FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



NAME. 



COUNTRY OR 



ORIGIN AND 



NATURAL ORDER. 



COLOUR 



AND 

 SEASON. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



"Laburnum (Cytisus) 

 vulgare (Golden 

 Rain or Chain) 



Laburnums grow so freely 

 almost everywhere that they 

 are somewhat overdone, in 

 gardens, but it is so beau- 

 tiful a tree that many would 

 say: "I don't mind how 

 many laburnums I have in 

 the garden. ' ' Mr. Goldring, 

 writing in the "Gardeners' 

 Magazine " about labur- 

 nums, says : 



" Besides the common way 

 of growing the laburnum as 

 a shrubbery or plantation 

 tree, it may be put to various 

 other uses. It is a beautiful 

 covering for a wall on the 

 north, east, or west sides. In 

 some old gardens one meets 

 with huge trees of it cover- 

 ing large areas of wall, and 

 affording a lovely sight at 

 flower time. This is a com- 

 mon way of growing it on 

 the Continent, and in some 

 of our old botanic gardens it 

 may be seen trained against 

 a wall as a host for the wis- 

 taria, which flowers about 

 the same time, and produces 

 a lovely contrast of colour. 



" I have pleasing recollec- 

 tions of seeing it in some old 

 gardens trained over a path 

 as a covered way before per- 

 golas were in vogue in this 

 country. For several weeks 

 such covered pathways are 

 glowing with colour, and for 

 the rest of the summer they 

 afford a pleasant shade. In 

 some of the old Sussex gar- 

 dens laburnum ' tunnels ' 

 are still to be seen, and they 

 are worth imitating in new 

 gardens. 



"Of the two commonly 

 grown species of laburnum, 

 L. vulgare and L. alpinum, 

 there are numerous varieties, 

 differing more or less from 

 the types, though the differ- 

 ences in some cases are 

 slight, even from a garden 

 point of view. A laburnum 

 is a laburnum to most people, 

 and nothing more, but there 

 is a great difference between 

 a worthless seedling with 

 short flower clusters of a poor 

 yellow, and the varieties such 



