SOME NATIVE SHRUBS AND THEIR USES. 161. 



The Ninebark is a big, wide-spreading shrub with pinkish- 

 white flowers and reddish bunches of seed. It is useful for all 

 kinds of plantings where it may have lots of space to develop. 



The Western Fly Honeysuckle and the American Bladdernut 

 are two more shrubs that are not as plentiful in the trade as they 

 deserve to be. 



The shrubs mentioned so far are mostly tall growers, say 

 from four to thirty feet, but the following few may be used where 

 lower ones are needed : 



The Snowberry; the Indian Currant, or Coral Berry; the 

 Wolf sberry ; the Scrubby Cinquef oil, showing its numerous bright 

 yellow flowers all summer ; the Wild Black Currant, and the Wild 

 Gooseberry. The Wild Honeysuckle, with its small yellow 

 flowers, to be found in the densest woods and also in open spaces, 

 reaches a height of from twelve to eighteen inches only. Then, 

 there is the Leadplant, for hot, gravely soil, and, last but not 

 least, the New Jersey Tea, which lights up whole hillsides with 

 its pale lilac-blue flowers. It will thrive anywhere and can stand 

 to be mowed and burnt down every year with impunity. 



Two shrubs that are really natives of Europe but have 

 escaped cultivation, and are to be found growing wild here, can, 

 on the strength of that, be used in wild plantings ; the Common 

 Barberry and the Buckthorn, both of them also making good 

 hedge plants. 



A few shrubby native vines are the Virginia Creeper; the 

 Bittersweet, with white flowers and a profusion of orange colored 

 berries ; the Wild Clematis, or Virginbower ; the claucus Honey- 

 suckle, the Catbriar and the Wild Grape. 



We have here enumerated about fifty kinds of shrubs, a half 

 dozen shrubby vines, and a half dozen small flowering trees, 

 native to this and the surrounding states — to be sure, a goodly 

 number to select from for a small planting and enough varieties 

 for a big one, if they are all used. 



Now, of course, with this I do not mean that horticultural 

 shrubs or natives of other countries should not be planted. Far 

 from it. They all have their uses, especially on city lawns and 

 in city parks, but what I do mean to say is that shrubs like 

 Hydrangea and Van Houttii Spiraea, planted along a woodland 

 drive, would clash with their surroundings and look hopelessly 

 out of place, while our native shrubs are appropriate anywhere 

 and nowhere out of place. 



