474: DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 



THE ARALIA. Aralia. 



Otherwise known as the angelica tree and Hercules club. The 

 stout, club-like, and prickly annual canes of this curious shrub 

 make the latter name not inappropriate. It has a partly perennial 

 character, the canes usually dying to near the ground, like the 

 raspberry, at the end of the year, and renewing themselves an- 

 nually. These grow quickly to the height of eight to twelve feet, 

 and bear immense doubly-compound leaves which form into an 

 umbrella-like head of picturesque luxuriance. We have seen it 

 established as a tree, with a trunk six or seven inches in diameter ; 

 and grown in this way, it has an unusually distinctive character ; 

 but it does not often make for itself a good trunk, and is oftener 

 not quite a tree, nor yet a shrub. Flowers in large, loose panicles, 

 greenish-white, in August and September. Height ten to twenty 

 feet. 



There is a Japanese species, A. japonica, that is smaller, and 

 has not, it is believed, been introduced in American gardens. 



THE AZALEA. Azalea, 



A deciduous shrub of the rhododendron family, natives of both 

 hemispheres. The species vary in height from six inches to fifteen 

 feet. The following are a few of them : 



Azalea pontica, a native of the eastern borders of the Medi- 

 terranean. Height four to six feet. Flowers yellow ; in May and 

 June. " There are a great number of varieties of this species in 

 the gardens, differing principally in the color of their flowers and the 

 hue of their leaves. The flowers of the species are of a fine bright 

 yellow ; but those of the varieties are of all shades, from yellow to 

 copper or orange color ; and they are sometimes of a pure white, 

 or of white striped with yellow and red. Besides, as this species 

 seeds freely, and is easily cross-fecundated with the North Ameri- 

 can species, an immense number of varieties of it have been 

 originated in British and Continental gardens" (Loudon). Some 



