116 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



There are shrubs, as we have seen, that look better 

 standing by themselves, and one of the most notable of 

 these is the dwarf flowering horse-chestnut, with pictur- 

 esque foliage like that of the ordinary horse-chestnut, 

 and spikes or racemes of white flowers that make a fine 

 effect, rising above the broad-spreading mass of the leaves. 

 For a reliable shrub, the masses of which mingle well in 

 any group and bear fine, sweet-scented flowers and broad 

 effective leaves, no plant deserves higher praise for hardi- 

 ness, vigor, and beauty than the large sorts of philadel- 

 phus, or mock orange, among which should not be included 

 the lumpy, yellow-leaved kind that, in the hands of the 

 nurserymen, has had a certain ephemeral popularity. 



Among the good all-around shrubs that can be counted 

 on the two fingers, and that are always welcome on the 

 lawn, we find the rhodotypus kerrioides, ranking high ir> 

 excellence. There are more showy shrubs, doubtless, but 

 for a refined, graceful habit and delicate green foliage 

 combined with considerable vigor, for a medium-sized 

 shrub, and adaptability to different soil and climate, it 

 is difficult to surpass the rhodotypus. It has, moreover, 

 an air of the American woods, although it is Japanese, 

 and is admirable in combination with shrubs coming 

 direct from American hedge-rows. Rubus odoratus, an 

 American native shrub of similar character, has less 

 finish and gracefulness, but it is, nevertheless, full of 

 suggestions of woodland regions. 



As a general rule, we are apt to find most of the spi- 

 raeas somewhat weedy in appearance and lacking in the 

 solid vigor and marked picturesqueness we have a right 

 to expect in shrubs that undertake to occupy the rank of 

 all-around species. Among the two or three kinds that 

 we might, perhaps, see fit to allow to aspire to this rank 



