Weigelia rosea and Forsythia viridissima. 67 



it will prove hardy, or nearly so, in England ; but if not, it 

 will make a first-rate greenhouse plant, and take its place by 

 the side of the beautiful azaleas and camellias of its own 

 country. I never met with it in a wild state on the Chinese 

 hills, and it is, therefore, just possible that it may have been 

 originally introduced from Japan ; this, however, is only a 

 conjecture. In the north of China, where the plant is found, 

 the thermometer sometimes sinks within a few degrees of 

 zero, and the country is frequently covered with snow ; and 

 yet in these circumstances it sustains no injury. 



" It forms a neat middle sized bush, not unlike a Phila- 

 delphus [syringa] in habit, deciduous in winter, and flowers 

 in the months of April and May. One great recommendation 

 to it is, that it is a plant of the easiest cultivation ; cuttings 

 strike readily any time during the spring or summer months, 

 with ordinary attention ; and the plant itself grows well in 

 any garden soil. It should be grown in this country as it is 

 in China ; not tied up in that formal way in which we fre- 

 quently see plants which are brought to our exhibitions, but 

 a main stem or two chosen for leaders, which in their turn 

 throw out branches from their sides, and then, when the 

 plant comes into bloom, the branches, which are loaded with 

 beautiful flowers, hang down in graceful and natural festoons. 

 It was a plant of this kind which I have already noticed as 

 growing in the Grotto-garden in the island of Chusan ; and 

 1 doubt not that plants of equal beauty will soon be produced 

 in our gardens in England." 



This is Mr. Fortune's description, and it is scarcely neces- 

 sary for us to add, that it is not overdrawn ; and it is gratify- 

 ing to state, that his supposition that it would prove hardy in 

 England is not only true, but it is as hardy in our own climate 

 as a berberry bush. Small plants last year, standing in a cold, 

 damp locality, did not have so much as a single shoot in- 

 jured. It is one of the richest acquisitions to our early flow- 

 ering, hardy, ornamental shrubs. Our drawing {Jig. 4) shows 

 the size and form of the flowers, and their habit of flowering. 

 It blooms in May. 



