94 THE FRUIT-TREE AND SHRUB FRTTXER. 



Some profess to distinguish the blue as a distinct 

 variety, but I have proved it to be otherwise. The 

 common pink-flowered kind will produce the blue 

 under these circumstances, and go back again the 

 following year by planting it in other soils; and if the 

 reader purchases a blue Hydrangea in flower, it will 

 produce pink ones the next season unless it is shifted 

 into fresh metallic peat. 



The Hydrangea is no doubt one of our best hardy 

 border plants, and should have a bed among flowering 

 shrubs in every well-devised garden. The pruning of 

 it consists in cutting the previous year's growth back 

 to within a few inches of the ground, and then to top- 

 dress the bed with decayed stable manure. 



The Myrtle. 



The Myrtle is too well known to require any descrip- 

 tion here, but in some parts of England no idea can be 

 formed of what it does in the western counties. About 

 Torquay the Myrtle is grown as a common lawn shrub, 

 where it attains to the height of eight or nine feet. 



It requires some annual pruning to prevent it from 

 getting barren of foliage below. In the month of 

 March or April, according to the season, go over the 

 plants and cut back all the main leaders ; this will 

 promote a young and healthy growth below. Old and 

 overgrown plants may be severely cut back to any 

 extent with a view to obtaining new plants. No one 

 need be timid about cutting back the Myrtle, for it will 

 bear it well. 



The Coronilla. 



The Coronillas are not to be seen growing as shubberv 

 plants in some parts of the country, but in Devonshire 

 they are common border shrubs. C. Glauca grows to 

 a good-sized medium shrub at Torquay. It is a plant 

 that requires some little annual cutting back to keep it 

 compact and symmetrical. It makes a handsome 

 shrub on the lawn as a single specimen, flowering 



