260 THE NEW GARDENING 



places, and has several varieties, such as crispa, foliis 

 aureis (yellow-leaved) and laciniata. 



The Beech is best represented as a garden tree by the 

 purple or copper, the leaves of which are burnished 

 bronze. To be exact, there are several forms of purple- 

 leaved Beech, all varieties of the common Fagus sylvatica. 

 Thus there are purpurea, purpurea major (larger) and 

 purpurea pendula, the last of drooping habit. There is 

 a darker form than any of them called atropurpurea, 

 which the planter might choose in case of doubt, for the 

 colour is rich and glowing. There are also gold and 

 silver variegated forms of the common Beech. 



The Birch is a well-known tree, and the common 

 Silver Birch, so called from its white bark, is very familiar. 

 One of the best forms of this graceful tree is Young's 

 weeping variety, which is found in some catalogues 

 under the name of Betula alba pendula Youngii. It is a 

 somewhat expensive tree, and the form offered under 

 the name of pendula, or incisa pendula, might be con- 

 sidered as a cheaper and still graceful tree. 



The common Horse Chestnut, ^Esculus Hippocastanum, 

 is so admirable a tree, both in beauty of form and splen- 

 dour of bloom, that the garden-planter feels little tempta- 

 tion to search for special varieties of it. He might plant 

 the double-flowered form (flore pleno), and the pyramidal 

 (pyramidalis) if he prefers that form to the rounder 

 habit of the common. The red or pink Horse Chestnut 

 is a different species from the common, and is the 

 jEsculus carnea (rubicunda of some catalogues) of the 

 botanists. It is well suited to garden cultivation, for it 

 does not grow to a great size, has compact rounded habit, 

 and blooms abundantly. There is a splendid variety of 

 this called Briotii, which has very deeply coloured flowers, 

 and there are also pendulous and double forms. The 



