42 



EX I * EMM EXT A L FA R MS. 



A CHOICE COLLECTION OF HARDY ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS. 



The inquiry is frequently made both by visitors and correspondents, who have but 

 a limited garden space, what are the best and most attractive shrubs for such limited 

 areas. As a partial reply to this question a selection of 12 varieties will be briefly des- 

 cribed, each one of which, by its grace of form, its attractive foliage, or beauty of flower, 

 or all combined, will afford much gratification to its possessor. The list is so small that 

 many choice things are unavoidably omitted and no attempt will be made to include in 

 this small number any of the very beautiful evergreens so desirable in every collection. 

 These may be dealt with on a future occasion. Several of the most desirable of the 

 shrubs in this select list have already been mentioned under ornamental hedges, but 

 they are well deserving of special commendation also for the garden or lawn. The 

 illustrations used have been engraved from photographs of specimens growing on the 

 Central Experimental Farm. 



1. Lilac Chas. X. Syringa vulgaris Chas. X. — Lilacs are among the best known and 

 most beautiful of the spring flowering shrubs and are universally admired. They are 

 easily grown and flower freely. Some varieties, however, produce flowers in much greater 

 abundance than others. There are about ten species in all of this genus, and of some of 

 these there are many varieties, but none have produced, under cultivation, forms giving 

 so great a vai'iety of character of bush and colour of flower as the common lilac, Syringa 

 vulgaris, and it is one of the most beautiful of these forms known as Chas. X., which will 

 first, claim our attention. Fig. 3 is from a photograph taken in June, 1894, of a specimen 



Fig. 3. — Lilac Chas. X. 



about 4 feet high on one of the lawns. This variety is rather dwarf in habit and slow in 

 growth, probably because there is a great tax annually on its powers in the profuse pro- 

 duction of bloom with which it is covered. No other lilac in the large collection now 

 brought together on the experimental farms blooms so profusely as Chas. X., and the 

 bush is perfectly hardy. The flowers are of a deep purplish lilac, fragrant and borne on 



large trusses. 



