F S II R V B S 



snowberry, no, we have parted company. It is a shiftless and 

 indolent character with not enough self respect to present a proper 

 appearance before the world. The lonicera Alberti too, we have 

 put off in a corner; it deserved no better fate, it had plenty of sun- 

 shine but it sulked. 



Madame Viburnum has such a large and interesting progeny, 

 and so individual are they, so varied in their tastes and styles, that 

 when meeting a bush unknown to us we used calmly to call it a 

 viburnum, or in case a look of incredulity appeared upon the face 

 of the interlocutor, we changed it to cornus. This weakened our 

 position as an authority, but still gave us some credit for knowl- 

 edge. We were like the man who, knowing nothing of horticulture, 

 became very much interested in planting a bare field of land with 

 fine shrubs and flowers. When a sceptical friend asked: "Does 

 Mr. Brown know the names of all his shrubs?" " Oh, yes," was 

 the reply, "if he gets started right!" So we have to get started 

 right on our viburnums, for they are a puzzling lot. 



We have eleven species, 0) the withe-rod (cassinoides) which 

 belongs to my trio of favorites, although it has one curious blemish 

 which I have not found noted in my nature-books; in the late Fall 

 it gives forth a strangely disagreeable odor, pungent and penetrat- 

 ing, a worthy rival to that of the motor car; (2) a Chinese variety 

 (dilatatum) which came to us by accident and which we treasure as 

 the very apple of our eyes; its leaves turn an unusual bronzy purple 



which, combined with its scarlet fruit, makes it wonderfully attrac- 



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