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five-lobed, quite large, of a soft, woolly texture, pu- 

 bescent on the undersides, but of a lovely tender green 

 on the uppersides. The flowers, which have given the 

 shrub its common name, are of a clear rose-purple, 

 of five crumpled petals, in loose clusters, and float over 

 the masses of the shrub in the heats of July and 

 August. How lovely is their soft rich color against 

 the cool tender green of its leaves, and how lovely the 

 golden crown of its anthers in the heart of its ruby 

 petals. These tender flowers soon give place to crim- 

 son raspberries, flattish, about an inch in diameter. 



Schizophragma hydrangeoides. (Climbing Hydran- 

 gea. No. 57.) The path which leads up from the 

 Boat House into the southeasterly part of the Ramble 

 will bring you, if you turn off to the left, at its third 

 fork, and then follow this branch to the place where 

 it, in turn, forks, to a sassafras tree, which stands 

 close by a lamp, just where this branch of path throws 

 off an arm to the west (your left). This sassafras 

 tree carries the rather remarkable climbing hydrangea, 

 Schizophragma hydrangeoides. According to Prof. 

 Bailey, this rather staggering name, in plain English, 

 means that the inner layers of its valve walls are cleft 

 into fascicled fibers. But in spite of its disagreeable 

 name, it is a very pretty climber. You might easily 

 mistake it for a vine, with its ovate heart-shaped taper- 

 ing leaves, but it is a deciduous shrub. It is, like so 

 many other of our park beauties, from Japan, and 

 has so close a resemblance to Hydrangea petiolaris, 

 that it is often confused with it. The shrub blooms in 

 July, with white or flesh-colored flowers, fairly large, 



