Addisonia 55 



(Plate 148) 



VIBURNUM LANTANA 

 Waj^aring Tree 



Native of Europe, the Caucasus, and northern Africa 

 Family Caprifouacea© Honeysuckle Family 



Viburnum Lantana L. Sp. PI. 268. 1753. 



An upright shrub or small tree, sometimes twenty feet tall, with 

 ascending branches. The young branches are densely pubescent 

 with brown stellate hairs, becoming glabrate when older. The 

 leaves are opposite, with petioles commonly a half inch long or 

 less, sometimes longer, densely pubescent with stellate hairs; 

 the blades are ovate, oval, or oblong-ovate, often cordate at the 

 base, acute at the apex, up to three inches long and two inches wide, 

 or sometimes broader on the new shoots; the upper surface is spar- 

 ingly pubescent with stellate hairs, the lower surface densely so, 

 especially on the nerves where the hairs are shorter and brown ; the 

 margin is denticulate, and the secondary nerves terminate in the 

 teeth. The white flowers are in dense cymes, two to three inches 

 across, of usually seven rays which are densely pubescent with stel- 

 late hairs. The corolla is about a quarter of an inch wide, its 

 lobes broadly oval or orbicular and rounded at the apex. The 

 stamens are five. The fruit is oblong-ovoid, about three eighths of 

 an inch long, at first red, later changing to almost black. 



An attractive plant in both flower and fruit, its showy clusters of 

 white flowers appearing in May in the vicinity of New York city, 

 the fruit ripening in late August or early September and persisting 

 for some time. It will grow in any ordinary soil, but is especially 

 suitable for drier situations and for limestone soils. The specimen 

 from which our illustration was prepared has been in the fruticetum 

 collection of the New York Botanical Garden since 1897. 



Many of the most attractive and striking of our ornamental 

 shrubs are to be found in this genus, which comprises about one 

 hundred and forty known species, distributed in the temperate and 

 subtropical regions of the northern hemisphere, the East Indies, 

 the Andean region of South America, and the West Indies. They 

 may be found in woodland and open, in low land and high, and in 

 dry and wet situations, so that from this genus may be selected 

 shrubs for almost any environment. They are excellent for borders 

 or shrub groups, or for planting along roadsides or paths, their 

 white flowers and the bright red fruits of some of the species making 



