480 DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 



Chinese species that blooms profusely from July to September. 

 Height four to five feet. The India chaste tree, V. arborea^ is the 

 largest species, and has broader and paler leaves. Flowers pur- 

 plish, in July and August. Height thirty feet Half-hardy. All 

 the family require a dry soil. 



THE CLETHRA. Clethra. 



FIG. 161. This shrub, though indigenous in our 



^^^^^^^ woods, has been brought into notice in the 

 ' New York Central Park, more than ever be- 

 fore. There are specimens there of several 

 varieties. Fig. 162 represents one of them. 



THE ALDER-LEAVED, C. alnifolia, forms a 



dense low shrub, covered in July with a mass of white flowers in 

 racemes or spikes, and in September with a load of seeds that are 

 showy, and rather ornamental. It also blooms a little for the 

 second time in September. Hardy. Leaves abundant, light-col- 

 ored, and without gloss. Height three to four feet, and greater 

 breadth. A native of swamps. 



THE FRAGRANT CLETHRAS grow by many divaricating sprouts 

 or suckers, into a broad mass of coarse light-colored foliage. A 

 specimen in the Central Park is eight feet high, ten feet in diame- 

 ter, and, in September, one of the best single masses of shrub 

 foliage. 



THE DOWNY CLETHRA, C. tomentosa, differs principally in having 

 the underside of the leaves covered with white down. 



THE LARGE CLETHRA, C. acuminata, is a large shrub or low 

 tree, with flowers like the first-named sort. A native of the high 

 mountains of the Carolinas. 



COLUTEA, OR BLADDER SENNA. Colutea arborescens. 



A quick-growing straggling shrub, with delicate acacia-like leaves, 

 of a warm light color. Its flowers are small and yellow, in July 



