MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 263 



TWELVE SHEUBS FOR THE FARMER'S HOME. 



Shrubs give more satisfaction, if wisely selected, than any other 

 form of vegetation. They give not only liovrers, but shady nooks. 

 Once planted, they do not require annual planting. The flower beds 

 become a burden, and as we get older we say we will cut off most of 

 the sorts we have grown. But a lilac bush makes us almost no labor, 

 while it is sure lo bewilder us with its annual beautification. Was ever 

 anything so fine as a lilac tree in full bloom, and full of humming birds ? 



I recommend the following list of shrubs for general planting by 

 farmers to secure a succession of flowers : 



In April there is nothing to precede the Daphne. There are two 

 handsome sorts. One is our native Moorewood or "Leatherwood," a 

 curious bush that is covered in spring with a load of light yellow flowers. 

 The Daphne Cneorum is a smaller shrub covered at the same time 

 with a sweet pink flower. The fragrance is very fine. Branches can 

 easily be bloomed in the house in mid-winter. 



Closely following the Daphnes come the Forsythias. The older 

 «orts are not quite hardy in their blossom buds, especially Virinissima. 

 But Intermedia, a new sort, can be relied upon. It makes a large, fine 

 shrub, which is a mass of gold in the earliest days of May. The effect 

 is fine just after snows. 



I should by all means select as third in my list Prunus tritaba^ a 

 really gorgeous large shrub or small tree, entirely hardy. The flowers 

 are over an inch in diameter, a rich pink in color, and as double as a 

 rose. It may be called the rose-flowered plum. Washington is full of 

 them in April, while as far north as Boston they blossom in May. The 

 little old friend of mothers, known as Flowering Almond, is near of kin, 

 but is small and not hardy. Imagine a Flowering Almond as large as a 

 plum-tree and a mass of flowers, and you have Prunus tritaba. 



For fourth shrub I would wish to choose Spirea prunifoUa, but 

 other species are so fine I could not reject them. Prunifolia is so 

 entirely hardy and such a mass of rosette-like white flowers, that my 

 lawn would never get on without several plants. Van Houltei is an- 

 other, in some respects even more gorgeous, Spirea, and the Auria or 

 golden-leaved is invaluable for rich color in May and June. 



Fifth must come the Japan quince, or (Jydonia japonica. When 

 you have the different colors, scarlet, white and rose color, in a great 

 mass in full bloom, you cannot get anything to surpass it for glorious 

 beauty. The flowers persist for a month, and are followed on old 



