iSyi.] NOTES ON '^AMERICAN" SHRUBS. 495 



evaporation and keeping the soil cool, as the Epigsea is very im- 

 patient of excessive drought in summer, its roots being extremely 

 delicate, and never penetrating deep into the soil. 



ARCTOSTAPHYLOS. 



The few species of which this interesting group of evergreens is 

 composed were formerly referred to Arbutus, and though by no means 

 strikingly showy either in foliage or flowers, are yet sufficiently distinct 

 and interesting for admission to even a small American garden. 



The species -usually cultivated are natives of America and the 

 colder countries of Europe, inhabiting dry heathy mountains and 

 rocky exposed situations, and are valuable in this country for clothing 

 rockeries and sterile banks on which it would be difficult to induce 

 other shrubby plants to grow. When introduced into the American 

 garden, it will be necessary to raise the beds sufficiently above the 

 surface to insure thorough drainage, so that they may ripen their 

 wood thoroughly, as in a damp or very rich soil they have a tendency 

 to continue their growth till late in autumn, and be damaged by the 

 winter's frost. 



All of the sorts flower freely, and produce abundance of bright-red 

 berries, which are most eff'ective in winter, and eagerly eaten by game. 

 This, along with its thorough hardiness and its facility of cultivation, 

 renders the common species "uva ursa," the bear-berry of our moun- 

 tains, a most desirable plant for cover, and we are convinced that it 

 might be planted on bare waste moors extensively for that purpose 

 with great advantage. 



We note the following sorts as among the most ornamental and 

 most suitable for garden decoration : they are all more or less procum- 

 bent in their habit, and resemble very much in general appearance 

 some of the well-known forms of cotoniaster : — alpina, arbutoides, 

 serpilifolia, uva ursa. 



BRYANTHUS. 



The tiny evergreen known to cultivators as B. erectus is a hybrid, 

 obtained many years ago by the late Mr James Cunningham of the 

 Comely Bank Nurseries, Edinburgh, the parents being Menziesia 

 caerulea and Rhododendron chamoecistus, and we think would be more 

 properly called Menziesia, to which genus it really belongs, and with 

 which it has so many characters in common. 



Under whatever name it may be known, however, it is unquestion- 

 ably one of the prettiest of our dwarf peat-soil shrubs, and ought to 

 find a place in every collection. 



It forms a neat compact bush about 6 inches high, and flowers pro- 

 fusely about June, the whole surface of the plant being covered with 



