OUK MOUNTAIN SHRUBS^ 



BY W. C. COKER 



In speaking of shrubs, I feel that I have been asked to 

 introduce your best friends, and if much that I have to say is 

 already very familiar to you, I hope you will forgive me. 

 I have to take for granted sometimes a lack of knowledge 

 that does not exist, especially in an audience of this kind 

 where there are so many who take an intelligent interest in 

 natural history. 



I do not feel a stranger in Montreat, as I have visited 

 you several times before. About two years ago I came here 

 and had the great pleasure of studying the wonderful vege- 

 tation of this neighborhood. I have just collected in these 

 woods and brought in here to show you a few shrubs that are 

 commonest in Montreat, and I am going to talk for a while 

 about Montreat shrubs, and about North Carolina shrubs in 

 general. 



Perhaps you do not realize how slowly shrubs have come 

 to be appreciated, even by intelligent people. When I was a 

 boy, the ordinary garden or yard had no shrubs at all except 

 a few specimen individuals of syringias, and probably a crepe 

 myrtle and euonymus or two near the steps. Instead of hav- 

 ing shrubs, they had flowers like zinias, phlox, petunias, etc., 

 and frequently these were planted in beds laid out right in 

 front of the house, or scattered indiscriminately in the 

 grass. 



I might say that the most significant change in the ideas 

 of landscape effect and decorative use of plants in the past 

 twenty-five years has been due to the final appreciation of 

 the fact that shrubs, when properly chosen and placed, are 

 perhaps the most important element in the decorative treat- 

 ment of a home of average size. In such a place a few trees 

 are all that can be used, but many shrubs of considerable va- 

 riety may be placed to fine effect. In parks and other large 



^ An address delivered befor the N. C. Forestry Association, Montreat, N. C, 

 July, 1915. 



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