188 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



The winter cherry was known by its Arabic 

 name of Alkehengi to the botanists of queen 

 Elizabeth's time. Gerarde says of it, " The 

 red winter cherrie groweth upon old broken 

 walls, about the borders of fieldes and in moist 

 shadome places, and in most gardens, -where 

 some conserve it for the beautie of the berries, 

 and others for the great and worthy vertues 

 thereof." Modern physicians think little of 

 the properties ascribed to these plants. 



Sometimes the bright stars of the anemones 

 enliven the borders, even in December, while 

 the laurustiuus, and the Christmas rose, are the 

 common flowers of every parterre. The former 

 plant {Vihurmim tinus) is a shrub of much 

 beauty, and justly prized for its winter blos- 

 soms, which are of a purplish red colour, when 

 half expanded, and which grow in large white 

 clusters among its evergreen leaves. Dark 

 blue berries succeed the flower. The shrub 

 was introduced into the English garden in the 

 year 1596, and though so hardy as to bloom 

 amid winter winds and nipping frosts, is a 

 native of the soft climates of the south of 

 Europe, and an ornament to the hills and plains 

 of northern Africa. It was known to the 

 ancients by the name of Tinus, and, because its 

 leaves, hke those of the laurel, are evergreen, 

 it was called laurustinus ; while the name of 

 viburnum, from viere, to tie, was applied to it 

 on account of the flexible branches of many 

 species, which are used for binding boughs 

 together. Our wild, wayfaring tree, which 



