CHAPTER XVII 



HANDSOME-BARKED TREES AND SHRUBS. 



THE value of certain trees and shrubs for making a bright or pleasing 

 effect in winter by reason of their coloured barks has never been fully 

 appreciated. Planted in groups, such plants give masses of soft colour 

 which, in the wilder parts of the grounds at any rate, are more appropriate 

 to our climate and landscape than are variegated evergreens. Near the 

 waterside several willows, such as the red- and yellow-barked forms of Salix 

 vitellina, and the blue-white bark of S. daphnoides and S. acuttfolia, are 

 very attractive. But to get the colour finely developed, it is necessary to cut 

 them back every spring, so as to induce the growth of a crowd of wands 

 of goodly length. These are trees, and the colour is, of course, confined 

 to the young shoots and disappears the second year ; therefore, a mode 

 of cultivation like this is to be preferred, which causes the plant to renew 

 itself every year from near the base, keeps it continuously of about the 

 same size, and provides the greatest proportion of highly coloured young 

 wood. The best willows are Salix vitellina (yellow) and its var. 

 britzensis (red). 



Next to the willows are various species of Cornus or cornels, amongst 

 which, with red stems, we have C. alba, C. alba var. sibirica and other 

 varieties, C. Bailey i and C. stolonifera. Cornus stolonifera var. 

 flaviramea has yellow shoots. Being naturally shrubs, these cornels do 

 not need to be kept artificially dwarf like the willows ; but they are all the 

 better if the older branches are occasionally cut out so as to encourage 

 new basal growths. Two good variegated forms of C. alba, viz., Sp&thii 

 and sibirica variegata, will recommend themselves to many by their 

 winter as well as summer beauty. The young shoots of Berberis virescens 

 are red the first winter 



A group of shrubs which has received several additions in recent 

 years from China are the white-stemmed species of Rubus. The 

 whiteness (usually bluish) is caused by an external layer of waxy particles 

 on the bark. For many years the Himalayan R. biflorus has been known 

 in gardens, and it is still one of the most striking of the group. R. 

 Giraldianus and R. biflorus var. quinqueflorus, both new and from China, 



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