296 TREES AND SHRUBS 



deep-pink flowers during summer, and its beautiful, 

 warm-looking, nut-brown wood in winter is among 

 the most richly toned of all the barks which are 

 used to produce effect, and yet when grown in the 

 ordinary way, and partially pruned down, as we in 

 nearly all cases see it, it produces miserable flowers, 

 and the wood is uninteresting. About every third or 

 fourth year after pruning give a surface dressing of 

 half-decayed manure and loam in equal proportions. 

 The prunings should be tied up and saved for staking 

 purposes ; they are of the utmost value for all kinds 

 of slender-growing plants. S. callosa also makes a 

 fine bed, and is very effective during late summer ; 

 its large heads of deep-pink flowers render it most 

 conspicuous ; they are produced when the others are 

 past their best. It should be cut to the ground 

 every third year. S. prunifolia flore-pleno is a very 

 beautiful form, flowers freely in March and April, 

 and its foliage assumes lovely tints in the autumn. 

 It is of very graceful habit, and well suited for banks 

 or overhanging rocks. It should be moderately 

 pruned each year, and when it attains to a leggy 

 appearance cut hard back. S. canescens (syn. flagelli- 

 formis) makes splendid beds owing to the pretty 

 arrangement of the foliage. This should be pruned 

 to the ground annually. 



SYMPHORICARPUS RACEMOSUS (the Common Snow- 

 berry) is generally regarded as an almost worthless 

 plant, but when in a sunny open position on well- 

 trenched land and cut close to the ground each year, 

 large beds are most attractive in autumn and winter, 



