43 AMELANCHIER. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



Amberboa. See CENTAUREA. 



AMELANCHIER (Snowy Mespilus, 

 June Berry). Pretty hardy shrubs and 

 low trees, or medium sized, associa- 

 ting well with the Almond, Laburnum, 

 the Cherry, Plum, and such things. A. 

 canadensis is one of the most precious 

 of our flowering trees, nothing giving 

 better general effect or more distinct, and 

 long before it comes into flower it is pretty 

 with its soft brown-grey masses. It has 

 also the advantage of being perfectly 

 hardy in our country, thriving as well on 

 sands as on stiff soils; andbeingaCanadian 

 tree, no cold ever touches it. It is more 

 slender in habit than many of our flower- 



country it would make the bush more 

 valuable, but whether this prove so or not, 

 there is no prettier thing than a group of 

 this tree, which will grow anywhere we 

 choose to put it, on a rocky bluff or bank, 

 or even fight its way in a copse. It has 

 also the advantage of being raised very 

 easily from seed, and increases rapidly 

 by suckers, so that the grafting nuisance 

 is easily avoided in its case. Other Ameri- 

 can kinds as yet little grown in our 

 gardens are Botryapium, alnifolia, oligo- 

 carpa, spicata, and utahensis. 



AMELLUS. A. annuus is a pretty 

 dwarf hardy annual, with Daisy-like 

 flowers, of a deep purple, but with white. 



A group of the Belladonna Lily. 



ing trees, and often weakened in the 

 crowded masses of the shrubbery, where 

 everything is so often sacrificed to hungry 

 evergreens. In its own country it varies 

 very much in size, some forms being mere 

 shrubs, whilst others make trees 4oft. and 

 even more in height. In botanic gardens 

 and nursery catalogues we find the names 

 of several other trees of this genus, but 

 there seems to be little distinction among 

 them, and none is quite so good as this, 

 though the one which grows in the 

 Maritime Alps (A. vulgaris] should be 

 worth a place. The Americans have 

 selected some forms of the shad bush, 

 which bear better fruit than the common 

 form ; if they would bear it in our own 



rose, scarlet, and violet varieties, which 

 are named in catalogues alba, rosea, ker- 

 mesina, and atro-violacea. It forms a 

 compact tuft, suitable for groups or masses, 

 if sown in the open in April, flowering in 

 June. It makes a pretty ground or 

 "carpet" plant with taller plants here 

 and there through it. Cape of Good 

 Hope. Compositas. Syn. Kaulfussia 

 amelloides. 



AMICIA. A. zygomeris is a quaint 

 plant from Mexico, occasionally used in 

 the sheltered flower garden. Mr. E. H. 

 Woodall praises it : " for those who like a 

 bold and distinct plant in a warm situation 

 in summer, and have means to protect or 

 take it up and pot it in winter. With 



