352 List of Shrubs 



STONEBREAK FAMILY (SAXIFRAGACEAE) 



This very large family (some six hundred species) of mostly herba- 

 ceous plants, with smaller or larger, white, star-shaped flowers in 

 racemes or heads, familiar in the Hydrangea, contains at least four 

 genera with about a dozen ornamental shrubs, attractive in foliage 

 (large) and flowers. 



Itea. /. virginica Linn. (120), improperly called Virginia Willow, a 

 native species from New Jersey south, tender in Ottawa, of a genus 

 widely distributed; is an upright shrub, three to eight feet high, some- 

 what coarse in form, but attractive by bright, lustrous foliage, turning 

 scarlet-crimson in summer of early fall, as well as by the dense, terminal 

 racemes of small, white, fragrant flowers (June, July). It is adaptive 

 to any situation, wet and dry, sunny and shady; a rapid grower; useful 

 in grouping with other coarser shrubs in large plantations and at 

 water-sides. It may be secured from the woods. 



Hydrangea. A genus of thirty to forty species, native and from Asia, 

 and a long line of varieties and hybrids, some ei'ergreen and mostly only 

 semi-hardy, ornamental, with their large, showy rather than beau- 

 tiful, broadly ovate leaves, and large clusters of beautiful, variously 

 hued, late flowers. Forms with the enlarged sterile flowers are most 

 generally planted. They require rich soil and partial shade, though 

 producing best flower effects in sunny sites. For best flower etTect 

 they should be pruned severely if large panicles are desired, less 

 so (to two or three buds) if smaller but more numerous panicles 

 are the object. They are admirable for specimens, border planting, 

 or massing. 



* H. paniciilata Sieb., from Japan, is the hardiest, a large shrub, 

 sometimes grown in tree form with globular head. The variety grandi- 

 folia (121) is most generally planted, producing immense terminal 

 heads (five by ten inches) of creamy-white, entirely sterile flowers 

 (August, September), changing to purplish-red or bronze, and contin- 

 uing till frost. For best flower effect and form it should be cut back 

 to the ground annually in early spring, the new shoots producing flowers 

 the same year; and something else should be planted in front, to relieve 

 its coarseness and to form a foreground. 



H. quercifolia Bartr. (122), a native of the Alleghanies, a hardy 

 shrub, four to six feet high, with spreading branches, is much more 

 satisfactory than the preceding, and is especially valuable for its large 



