CHIOGENES-CHIONAN 7 THUS 339 



Columbia, and southward to N. Carolina; introduced in 18:5. This 

 plant is very rare in gardens, and the plant nearly always found under the 

 name is one of the cranberries. These are nearly allied plants, but the 

 Chiogenes is abundantly distinct in leaf, flower, and especially the white 

 berry. Out of flower the short, broad leaf and bristly young wood amply 

 distinguish it. It has little garden value as an ornament, but is interesting. 

 A moist, semi-boggy spot such as the cranberries love, should, if possible, 

 be selected for it. " The whole plant, including the berry, has an aromatic 

 taste and odour, resembling that of Gaultheria procumbens. 



CHIONAXTHUS. OLEACE.E. 



This is one of those interesting genera of plants represented, but very 

 sparsely, in both the New and the Old Worlds. In this case one species 

 is found in the eastern United States, the other in China. They belong 

 to the olive family, and have opposite, deciduous leaves. The flowers are 

 in panicles, their most remarkable feature being the four or five long, 

 narrow, pure white petals, united quite at the base. Stamens two. The 

 fruit is an egg-shaped or oblong drupe, containing usually one seed. 



In gardens, although undeservedly neglected, the two species of 

 Chionanthus are amongst the most attractive and distinguished of all 

 hardy shrubs. They like a moist, loamy soil of good depth and quality, 

 and a sunny position. C. virginica is best propagated by seeds obtained 

 from America, but both it and C. retusa can be raised from layers. 

 C. virginica is also grafted on the common and manna ashes, but plants 

 so raised are neither so healthy nor so long-lived as those on their own 

 roots. If C. retusa cannot be obtained on its own roots, it might be 

 grafted on seedlings of C. virginica. Both of them are suitable as isolated 

 specimens on lawns ; they produce abundant fibres at the root, and 

 transplant easily. 



C. RETUSA, Lindley. CHINESE FRINGE-TREE. 



A deciduous shrub in cultivation, but a small tree sometimes 30 to 40 

 ft. high in China, of spreading, rounded habit ; young shoots downy. Leaves 

 variable in shape, usually oval, sometimes obovate, sometimes almost round ; 

 from i to 4 ins. long, f to 2 ins. wide ; rounded, notched, or blunt at the 

 point, tapered at the base ; shiny green above and downy on the midrib ; 

 downy more or less all over beneath, but especially on the midrib and 

 veins ; stalk \ to \ in. long, downy. Flowers snow-white, produced during 

 June and July in erect, cymose panicles terminating young shoots of the 

 year, 2 to 3 ins. high, and 2 to 4 ins. wide. Each subdivision of the 

 inflorescence carries normally three flowers, the four strap-shaped petals 

 of which are f in. long, \ in. wide. 



Native of China, where it is widely spread ; introduced by Fortune in 1845, 

 but apparently not established in gardens until reintroduced by Maries from 

 the region of the river Kia-Kiang in 1879. It is easily distinguished from its 

 American ally by flowering on the young shoots of the year and by the erect, 

 shorter, broader panicles. It is a shrub of the first rank, one traveller in China 

 comparing it when in flower to a "dome of soft, fleecy snow." It is not 

 native of Japan, as often stated. (Fig. p. 340.) 



