62 Addisonia 



This is the shrub that particularly attracts the attention, any- 

 time of the year, along the highland trails and watercourses in the 

 southeastern United States. It is a striking and elegant shrub. 

 The conspicuous pliable and arching branches, furnished with 

 numerous glossy leaves, form beautiful banks of greenery. 



In addition to the evergreen foliage, the dog-laurel presents three 

 stages of the inflorescence, some one of which, at least, is prominent 

 at each season of the year. Of course, during the period of flower- 

 ing, late spring, the inflorescence is most conspicuous. However, 

 previous to this, in the winter and the early spring, the precocious 

 panicles, in bud, lend variety to the foliage, and later, in the summer 

 and fall, the long clusters of plump seed-pods are quite prominent 

 among the leaves. 



The southern mountains and the adjacent plateaus have been 

 the source of many kinds of shrubs useful for ornamental cultivation, 

 both in America and Europe. Perhaps nowhere else in temperate 

 North America have in the past so many celebrated European plant 

 collectors searched for novelties to be grown in the Old World 

 gardens. Some of these collectors were sent out by private enter- 

 prise, while others went under government patronage. Notable 

 among them were John Lyon, the Erasers, and the Michaux. In 

 passing, it may be mentioned that American collectors were not 

 wanting. John Bartram, the first native American botanist, heads 

 the list. 



The dog-laurel was introduced into European gardens in the 

 latter half of the eighteenth century. Apparently it was first 

 cultivated in an English nursery in 1794, from seeds sent from 

 America by Michaux. It is now widely cultivated as an ornamental 

 shrub, and quite justly so, and is hardy far northward of the northern 

 limit of its natural range which is in southwestern Virginia and 

 Tennessee. 



The specimen from which the accompanying illustration was 

 made has been grown in the New York Botanical Garden since 1914. 



John K. Small,. 



Explanation of Plate. Fig. 1. — Fall foliage. Fig. 2. — Flowering branch. 

 Fig. 3.— Corolla opened, X 2. Fig. 4.— Stamen, X 4. 



