EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 56? 



The Weeping Arbor-Vit^. Biota {Thuja) pendula. — This is 

 said to be a native of China, growing wild there ; also said to be a 

 seedling originated in an English nursery. Both statements may 

 be true ; as it is not impossible that the foreign seeds may have 

 been planted accidentally. Hoopes is quite confident that it is a 

 seedling sport of the Chinese arbor-vitas. It is a hardy tree of 

 oblong form, with all its smaller branches quite pendulous, and 

 regarded by those who have had it a long time as one of the most 

 pleasing of the arbor-vitaes ; — perhaps, considering its peculiar 

 weeping habit, the most interesting of all for a single specimen on 

 a small place. Its beauty is heightened by winter protection. 



The Golden Arbor-Vit^e. Biota o. aurea.— This exquisite 

 little tree or rather shrub is a variety of the Chinese, and though 

 not perfectly hardy, is more so than its parent. Its rare shade of 

 green is truly golden, and its compact growth, pretty ovate form, 

 and dwarf habit, combine to make it one of the most indispensable 

 of evergreen shrubs. It is too easily protected in winter to make 

 its slight tenderness a bar to its cultivation in all parts of the 

 country. Height three to five feet. 



The Variegated Golden Arbor-Vit.«. B. o. aurea variegata. 

 — A variety originated in France. We have not seen it, and will 

 quote Hoopes' observations concerning it. " In our opinion it is 

 the most distinct and beautiful of the variegated conifers. The 

 rich golden-yellow is so exquisitely shaded and mellowed down to 

 pure white, and again so prettily tipped with pink, as to cause the 

 most inveterate hater of these oddities to respect it." In reply to 

 Dr. Siebold's assertion that these variations are but results of disease, 

 and must therefore be of weaker habit than normal plants, he 

 remarks : " Practice certainly, in many instances, refutes this theory, 

 for we frequently find the variegated forms even more hardy than 

 the parent in its perfect state. A case in point is this variety, for it 

 has proven itself less liable to injury from excessive cold weather, or 

 sudden changes, than the species. It also stands our hot summers 

 remarkably well. We also find the variegated yews to be more 

 hardy than their parent." There is another variegated variety called 

 the elegantissima, on which the ends only of the branches are marked 

 with a warm yellow. 



