Plants in the Hortus
Many of the plants described here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861. A large number of additional plants were identified from correspondence, gardening notebooks and other documents surviving in the archives. The Hortus attempts to describe all the plants grown in the gardens at Camden Park and those grown in horticultural enterprises such as orchards and vineyards and includes plants grown outside the gardens in the park-like environs of the Camden Park estate. The Hortus plants served a wide range of purposes in the 19th century household; as ornament, living fences, fibre, dyestuffs, medicines, food and drink from the garden, orchard and vineyard and many others.
Clematis florida Thunb. var. florepleno
See Clematis florida Thunb. var. bicolor for a description of the species. Florepleno is fully double with greenish-white flowers, to 12cm across. [RHSE].
Clematis florida Thunb. var. sieboldii
See Clematis florida Thunb. var. bicolor for a description of the species. Sieboldii is a hardy climber with purple and greenish-white flowers very similar, probably identical, to bicolor. [RHSD].
Clematis heracleifolia DC.
This is a hardy, herbaceous, woody-based perennial of open habit with toothed, deeply 3-lobed leaves and scented, tubular, purple flowers, produced in whorled racemes in summer. [RHSE, Hortus, Don].
Clematis montana Buch.-Ham. ex DC.
Fully hardy, very vigorous climber with profuse single white flowers, 5cm across, with creamy yellow anthers, borne singly or in short cymes, in spring. Pink forms are also grown. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Clematis montana Buch.-Ham. ex DC. var. grandiflora
See Clematis montana Buch.-Ham. ex DC. Grandiflora is similar to the type but with much larger, white flowers. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Clematis virginiana L.
Fully hardy, deciduous, semi-woody climber with three, toothed or lobed leaflets and small, fragrant white flowers in many-flowered axillary panicles, to 15cm across. [RHSD, Hortus].
Clematis viticella campaniflora [Macarthur]
Clematis viticella L. x Clematis campaniflora Brot., a hybrid probably raised at Camden. I have found no specific description of this hybrid.
Clematis viticella L.
Fully hardy, deciduous, semi-woody climber with small, solitary, open bell-shaped, blue, purple or rose-red flowers, to 4cm across, in summer and autumn. To 4m. There are many garden varieties. [RHSE, Hilliers’].
Clematis viticella L. var. major
See Clematis viticella L. for information on the species. Major is probably a large-flowered form but I have found no specific description. It was used by Macarthur as a hybrid parent. See also Clematis viticella L. var. major hybrid.
Clematis viticella L. var. major hybrid
A hybrid, Clematis viticella L. var. major x Clematis flammula L. No description of this plant is extant but see entries for the parents.
Clematis viticella L. var. rubra
See Clematis viticella L. for information on the species. Clematis viticella rubra is probably the red-flowered form mentioned in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine [BM t.565/1802]. ‘Rubra grandiflora’, with large, carmine flowers, is still commonly grown [Hortus]. This form was figured in Flore des Serres [FS p.20/1874] and is used as illustration here.
Clerodendrum paniculatum L.
Shrub with ovate, cordate leaves and much branched panicles of scarlet flowers. To 1.2m. [RHSD].
Clerodendrum speciosissimum Paxt.
Frost tender, erect, open, evergreen shrub with opposite, heart-shaped, corrugated, toothed leaves to 30cm long, and terminal panicles of salverform, bright scarlet flowers in summer and autumn. To 4m. [RHSE]. Some authors consider Clerodendron speciosissimum Paxt. to be synonymous with C. squamatum Vahl. which see. Clerodendron fallax Lindl. is now regarded as a synonym of Clerodendron speciosissimum Paxt. which see. In the early Victorian era they were clearly regarded as separate species and treated as such in Johnson’s Dictionary.
Clerodendrum splendens G.Don ex James
Frost tender, twining, evergreen climber with opposite, elliptic, entire leaves and dense terminal panicles of salverform, bright scarlet flowers in summer. To 3m or more. [RHSE].
Clerodendrum squamatum Vahl.
Frost tender shrub with oval leaves, entire or toothed, and terminal panicles, to 35cm, of fragrant, bright scarlet flowers. To 2.5m. [RHSD, Hortus].
