THE 



FLORICULTURAL CABINET, 



NOVEMBER 1st, 1839. 



PARI I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



ARTICLE I. 

 REMARKS ON FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS. 



BY CLERICDS. 



There is perhaps no season in which the flowering shruhs of Bri~ 

 tish Gardens make so brilliant a display as in May, June, and July, 

 particularly in the latter month, from the addition of the rhodo- 

 dendrons and roses. In this respect we have great advantages 

 over our ancestors, for nearly all the most beautiful of our 

 flowering shrubs are of modern introduction. The different 

 ornamental kinds of Ribes, the American barberries, and many 

 other of our most beautiful shrubs, have been introduced since 

 1824, and two thirds of the remainder since 1810. It is amusing 

 and scarcely credible to see how very few ornamental shrubs and 

 low trees were known to our ancestors. In the days of Queen 

 Ann, and of George I., almost the only ornamental trees and 

 shrubs were variegated hollies, and a few of the commoner kinds 

 of roses. What our ancestors wanted in the variety, and, we may 

 odd, quality, of their shrubs, was however, made up in the great 

 quantity of each sort that was planted. High box, yew, or holly 

 hedges, wildernesses of hornbeam, and bowers of roses, were 

 the staple ornaments of their pleasure grounds, and a few lilacs 

 and laburnams were introduced by those who wished it to be 

 thought that they possessed a taste for botany. During the whole 

 reign of Ann, according to Loudon's " Arboretum Britannicum," 

 not above half a dozen flowering shrubs were introduced ; and in 

 Vol. VII. No. 81 ff 



