Commercial Gardening 



recently introduced from China. It has large leathery oblong -elliptic 

 pointed Bertolonia-like leaves, with scattered teeth on the margin, and 

 three distinct veins. The flowers, which appear in April and May, are 



pure white with bright-red anthers, 

 borne in flat trusses 3-4 in. across. 

 V. Henryi is another evergreen, 

 about 6 ft. high, with narrow ob- 

 long glossy - green leaves, white 

 flowers, and trusses of crimson and 

 black berries. V. rhytidophyllum 

 is a new and remarkable Chinese 

 evergreen with long narrow deeply 

 veined and wrinkled leaves. Vi- 

 burnums grow in ordinary garden 

 soil and are propagated by layers 

 and cuttings. 



Vinca (PERIWINKLE). The 

 larger kind, V. major, with large 

 blue flowers, and the lesser one, 

 F. minor, similar but smaller in 

 all its parts, are well-known 

 trailing evergreen shrubs with 

 ovate glossy leaves. There is a 

 white-flowered, and double blue- 

 flowered form of F. minor, and 

 one with silvery variegated leaves. 

 F. rosea is a pretty greenhouse 

 plant, with rose flowers, from 

 Madagascar. 



Viscum album (MISTLETOE). This native semi-parasite flourishes on 

 Limes, Poplars, Hawthorns, Maples, Mountain Ashes, Peaches, Robinias, 

 and Apple trees, but is not encouraged in British orchards. Vast 

 quantities of the forked stems, green-yellow foliage, and sticky whitish 

 berries find their way to market about Christmastime, but the supplies 

 chiefly come from the Continent. Beyond a certain amount of crude 

 sap absorbed by the roots, which penetrate the tissues, the Mistletoe does 

 but little harm to the host plant, as its leaves perform the work of assimi- 

 lation and elaboration of food. Ripe seeds should be inserted in slits in 

 the bark to secure a supply in the course of a few years. 



Vitex Agnus-Castus. An aromatic South European shrub, 6-12 ft. 

 high, with lance-shaped pointed leaves, whitish beneath, and spikes of pale- 

 lilac or violet flowers at the ends of the shoots. Increased by cuttings of 

 the ripened shoots. 



Vitis (including AMPELOPSIS). A large genus of climbing or trailing 

 deciduous shrubs with lobed or divided leaves which in many species 

 assume brilliant tints of crimson purple, orange red, &c., in the autumn. 



Fig. 447. Viburnum plicatum. Flowers all sterile. 



