456 DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 



"landscape-gardening" style; and whether the shrubs are to be 

 used in masses, or for single specimens. All these considerations 

 will render one or another shrub more desirable according to its 

 size and form ; and size and form will, therefore, be the qualities 

 that must Jirst be considered. But, aside from the question of size 

 alone, there are certain general qualities that will apply to all 

 shrubs to make them always more or less desirable in well-kept 

 places. The most essential is, that the foliage be so luxuriant on 

 all parts as to cover the branches. Next, that the leaves come out 

 early, and retain a good color till hard frosts. Third, that the 

 flowers be conspicuous, of pure colors, and fragrant. Fourth, that, 

 while preserving a shrubby character, they be free from a suckering 

 habit, by which the ground or lawn for some distance around the 

 collar of the stems is annually incumbered by sprouts from the 

 roots. Shrubs which have stems uniting like the branches of a 

 tree in a common heart or trunk, provided they cover the ground 

 in a shrubby manner, are likely to be more graceful, and certainly 

 neater and more gardenesque than those which throw up suckers 

 far from the centre stems ; but there are some, like the flowering 

 currant, for instance, which have this bad quality, and are yet in- 

 dispensable for their many other good features. 



Now, if we bear in mind these most essential qualities, and 

 look over any good list of shrubs, to select a half dozen of the best, 

 it will be found that our most common materials, such as the lilacs, 

 bush-honeysuckles, syringas, snow-balls, deutzias, and weigelas, are 

 the ones which approximate most nearly to perfect shrubs ; and we 

 shall find it difficult to select another half dozen, no matter what 

 expense we are willing to incur, that equal the six species in 

 beauty of form, foliage, or bloom , though single shrubs may be 

 named that will excel some of them in many qualities. 



Enthusiastic amateurs, as well as professional gardeners and 

 nurserymen, hail with delight every change and shade of change 

 from old forms, not because the new things are any more beautiful 

 than the old, but simply because they are novelties ; and from 

 much the same impulse that we prefer new books to old ones, with- 

 out stopping to compare closely their mtrinsic merits. Men who 

 are constantly studying trees and shrubs, learn to observe with in- 



