134 Ornamental Shrubs. 



XANTHOCERAS. 



Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a small tree but little known 

 among horticulturists and gardeners, though it has been 

 long enough in the country to have gained a much wider 

 distribution had its merits been fully appreciated. It is a 

 native of China, and is the only species of its type, of the 

 order Sapindacece. The name comes from two words, 

 xanthos, signifying yellow, and keras, horn, and is applied 

 because of the peculiar horn-like glands or nectaries be- 

 tween the petals. It is said in its native country to form 

 a tree in some instances twelve to fifteen feet high, but in 

 American gardens the few specimens known have reached 

 little more than half those proportions. What they may 

 do in the future in this direction it is not easy to deter- 

 mine. The leaves are alternate, compound, and serrate, 

 resembling those of the mountain ash, while the flowers 

 are white with blood-red streaks at the base, having five 

 petals and eight stamens. They are produced in simple 

 racemes at the end of the branches, the individual flowers 

 being about an inch in diameter. These are not only very 

 attractive, but they are followed by a three-celled fruit said 

 to be " of the size of an apple," which, considering the 

 different sizes to which apples grow, is not very definite. 



This shrub, instead of being new, was first pictured and 

 described in the London Garden as long ago as 1875, an d 

 it has been more or less in cultivation in Europe aud 

 America ever since. It has been grown on the estate of 

 Charles A. Dana at Dorosis, Long Island, for a dozen or 

 more years without especial protection, and though not 

 regarded a strong growing plant, its delicacy of habit is 



