NATIVE ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS AND PLANTS. 3O5 



attractive when covered with its peculiar seed clusters. The wild 

 cherries are beautiful frees with shining foliage. 



The imported cut-leaf birch is known to all, but in the canoe 

 and yellow birch we have large and graceful trees, while the white 

 bark of one and the curiously curly bark of the other add to their 

 artistic value. On the extreme northern boundary of timbered 

 land, and also abundant in northern Minnesota, are found two 

 species of dwarf birches, which should prove of value in shrub- 

 beries and on lawns. At times their slow growth makes them al- 

 most rivals of the celebrated dwarfed trees of ^ Japan, and the size 

 of a specimen many years old may be stated in inches, rather than 

 in feet. 



At the head of the list of shrubs we find the so-called "broad- 

 leaved" evergreens, which on account of our climate and soil are 

 supposed to be barred from our plantings. Lime in the soil is said 

 to be a deadly enemy to the rhododendrons, azaleas and laurels, but 

 chemical analyses have proved this is not always the case. The 

 climate is of course the great obstacle, but there are a few 

 rhododendrons in this vicinity which have survived some severe 

 cold snaps. The laurels are more hardy, and one species, the pale 

 laurel (Kalmia glauca), described as an "exquisite little ever- 

 green and very showy," is a native of northern Minnesota, being 

 found "as far south as Cass Lake." 



Other evergreen shrubs which grow in our northern swamps 

 and which might to a certain extent perhaps serve to fill the places 

 of the box and other tender varieties, are the wild rosemary 

 (Andromeda polifolia) ; leather-leaf (Cassandra calyculata), 

 blossoming before the snows are gone ; the Labrador tea, and the 

 bear-berry, which forms dense mats on the rocks and hillsides of 

 northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. The latter species will also 

 grow in almost pure sand and is found serviceable in restraining the 

 wandering tendencies of encroaching sand dunes. 



We have no true holly, but the Ilex verticillata, or black alder, 

 while losing its leaves still retains its scarlet berries in winter, like 

 its southern kindred. 



Of the true evergreens, the arbor vitae, white spruce, balsam, red 

 cedar and white pine are to be found in every collection, but of no 

 less value for ornamental purposes are the savin juniper and the 

 native yew, with its hemlock-like foliage and red berry, one the 

 bush for the dryer hillside the other for the shade and swamp. 



Turning to the deciduous shrubs our list rapidly expands, and 

 we can onlv hastilv glance at the manv varieties. 



