558 



EL^AGNUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



EI./EAGN'US. 



markets under the name of Ighide agaghi, 

 and is sweet and pleasant to the taste, 

 abounding as it does in a dry, mealy, 

 saccharine substance ; it possesses the 

 property of retaining, for a considerable 

 time after being gathered, its usual size 

 and form. The general aspect of this 

 form is much more that of a Willow than 

 an Olive, the long lanceolate leaves being 

 grayish above and silvery-white beneath. 

 Under cultivation I have seen this thrive 

 in a dry, hungry, sandy soil, and attain tree- 

 like proportions with a stem as much as 

 afoot in diameter. This deciduous species 

 is capable of being- turned to good account 

 by the landscape gardener; the yellow 

 tubular flowers are produced in profusion. 



E. argentea, or E. canadensis (the 

 Silver lierry^ or Missoufi Silver Tree)., 

 has very fragrant tubular yellow flowers, 

 followed by an abundance of nearly 

 globular, dry, mealy, edible fruit. This 

 species gives a characteristic feature to 

 the vegetation of the Upper Missouri 

 valley, and in a wild state grows 8 or lo ft. 

 in height, and throws up an abundance 

 of suckers, a habit which, at any rate in 

 a young state, does not appear to occur 

 so much under cultivation. The oval 

 leaves are silvery-white. In nearly all 

 British and foreign nurseries this species 

 is confused with the Buffalo Berry 

 (Shepherdia argentea), a genus belonging 

 to the same natural order as the Elseagnus, 

 but altogether different from it. 



E. hortensis, a somewhat variable 

 plant with a wide geographical dis- 

 tribution, is cultivated in many countries 

 for the sake of its fruit. In Dr. Aitchison's 

 Bota?iy of the Afghan Delimitation 

 Commission it is described as a shrub 

 or tree occurring at an elevation of 3,000 

 ft. and upwards, near running streams, and 

 cultivated largely in orchards for its fruit. 



E. longipes, a thoroughly deciduous 

 Japanese species, is one of the most 

 desirable members of the genus. Prof. 

 Sargent thus writes of it in Garden and 

 Forest : " The plant may well be grown 

 for the beauty of its fruit alone, which, 

 moreover, is juicy and edible with a 

 sharp, rather pungent, agreeable flavour. 

 Both the size and the flavour can doubt- 

 less be improved by careful selection, 

 and it is quite within th^ range of 

 possibility that it may become a highly 

 esteemed and popular dessert and culinary 

 fruit. To some persons, even in its pre- 

 sent state, the flavour is far preferable to 

 that of the Currant or the Gooseberry." 

 The fruit, as implied by the specific name, 

 is borne on long stalks ; it is bright red 

 in colour and covered with minute white 



dots. The branches are covered with 

 rusty brown scales, and the somewhat 

 leathery leaves are dark green above and 

 silvery-white beneath. Pheasants are 

 said to be very fond of the fruit, and I 

 can vouch for the fact that blackbirds and 

 other fruit-eating birds will soon strip a 

 bush unless it be netted. Some French 

 growers make a preserve of the fruit, and 

 this is said to be very similar to that 

 made from the fruit of the Cornelian 

 Cherry (Cornus mas) ; a spirit, too, with a 

 taste like kirsch, has also been made from 

 the fruit. E. longipes, known in some 

 gardens under the names of E. edulis, E. 

 odorataedulis, and E. rotundifolia, is appa- 

 rently as hardy as the first-named species. 



E. macrophylla, an evergreen species 

 from China and Japan, has large roundish 

 leaves, grayish above and silvery beneath. 

 Old plants are said to produce suckers 

 freely, but the species is a somewhat 

 recent introduction to British gardens, 

 and all the specimens which I have seen 

 up to the present have not shown any 

 tendency to sucker. It is quite distinct 

 in appearance from any other hardy 

 cultivated shrub, and is worthy of much 

 more general employment in the orna- 

 mental shrubbery. In its native habitats 

 it is said to sometimes attain tree-like 

 dimensions ; under cultivation I have only 

 seen it as a dense bush. 



E. pungens, E. glabra, and E. reflexa 

 are beautiful evergreens, which are not 

 very dissimilar in general aspect, and 

 which without long dry scientific de- 

 scriptions it would be impossible to dis- 

 tinguish. Variegated forms exist of all 

 three, and any of them, as well as the 

 types, are thoroughly well worthy of a 

 place in the garden or pleasure-ground. 

 They are all natives of Japan, &c., but 

 do not appear to be quite as hardy as the 

 species previously mentioned ; all could 

 be tried, however, with every prospect of 

 success in the southern counties. Some 

 of them in the south of Europe assume 

 a somewhat climbing habit, and round 

 the North Italian lakes, for example,, 

 grow up to the tops of high Fir and 

 Pine trees. 



E. Simoni, said to be a native of China,. 

 seems quite hardy, but is the least orna- 

 mental of those which have been men- 

 tioned in these notes. A variegated form 

 of this, with leaves margined with dark 

 green and with the centres constantly varie- 

 gated with golden-yellow and yellowish- 

 green, originated in the Belgian nurseries 

 a few years ago ; it is highly spoken of in 

 some of the Belgian periodicals. 



E. umbellata is a beautiful bush. The 



