A R B 



A R B 



lime, \\ liich must be constantly cut over every 

 summer. The forms of the evergreen as well as 

 deciduous kinds are mostly either square, hexa- 

 gonal, octagonal or round, and their dimensions 

 generally from ten to fifteen feet in width and 

 height ; the tops being mostly either pavilion-, 

 turret-, or dome-shaped, and sometimes termi- 

 nated by a globe, pyramid, or other figure, 

 formed of the extreme branches. Covered ar- 

 bours or bowers may be formed very quickly, 

 even in one season, by several sorts of shrubby 

 herbaceous climbing plants ; some of which are 

 capable of advancing fifteen or twenty feet in 

 one season. They should, if possible, be 

 erected upon a somewhat rising ground, for the 

 greater advantage of free air and prospect. 

 They are also capable of being formed in the 

 heads of large single trees, particularly elms, 

 where the trunk -vhave divided at the height of 

 ten or twelve feet, into several lesser spreading 

 stems, so as to admit of constructing a small 

 platform between them, cutting down the large 

 boughs, and training the pliable branches arch- 

 ways over lattice-work till those on each side 

 meet ; then clipping the sides annually : the 

 tops in this case may either be cut, or permitted 

 to grow up, or the whole suffered to advance in 

 a natural growth. They may likewise be made 

 on the ground in another manner; as by plant- 

 ing some of the tallest-growing flowering shrubs 

 round the inside to form the dimensions, then on 

 the outside of these others of somewhat lesser 

 growth ; continuing them in this way for three 

 or four ranges, diminishing gradually in stature 

 from the arbour outwardly, and permitting the 

 whole to take their natural growth ; so that at 

 a distance they may assume the appearance of 

 common shrubbery clumps- Their bottoms, 

 when on the ground, should be well gravelled, 

 and neat garden-stools or chairs placed in them 

 during the summer season. 



ARBUTUS, a genus containing plants of the 

 evergreen, shrubby and ornamental kind. The 

 Strawberry Tree. 



It belongs to the class and order Decandr'm 

 Mo/iogynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Bicornes. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a five- 

 parted, obtuse, very small permanent perian- 

 thium : the corolla is monopetalous, ovate, and 

 flattish at the base, diaphanous, with a quinquelid 

 mouth : the divisions obtuse, revolutc and small : 

 the stamina consist of ten subulate swelling 

 filaments, very slender at the base, affixed to 

 the edge of the base of the corolla, and half the 

 length of it : the anthera? slightly bifid and nod- 

 ding : the pistillum is a subglobular germ, on a 

 receptacle marked with ten dots : the style ey- 



lindric, the length of the corolla: the stigma 

 thickish and obtuse : thepericarpium a roundish 

 five-celled berry : the seeds small and bony. 



The species of most importance are : 1 . A. 

 Unedo, Common Arbutus, or Strawberry Tree ; 

 2. A. Andruclme, Oriental Strawberry Tree ; 3. 

 A. Uva Ursi, Trailing Arbutus, or Bearberry. 



The first species, Common Arbutus or Straw- 

 berry Tree, rises to the height of twenty or 

 thirty feet in its native situation, but rarely with 

 an upright stem. But with us it is of much 

 humbler growth. It usually puts out branches 

 very near the ground. The leaves keep on all 

 the winter, and are thrust off in the spring by 

 new ones, so that it is always* clothed with 

 leaves. The berries have many seeds in them, 

 and are roughened with the tubercles of the seeds. 



There are several varieties ; as with large oval 

 fruit, with round fruit, with double flowers, 

 with scarlet flowers; there are also the curled- 

 leaved or cut-leaved, the broad-leaved, and the 

 narrow-leaved. 



The second species much resembles the first, 

 but the bark is not rough ; some of the leaves 

 have no serratures, and the panicle is upright 

 and viscid, which in that is smooth. It grows 

 in its native state to a middle-sized tree, with 

 irregular branches. The leaves are smooth, 

 large, and somewhat like those of the Bay Tree, 

 but not quite so long : the flowers are like those 

 of the Common Arbutus, but growing thinly on 

 the branches : the fruit oval, of the same colour 

 and consistence with the common sort; but the 

 seeds of this are flat, while in that they are 

 pointed and angular. It grows naturally in the 

 East. 



In the third species the branches trail upon 

 the ground two or three feet round the root or 

 more. The leaves are alternate, bluntly oval or 

 oblong wedge-shaped, with a net-work of veins 

 underneath, and corresponding wrinkles above, 

 firm and evergreen like those of Box: the 

 flowers grow at the extremities of the branches 

 in small clusters, each supported by a short red 

 foot-stalk : they are of an oval-conical figure, 

 flesh-coloured, or white with a red mouth, and 

 divided into five obtuse, reflex segments at the 

 rim : the berries are round with a depressed um- 

 bilicus, smooth and glossy, red when ripe, and 

 of the size of a holly-berry, replete with an 

 austere mealy pulp, in which are five cells con- 

 taining five angular seeds. It is a shrub very 

 abundant in many parts of the continent, as 

 Sweden, &c. 



Culture. — The most usual method of raising 

 these beautiful evergreens is by sowing the 

 seeds ; but they are sometimes capable of being, 

 raised by cuttings and layers. 



