Box — Hornbeam — ^Chestnut ^'j'] 



They are especially adapted to combination with other evergreens, like 

 laurel and rhododendron, and for winter effects. Tender to semi- 

 hardy in the North. 



B. sempervirens Linn. (171), from England and southern Europe 

 into Asia, is the common Box, a tree growing from three feet (north) 

 to fifteen feet (south). The variety B. suffruticosa (171a) is the one 

 mostly employed, being a dwarf, and hence easily kept as a low bor- 

 der. Varieties, B. aiirea (171&), with yellow-striped, and B. argentea 

 (171c), with white-striped leaves, B. angiistifolia (ijid), with narrower 

 leaves, and several others have their value. 



B. Balearica Willd. (172), Minorca or Japanese Box, from western 

 Europe and Asia, with large, yellowish-green leaves, makes a pretty 

 tree, with compact, round head. Needs winter protection in the North. 



HORNBEAM, WATER BEECH, BLUE BEECH 



Carpinus. C. Caroliniana Walt. (175), is one of the most satisfactory, 

 small (twenty feet), native, hardy trees of wide distribution; beech-like 

 in appearance, with the same kind of gray, smooth bark, the stem 

 peculiarly corrugated, with outline rather roundish or fiat, horizontally 

 spreading, somewhat straggling branch habit, with many small twigs, 

 often pendulous; leaves beech-like, but thinner and more closely to- 

 gether, turning crimson, scarlet, or orange-yellow. It is a slow grower 

 and shade-enduring, like the beech, but adaptive to more barren soils, 

 although best near good water-supply. It is specially fatted for water 

 scenery, also good for hedges which shear well, for undergrowth, and 

 as a filler; free from insects. 



C. Betulits Linn. (176), the European species, hardly differs from 

 the American, and is less hardy. 



A number of Japanese and other exotics, small trees and shrubs, 

 are used, among which C. Japonica (177) excels in graceful habit and 

 elegance of foliage. 



CHESTNUT 



Castanea. A genus of five species, tall trees to shrubs, of consider- 

 able economic value, as well as ornamental by form, leaf, and flower. 



C. Americana Raf. (178) {dentata), the native species, which is 

 hardy into Canada, differs little in character from the less hardy Euro- 

 pean, C. sativa Mill. (179), except in the size of the nut and longer leaf 



