BETA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



BETULA. 449 



aristata (which has berries covered with 

 white powder, like Plums), and the small- 

 growing B. Thunbergi, also remarkable for 

 its scarlet berries, which remain on the bush 

 throughout the autumn. B. Wallichiana 

 has handsome flowers and foliage, and is 

 worthy of cultivation inthe best collections. 



The Mahonias are now merged in 

 the genus Berberis. As flowering shrubs 

 they are of much value, as is shown 

 by the beauty of flower and fruit of 

 the common evergreen Barberry B. aqui- 

 folium and its varieties. M.fascicularis, 

 though not hardy everywhere, is fine 

 when in bloom, its stems being wreathed 

 with golden clusters for some weeks, while 

 M. hybrida is scarcely less ornamental and 

 certainly hardier. M. repens, Msglumacea 

 and M. trifoliata are all gobd dwarf 

 Evergreens. In mild districts there is not 

 a finer flowering shrub in spring than M. 

 nepalensis, with large clusters of yellow 

 bloom and massive foliage. M. japonica 

 is a good Evergreen in sheltered places, 

 and a fine flowering shrub. Most of the 

 evergreen kinds thrive best in leafy or 

 peaty soils, the ordinary hardy kinds in 

 any garden soil. 



Berkheya. See Stobcea. 



BETA (Chilian Beef)~B. cida varie- 

 gata is a variety of common Beet, the 

 leaves being more than 3 ft. long, vivid in 

 colour, their midribs varying from dark 

 waxy orange to vivid crimson. The 

 plant should be sown in a gently heated 

 frame, and afterwards planted out in rich 

 ground. It varies much from seed, and 

 the most striking individuals should be 

 selected before the plants are put out. 

 Used sparingly, its effect is often perhaps 

 more telling than if in quantity, but it 

 is a mistake to use this or any such 

 vegetables in the flower-garden. Other 

 varieties of the common Beet are used in 

 the flower-garden for the sake of their 

 dark colours, but no artistic flower- 

 gardening is possible where such vege- 

 tables out of place are used. 



BETULA (Birch}. Trees of cold and 

 arctic regions, often forming vast forests. 

 Sometimes, in the extreme north, even 

 the tall and graceful Birches of more tem- 

 perate lands take a bushy form, and there 

 are also arctic and northern species which 

 are small and give us little effect or in- 

 terest except for botanic gardens. The 

 Birches, generally, are easy to grow, and 

 should be raised from seed, in which way 

 they come very easily, excepting what are 

 called the garden or nursery varieties. 

 These are grafted, and might be propa- 

 gated by layers, if anybody would take 

 the trouble, and in this way might be 



longer lived and useful in some ways. 

 Owing to the beauty of our native species 

 in all sorts of positions north and south, 

 we have not lost so much by neglecting 

 the American species, and it would be 

 difficult to expect, however, any of them to 

 show anything finer in effect than such 

 woods as we see in northern and central 

 Europe, of Birch alone, the silvery stems 

 rising out of heath or ferns. Among the 

 greater, or tree, Birches after our own (in- 

 cluding its varieties or allies, verrucosa and 

 pubescens) are the Canoe Birch (B. papyri- 

 fora] or paper Birch, a forest tree of 

 Northern America, which is hardy in 

 Britain ; the River Birch (B. nigra] also 

 a tall tree of Northern America ; the 

 Cherry or Sweet Birch (B. lento) which is 

 sometimes 80 ft. high and also of northern 

 distribution (Canada, Newfoundland) ; the 

 Yellow Birch (B. luted] sometimes 100 

 ft. high ; the Western Birch (B. occiden- 

 talis], a medium-sized tree of Western 

 America and British Columbia, and the 

 White Birch (B. populifolia) also a 

 slender tree of Canada and the Northern 

 States with tremulous leaves like some of 

 the Aspens. Among the dwarf or shrubby 

 kinds are B, nana, pumila, humilis and 

 fruticosa ; but the Birches of any real value 

 for our home landscapes are the tree 

 kinds. From a garden point of view, 

 perhaps the most important trees of the 

 genus are the varieties of our common 

 Birch and its allies, such as the weeping 

 and cut-leaved forms, also those with 

 purple leaves, and the nettle-leaved Birch. 

 B. maximowiczi is a distinct and fine 

 Japanese kind which grows very high and 

 with a trunk 2 to 3 ft. in diameter, the bark 

 orange-coloured, the leaves very large. B. 

 ermani is also a common kind in Japan. 



An incident in my own planting of 

 birches may be worth recording here. 

 Having got a collection from America, I 

 planted them by some ponds where I 

 thought they might have a better chance, 

 as they often grow well near water in their 

 native country. I lost a good many of 

 them, not knowing the cause until I hap- 

 pened to pull up some of the dead young 

 trees, when I found the main roots were 

 all barked round by the common water- 

 rat, working below the line of the snow 

 during a hard winter. 



As regards the positions of Birches in a 

 pleasure-ground, there is is not a more 

 graceful lawn tree than the cut-leaved and 

 weeping kinds, the more so where trees 

 of light shade are desired. 



The American tree kindsmight taketheir 

 places in the mixed woodlands of a country 

 place, or by streams or pools. W. R. 



G G 



