NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 



359 



Viburnum macrocephalum. Great clus- 

 tered Siwioball. We find a description of 

 this species, accompanied by a large plate, 

 in Van Houtte's Flore des Serves. It was 



Fig. 47 — Clriat Clustered Snow-baU. 



found growing in the gardens about Chu- 

 san, China, where it forms a shrub or tree 

 20 feet high. It flowers every year in 

 May — producing its enormous clusters, 

 which equal those of the old garden Snow- 

 hall, or " Guelder Rose," in purity of co- 

 lour, and far eclipses them in size and 

 beauty. Each blossom is more than an 

 inch across, and the clusters measure 8 or 

 10 inches in diameter. The leaves are re- 

 gularly oval, with short petioles, and are 

 about 3 inches long. It flourishes in the 

 open border in the same soil as the com- 

 mon Snowball, and M. Van Houtte con- 

 siders it one of the most beautiful additions 

 lately made to the shrubbery. 

 Forsythia viRiDissiiMA. The Deep-green 



Forsythia. This very ornamental shrub is 

 a great favorite with the Chinese, and is 

 found in all the gardens of the rich in the 

 north of China. Mr. Fortune describes it 

 as growing 8 or 10 feet high in that part of 

 the Empire, forming a compact, deep-green, 

 deciduous shrub, with long, opposite leaves, 

 which emit a slight balsamic odour, and 

 from their smoothness and rich, deep tint, 

 are very handsome. It is remarkable in 

 autumn for the number of large, promi- 

 nent buds, which are scattered along the 

 young shoots produced the summer before. 

 Early in spring these buds, which are 

 flower-buds, gradually unfold themselves, 

 and present a profusion of bright yellow 

 blossoms all over the shrub, which is high- 

 ly ornamental. These golden flowers con- 

 trast happily with the rich crimson of the 

 Pyrus japmiica, as they bloom at the same 

 time. It is easily propagated by cuttings 

 or layers, and is a free growing plant in the 

 open border. 



Weigela rosea. The Rose-colored Wei- 

 gela. This exquisite shrub is one of IVlr. 

 Fortune's prizes from the Mandarin's gar- 

 den. We are very desirous to prove it in 

 the United States, as we are confident, from 

 its growing in the north of China, that it 

 will prove quite hardy here. It has bloom- 

 ed in the garden of the London Horticultu- 

 ral Society, and they have published a 

 plate in their Transactions, (of which the 

 accompanying cut is a diminished copy.) 

 This plate represents it as bearing nume- 

 rous clusters of lovely flowers, each blos- 

 som more than an inch in diameter, pure 

 white within, and deep rose-colour with- 

 out. 



" When I first discovered this beautiful 

 plant," says Mr. Fortune, " it was grow- 

 ing in a Mandarin's garden, on the island 

 of Chusan, and literally loaded with its 

 fine rose-coloured flowers, which hung in 



