SHRUBS 



its being what we call "common," should be found in 

 every garden. There are pink and blush sorts and a 

 variety called Maulei, which has some orange in its 

 scarlet colour. Against our garden wall the ordinary 

 scarlet sort creates a fine picture with bright-pink early 

 Tulips trailing down the border from its prickly skirts. 



Before spring has got very far along her flowery path 

 other members of the Spiraea tribe begin to deck them- 

 selves in festal array. S. prunifolia, fl. pi., with long, 

 wandlike branches lined with white buttonlike flowers, 

 is early to bloom, and S. arguta is another lovely early- 

 blooming sort. S. Van Houttei is a well-known and 

 splendid sort which blooms in early May, and is followed 

 through the season by other kinds, all worth having 

 in a large collection Reevesii white, May. Bumalda 

 dwarf pink, July. Anthony Water er, magenta, all 

 summer; and others. 



Daffodils and early Tulips are charming peeping from 

 beneath the snowy draperies of the early-flowering 

 Spirseas, and groups of the noble Crown Imperial are 

 very handsome in the neighbourhood of S. prunifolia. 



Toward the end of April Ribes aureum, the Flowering 

 Currant of old gardens, begins to shake out its small 

 yellow blossoms, the perfume of which seeks us out at a 

 great distance. This is not a shrub of high degree, but a 

 sweet old-fashioned thing that one likes to tuck away in 

 all sorts of places for the sake of its perfume, particularly 

 under one's windows. It does well anywhere, even in 



