DECIDUOUS SHRUBS 117 



is spiraea, or neillia, opulifolia, or the native ninebark. 

 It is a little coarse, but its vigor is so great, and it has 

 so much ability to grow in the shade and in all kinds of 

 soil, and arrange itself in fine, picturesque masses which 

 at the same time combine well with other shrubs, that 

 we find ourselves coming very near to allowing it the 

 rank, after all, of a good all-around shrub. 



It needs scarcely be said again that the green forms 

 should be selected and employed, and not the gold. 

 Almost as good a shrub in its way is a dainty spiraea 

 bearing masses of minute white flowers in early spring, 

 and known by the somewhat formidable name, thun- 

 bergii ; and spiraea van houttii, also, is another species 

 which is very distinct, but small, and graceful and 

 effective when it is planted in the foreground in groups 

 by itself. 



A very different shrub, on the other hand, is the Indian 

 currant, or symphoricarpus vulgaris, which is less distin- 

 guished and refined in character than the spiraeas just 

 mentioned, but has a pleasant look of the woods, and a 

 close, low, picturesque growth, suited to banks and other 

 parts of shrub groups, where it serves to grade down 

 successfully the larger shrubs to the herbaceous plants 

 and grass. 



An attractive shrub of the woods that is little appre- 

 ciated is baccharis halimifolia. Its rounded masses of 

 picturesque green foliage have a unique appearance which 

 is, nevertheless, suggestive of naturalness and the forest. 



Myrica cerifera, the candleberry, is another good 

 shrub, of somewhat lower growth, that has never had 

 proper appreciation given its small, picturesquely massed, 

 dark-green leaves, which merit almost as much admira- 

 tion as the azalea or rhododendron. 



