FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 121 



being produced in the early weeks of the year and when 

 these are few and far between. It grows from 6 feet to 

 10 feet high, with a thick, twiggy head, and drooping 

 racemes of white flowers borne thickly all over the plant. 

 Few soils come amiss to this neglected shrub, it growing 

 and flowering freely even on poor gravelly clay, and where 

 only a limited number of shrubs could succeed. 



Olearia (Compositae), 



OLEARIA HAASTII. New Zealand, 1872. This Compo- 

 site shrub is only hardy in the milder parts of England 

 and Ireland. It is of stiff, dwarf growth, rarely growing 

 more than 4 feet high, but of neat and compact habit. 

 Flowering as it does in late summer it is rendered of 

 special value, the Daisy-like white blossoms being pro- 

 duced in large and flat clusters at the branch tips. The 

 leaves are neat and of leathery texture, and being ever- 

 green lend an additional charm to the shrub. 



0. MACRODONTA (syn 0. dentata), from New Zealand, 

 1886, is tolerably hardy, and may be seen in good form 

 both at Kew and in the South of Ireland. The large 

 Holly-like leaves are of a peculiar silvery-green tint above, 

 and almost white on the undersides. Flowers white, and 

 produced in dense heads in June and July. 0. Forsterii 

 (New Zealand, 1866) and 0. Gunniana (syn Eurybia 

 Gunniana) are nearly hardy species, the latter, from New 

 Zealand, bearing a profusion of white Daisy-like flowers 

 on dense, twiggy branches. They all thrive in good 

 garden soil. 



Ononis (Leguminosae), 



ONONIS ARVENSIS (syn 0. spinosa). Restharrow. A native 

 under shrub of very variable size, according to the position 

 in which it is found growing. It creeps along the ground, 

 the shoots sending out roots as they proceed, and is usually 



