H2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



and fragrant, but it is a waste of time to attempt to grow them on 

 cold soils. 



Some of the finest effects come from the early trees and shrubs. 

 Among the most stately are the Buckeyes (^Esculis), particularly the 

 red kinds, fine in all stages, but especially when 

 Trees that bloom old. The snowy Mespilus is a hardy, low-sized 

 in spring. tree, blooming regularly, and well deserves a place 

 in the pleasure garden or the fringes of shrubberies. 

 The Almonds, more than any shrubs, perhaps, in our country and 

 in France, light up the earliest days of spring, and, like most 

 southern trees, are best in warm valley soils. They should be in 

 groups to tell in the home landscape. The double Peaches are 

 lovely in France, but as yet rarely so with usy owing, perhaps, 

 to some defect of the stock used. Perhaps of all the hardy shrubs 

 ever brought to our country the Azaleas are the most precious for 

 effect. They are mostly wild on the mountains of America, and 

 many forms have been raised in gardens which are of the highest 

 value. Many places do not as yet show the great beauty of the 

 different groups of hardy Azalea, particularly the late kinds raised of 

 recent years. A neglected tree with us is the Judas-tree, which is 

 very handsome in groups, as it ought always to be grown, and not as 

 a starved single tree. The various double Cherries are noble flower- 

 ing trees, being showy as well as delicate in bloom, and the Japanese 

 kinds do quite as well as the old French and English double Cherries, 

 though the trees are apt to perish from grafting. The American 

 Fringe-tree (Chionanthus) is pretty, but some American flowering 

 trees do not ripen their wood well enough in England generally to 

 give us the handsome effects seen in their own country. Hawthorns, 

 those of our own country, make natural spring gardens of hills 

 and rocky places, and should teach us to give a place to the many 

 other species to be found in the mountains of Europe and 

 America, which vary the bloom and prolong the season of early- 

 flowering trees. There are many varieties of our native Hawthorn 

 red, pink, double, and weeping. The old Laburnum has for many 

 years been a joy with its golden rain, and of late we are doubly 

 well off with improved forms, with long chains of golden flowers. 

 These will become noble flowering trees as they get old ; hence the 

 importance of grouping Laburnum trees to get the varieties together. 

 Among the early charms in the spring garden are the slender 

 wands of the Forsythia, hardy Chinese bushes, pale yellow, delightful 

 in effect when grown in picturesque ways ; effective also on walls or 

 grouped in the open air on banks. Another plant of refined beauty, 

 but too little planted, is the Snowdrop-tree (Halesia). Unlike other 

 American trees, it ripens its wood in our country, and often flowers 



