PHILADELPHIA 133 



softish young wood placed in bottom heat. They flower on short lateral 

 twigs which spring from the shoots made the previous year, so that 

 whatever pruning has to be done should consist of taking out old 

 branches that have flowered, and leaving the long vigorous shoots of 

 the current year to provide the succeeding crop of blossom. No mere 

 shortening back should be done unless from considerations of space. 

 The following selection may be recommended: microphyllus, Lemoinei, 

 latifolius, insignis, Lewisii, "Virginal," and grandiflorus. 



P. CALIFORNICUS, Bent ham. 



An elegant, pendulous-branched shrub up to 10 ft. high, the young shoots 

 smooth, the year-old bark peeling. Leaves three-nerved, ovate, i^ to 3 ins. 

 long, f to 2 ins. wide ; shortly and broadly toothed, or nearly entire (especially 

 on the flowering twigs), either smooth or slightly downy beneath. Flowers 

 i in. or less wide, pure white, scentless, produced numerously in panicles at 

 the end of the shoot, often over twenty flowers in each. Petals oblong- 

 obovate ; calyx smooth outside the lobes, downy on the margins, and near 

 the apex inside ; styles united, stigmas separated. 



Native of California. Although much confused with P. Lewisii, and 

 sometimes regarded as a variety of it, this is really one of the most distinct of 

 American species. On weak shoots its inflorescence may be only a simple 

 raceme, but normally it is composed of several racemes, thus forming a true 

 panicle. Flowers small and crowded. The base of the leaf-stalk does not 

 hide the axillary bud, as it does in P. Lewisii. 



P. CORONARIUS, Linnczus. MOCK ORANGE. SYRINGA. 



A shrub up to 12 ft. high, with erect stems, the year-old bark brown and 

 peeling ; young shoots ribbed. Leaves ovate to oval-lanceolate, broadly 

 wedge-shaped or nearly rounded at the base, distantly toothed ; i^ to 4 ins. 

 long, f to 2 ins. wide ; smooth except for a few hairs on one or both surfaces 

 and on the leaf-stalk, which is - -to \ in. long. Flowers yellowish white, 

 heavily scented, about i in. across, produced in terminal racemes of five to 

 nine blossoms. Petals oval, in. wide ; calyx-lobes downy at the margins, 

 the tube and flower-stalk either smooth or slightly downy ; styles separated at 

 the upper third. 



Native of S.E. Europe and Asia Minor ; cultivated in Britain since the 

 sixteenth century, probably before. It flowers in early June. This is the best 

 known species of mock orange in gardens, but is not in the first rank. The 

 fragrance of its flowers is pleasing out-of-doors, but may become too insistent 

 if the plants are numerous or near sitting-room windows. The odour is too 

 strong for the flowers to be enjoyed in a cut state indoors. Over three 

 hundred years ago Gerard, the herbalist, wrote : 



" They have a pleasant sweete smell, but in my judgment troubling and molesting 

 the head in very strange manner. I once gathered the flowers and laid them in my 

 chamber window, which smelled more strongly after they had lain together a few 

 howers, but with such a pontick and unacquainted savor that they awaked me from sleepe, 

 so that I could not take rest till I had cast them out of my chamber." 



Var. DIANTHIFLORUS and var. FLORE PLENO. Both double flowered ; the 

 former dwarf. 



Var. FOLIIS AUREIS. Leaves bright yellow, and very effective in spring, 

 becoming duller after midsummer. 



Var. NANUS. Dwarf, and only 2 to 3 ft. high ; rarely seen in flower. 



