Ornamental Fruits. 309 



flowers of which are followed by yellow fruits resembling 

 little gooseberries ;* and the Japanese apple-rose, Rosa 

 rugosa. Would that the arbutus were as good to the 

 palate as to the eye : it is " strawberry-tree," alas, only in 

 name, though the crimson harvest is made available in 

 Spain and Corsica for the manufacture, by distillation, of 

 a simple wine. No less remarkable, in their own ways, 

 are the Bladder-senna, Colutea arborescens, and many of 

 the Acers, none excelling the red-winged variety of the 

 common sycamore. A very distinct and striking garden 

 ornament, when individuals of both sexes can be pro- 

 cured, is supplied by the silvery-leaved Sea-buckthorn, 

 Hippophae rhamnoides, the branches of the female tree 

 being thickly covered, in the way of holly, with yellow 

 and long-enduring berries. The value of the common 

 Butchers' broom, Ruscus aculeatus, as a winter red-berried 

 plant, is well known in the south of England. The 

 Skimmia oblata is not less brilliant than the aucuba. 

 The little Skimmia Japonica is invaluable as one of the 

 hardiest of all red-berried evergreens. The Pernettyas are 

 good, not only out-of-doors, but for the winter-garden. 



Among hardy climbers, in the southern counties, may 

 be mentioned, as specially interesting, the Actinidia 

 Kolomikta, that beautiful Japanese evergreen, with fruits 

 again like gooseberries, the flavour between pine-apple 

 and strawberry j the Stauntonia lattfolm, also evergreen, 

 the fruits resembling eggs ; and the Akebia quinata, the 

 purplish pods of which, three inches long, no doubt are 



* As at Rocklodge, Monkstown, Ireland. 



