ABELIA 115 



most seasons, but it is quite unable to live in the open unprotected. For a low 

 south wall in the S. of EnglanoVthis shrub, with its shining, rich green foliage 

 and gay flowers, is an attractive ornament. 



A. GRANDIFLORA, Rehder. 



(A. chinensis x uniflora ; A. chinensis, Hort?) 



An evergreen shrub 3 to 6 ft. high, with slender, arching branches clothed 

 with minute down. Leaves of a brilliant dark green, ovate, pointed, i to 2^ ins. 

 long, half as wide, mostly more or less shallowly toothed ; quite smooth above, 

 pale shining green beneath, downy only on the lower part of the midrib. 

 Flowers slightly fragrant, produced from July to October at the end of the 

 shoots of the year and in the leaf-axils ; solitary to as many as four on a stalk. 

 Corolla white tinged with pink, funnel-shaped, | in. long, nearly as wide at the 

 five-lobed mouth ; throat hairy. Sepals two to five, \ in. long, but varying in 

 width according to the number, the lower number being proportionately wider ; 

 they persist for several months, and are often of a purplish tinge. 



A hybrid between A. chinensis and A. uniflora whose origin is apparently 

 unrecorded. Like many hybrids it appears to have acquired a vigour and 

 constitution superior to that of either of its parents. It is hardy at Kew in all 

 but the severest winters, when it is cut to the ground ; it is also the most 

 ornamental of really hardy kinds. The habit is graceful, the foliage a 

 singularly brilliant green, and it is useful in blossoming so late in the season. 



A. SPATHULATA, Siebold. 

 (Bot. Mag., t. 6601.) 



A deciduous shrub 3 or 4 ft. high, much branched ; twigs downy when 

 young. Leaves oval-lanceolate, rhomboidal, or ovate ; I to 2 ins. long, \ to 

 i in. wide ; unequally toothed ; with scattered hairs above, and down on the 

 nerves below ; margins red when young. Flowers in pairs at the ends of short 

 side twigs ; corolla white with yellow in the throat, f to i inch long, widely 

 funnel-shaped. Sepals usually five, J inch long, rosy, oblong-spathulate, 

 slightly downy. Stamens shorter than corolla. 



Native of Japan ; introduced by Maries for Messrs Veitch in 1880. It is 

 hardy in the milder parts of the southern counties, and, among other places, 

 thrives with Sir E. G. Loder at Leonardslee, near Horsham, and with Mrs 

 Chambers at Haslemere. 



A. TRIFLORA, R. Brown. 



(Lindley and Paxton's Flower Garden, vol. 3, t. 91.) 



A deciduous shrub or small tree of vigorous, erect habit, 8 to 12 ft. high, 

 sometimes more ; young shoots furnished with reflexed bristles ; bark of main 

 stem pale, greyish, and conspicuously corrugated. Leaves ovate lance-shaped 

 or lance-shaped, tapering more abruptly to the base than to the apex, \\ to 3 

 ins. long, \ to i in. wide ; dull dark green, paler beneath ; more or less hairy 

 on both surfaces and at the margins until late in the year, when they become 

 nearly or quite smooth.' Most of the leaves are neither toothed nor lobed, 

 but the lowest leaves on the twigs are frequently deeply and sharply cut. 

 Flowers fragrant, produced in June in erect clusters 2 ins across, terminating 

 short twigs ; often three flowers on a stalk. Corolla delicate rosy white, with 

 a slender downy tube f in. long, expanding at the mouth into five rounded lobes, 

 and these \ in. across. Sepals five, persistent, reddish, very narrow and linear, 

 \ to f in. long, feathered with silky hairs. 



