent stalks, and are of the brightest coral-red or blood
colour. It grows and flowers here in a shaded corner under an ivy-topped
wall."

BIGNONIA CAPREOLATA.--This is the hardiest of the Bignonias. It needs a
warm wall, and there is much beauty in the warm, reddish-orange,
trumpet-shaped flowers, which are in clusters from April to August. It
grows to a considerable height. North America.

BILLARDIERA LONGIFLORA.--This is the Apple Berry of Tasmania, and is of
elegant twining habit, its greenish-yellow flowers, which are not very
showy, being succeeded by handsome blue berries that are