VIBURNUM 653 



broadly ovate to roundish; 2 to 5 ins. long, i| to 34 ins. wide; mostly heart- 

 shaped at the base, slender-pointed, coarsely triangular toothed; upper 

 surface dark green and smooth; paler and more or less downy beneath; 

 stalk ^ to over i in. long. Flowers white, all perfect, in. across, produced 

 in long-stalked cymes 2 to 4 ins. wide. Fruit scarcely ^ in. long, oval, much 

 compressed, blue. 



Native of Eastern N. America. The true V. molle of Michaux is quite 

 uncommon in gardens. The plant which has for long been going under the 

 name is V. scabrellum. V. molle is very distinct in this blue-fruited group 

 of American Viburnums in the loose peeling bark of the older branches, 

 also because of a pair of glandular-downy stipules on each leaf-stalk, 



V. NUDUM, Linnceus. 



A deciduous shrub up to 10 ft. high; young shoots slightly scurfy and 

 downy. Leaves oval, ovate or* lance-shaped, 2 to 4^- ins. long, i to 2j ins. 

 wide; minutely and irregularly toothed to almost entire; dark glossy green 

 and smooth above; paler, somewhat scurfy or smooth beneath ; stalk \ to 

 f in. long. Flowers yellowish white, uniform and perfect, \ in. across, 

 produced in early June on cymes 2 to 4 ins. wide; the main-stalk as long 

 or longer than the branched flowering portion. Fruit \ in. long, oval, 

 blue-black. 



Xative of Eastern N. America ; introduced in 1752. This Viburnum is 

 closely allied to V. cassinoides, under which species the distinctions 

 between the two are explained. It is a handsome, shiny-leaved shrub which 

 flowers freely. It has a more southern distribution than cassinoides, and 

 does not, apparently, reach into Canada. 



V. ODORATISSIMUM, Ker. 

 (Bet. Mag., t. 456 ; V. Awafuki, ffort.) 



An evergreen shrub, 10 to 20 ft. high, with warted bark, free from down. 

 Leaves leathery, oval to obovate, 3 to 8 ins. long, ij to 4 ins. wide; wedge- 

 shaped at the base, rounded or with a short, blunt tip at the apex; entire or 

 with a few obscure teeth towards the end; glossy green and smooth above, 

 paler beneath and smooth except for tufts of down in the vein-axils; stall* 

 5 to ij ins. long. Flowers pure white, fragrant, all perfect, produced in 

 stalked, broadly pyramidal panicles, 3 to 6 ins. high, 2^ to 5 ins. wide at the 

 base. Fruit red at first, ultimately black. 



Native of Japan, China, and India; introduced about 1818. This shrub 

 grows well and makes a handsome bush in the south-western counties, but 

 is not very hardy near London not so hardy even as V. japonicum, with 

 which it is much confused. Its pyramidal inflorescence best distinguishes 

 it from that species, but the venation of the leaf also is different in the 

 veins splitting up and not running out to the margin, a character which 

 enables it to be recognised when out of bloom. There is a specimen about 

 20 ft. high in the gardens of Greenway House, Churston Ferrers, S. Devon. 



V. OPULUS, Linnczus. GUELDER ROSE. 



A deciduous shrub forming a thicket of erect, grey stems, lo.to 15 ft. 

 high; young wood smooth. Leaves usually three- (sometimes four- or five-) 

 lobed, maple-like, 2 to 4 ins. long, often as much or more wide, the base 

 truncate, the lobes pointed; coarsely and irregularly toothed; dark green and 

 smooth above, more or less downy beneath; stalk \ to i in. long, with two 



