CHAPTER XI 



TREES AND SHRUBS WITH FINE FRUITS 



THE most important of all the groups of trees and 

 shrubs, for their fruit, is the one comprising the 

 hardy species of the Rose order. This includes, of 

 course, besides the Roses, such trees and shrubs 

 as the Thorns, Crabs, and Cotoneasters. Among 

 the Thorns (Crataegus) are many very handsome 

 sorts giving variety in size and colour of the fruits. 

 It is unfortunate that many of them fall early and 

 get spoilt by birds. At the same time birds add so 

 greatly to the delight of the garden that we may well 

 overlook their depredations. By many, indeed, these 

 fruiting trees will be considered worth growing for 

 the encouragement they give to bird-life. It may be 

 well to remind planters that a considerable number 

 of these fruiting trees and shrubs bear male flowers 

 on one plant, female on another. People are often 

 at a loss to understand why their Sea Buckthorns or 

 Aucubas or Skimmias do not fruit, when the simple 

 reason is that the plants are all male (or pollen- 

 bearing), or that the female ones have no males to 

 fertilise them. As a general rule, if these shrubs 

 are grouped, one male to eight or ten females 

 is a proper proportion. As plants raised from 

 seeds come in about equal proportions of both 



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