22 Ornamental Shrubs. 



common, is M. cerifera. It varies in height from one to 

 four feet, but responds quickly when afforded the advan- 

 tages of cultivation and the use of fertilizers. The plant 

 may be recognized at the proper season by its bluish 

 waxen fruit, found in the axils of the stems and along the 

 branches, which to some extent affords an article of com- 

 merce in the form of a valuable wax. This little shrub 

 when planted along the shore withstands the ocean winds 

 and storms perhaps better than any other plant known in 

 cultivation, and can be made to do good service in estab- 

 lishing plantations by the seaside. It is now coming 

 largely into use for that purpose, as it affords protection 

 to more attractive specimens which may be planted to the 

 leeward. Beginning with a hedge of these myricas, planta- 

 tions may often be established where without something 

 of this nature the task would be hopeless. Almost any 

 bleak and barren exposure can be covered in this way and 

 become comparatively beautiful. With this line of de- 

 fence other shrubs and flowers may be introduced and 

 made to thrive where without such protection nothing 

 desirable could be made to grow. Thus the wax-myrtle, 

 in itself unattractive and undesirable, is made of especial 

 service in the planting of exposed estates. In the Royal 

 Palm nurseries located forty miles south of Tampa it is 

 included among the native plants of that section, and 

 described as an evergreen producing " slate-colored ber- 

 ries," and pronounced hardy throughout the entire South. 

 Such being the case, the myricas will doubtless be found of 

 service as nurse trees, or shrubs, on sandy and bleak bar- 

 rens, against tropical exposures as well as northern blasts. 



