Shrubs and Vines 



plants in wind-exposed localities, as they are too vigor- 

 ous to be affected by any climatic inclemencies. The 

 European alder is a tree, whose dark trunk and foliage 

 make it a pleasing accessory of a water-scene, showing 

 to advantage in several places in the Park, and it is lux- 

 uriantly covered with yellowish catkins in early spring. 



It is' not too much to say of the Deuizia gracilis that 

 it is the most chaste and elegant little shrub that we 

 have ; and it is an almost inevitable corollary of that 

 proposition, that it comes from Japan. In texture of 

 petal and leaf, in form and purity of its delicate white 

 flower, and in that atmosphere that is not reducible to 

 words, it is so singular that it might be called a thrush 

 among the flowers. Some plants must have their loca- 

 tion carefully considered ; they are more or less fastidi- 

 ous ; they might mar, or be marred by, their surroundings ; 

 but the little deutzia, like a kind word, fits in anywhere. 



Another species much cultivated, D. crefiata, is not 

 materially different, but lacks the purity of color and the 

 dainty diminutiveness of the g7-acilis. A larger shrub 

 is D. scabf^a, which is literally overwhelmed in bloom 

 in June, and the leaf, which is very scabrous, is a most 

 beautiful object under the microscope, the roughness 

 consisting of silver stars, having six to ten rays, thickly 

 covering the field. Other species, varieties, and hybrids 

 bring the number up to eight or more now in this coun- 

 try, but the type of the genus is most finely expressed in 

 Deutzia gracilis. 



A group for the most part tropical or sub-tropical, 

 but containing a few species hardy in the Northern 

 States, is Styrax, whose type of flower and leaf much 



159 



