WEIGELA. 305 



dron, or Azalea, and may be propagated by seeds, layers, or 

 cuttings. 



F. oxycoccus. Cranberry Tree, High Cranberry. "A 

 handsome low tree, five to ten feet in height, ornamented 

 throughout the year with flowers, or fruit. In May, or early 

 in June, it spreads open, at the end of every branch, a broad 

 cyme of soft, delicate flowers, surrounded by an irregular circle 

 of snow-white stars, scattered, apparently, for show. The 

 fruit, which is red when ripe, is of a pleasant acid taste, 

 resembling cranberries, for which it is sometimes substituted." 

 This shrub is said to be the parent of the Guilder Rose or 

 Snowball, V. opulus. Mr. Emerson calls this, F. opulus, and 

 the Snowball a variety, between which, according to Dr. Tor- 

 rey and Grey, there is no essential difference. It is one of our 

 handsomest native shrubs. 



F. macrocephalum. Great-clustered Snowball. " This is 

 a new and splendid species, that has not been much, if any, cul- 

 tivated in this country. M. Van Houtte describes it as found 

 growing in the gardens about Chusan, China, where it forms a 

 shrub, or tree, twenty feet high. It flowers every year, in May, 

 producing its enormous clusters, which equal those of the old 

 garden Snowball, or ' Guilder Rose,' in purity of color, and far 

 eclipses them in size and beauty. Each blossom is more than 

 an inch across, and the clusters measure eight or ten inches in 

 diameter. The leaves are regularly oval, with short petioles, 

 and about three inches long. It flourishes, in the open border, 

 in the same soil as the common Snowball ; and M. Van 

 Houtte considers it one of the most beautiful additions to the 

 shrubbery." (Downing.) 



WEIGELA. 



Weigela rosea. The Rose-colored Weigela. This is an- 

 other new shrub, introduced by Mr. Fortune into England from 

 China, first noticed here by Downing. 



" When I first discovered this beautiful plant," says Mr. For- 

 26* 



