CHAPTER IX 



FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



IN the search for the limitless number of flowering trees and 

 ornamental shrubs that in these days lend the charm of 

 their beauty to our British landscapes and gardens the 

 world has been scoured, and not in vain. We find the gorse and 

 the broom, the wild cherry and the hawthorn, the lilac and the 

 laburnum, the laurel, the tree box and the holly everywhere, 

 and one would not dream of banishing them from our purview in 

 our endeavour to attain the ideal of the garden beautiful. Some 

 of these, of course, are indigenous to the British Isles ; others 

 came originally from Southern Europe and Persia ; but the vast 

 majority of the delightful flowering shrubs and trees a few 

 specimens of which ought to find a space in even the most modest 

 garden, have come to us from India, China, Japan, the American 

 continent and from the overseas dominions of Great Britain. 

 Of this great multitude there are one or two, such as the rhodo- 

 dendron and the azalea, that stand out pre-eminent in popularity. 

 The object of this chapter is to introduce to the reader who is 

 unaware of their existence a few of the choicer varieties of 

 shrubs and flowering trees of comparatively recent introduction 

 which, if they be employed with discrimination and taste, will 

 add a new delight to the garden picture at all seasons of the 

 year. 



The common conception of shrubs and shrubberies is that they 

 shall consist of masses of evergreen, close clipped subjects that 

 may be planted so as to fill up any odd corner, cover a bare ex- 

 panse of soil, or perform the functions of a hedge or screen. The 

 effect of such unimaginative and purely utilitarian methods of 

 planting cannot fail to be uninteresting ; hi all too many instances, 

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