INTRODUCTION 



FLOWERING SHRUBS as a class have been 

 greatly neglected in this country. In private 

 grounds and public parks, where gardening is 

 carried on as a fine art by expert professional gar- 

 deners, they have received a certain though limited 

 measure of attention, but in the smaller gardens, 

 cultivated more or less by their owners aided by the 

 commonplace gardener, their value, their charm, and, 

 above all, their variety are now only beginning to be 

 dimly appreciated. Of course, there are those half 

 dozen or so kinds which meet one's eye everywhere 

 the Laurustinus, Lilac and Syringa (Philadelphus), the 

 Cherry Laurel (usually cropped so as not to flower), 

 the Flowering Currant (only the common red variety), 

 the Broom perhaps, and the Rhododendron, and those 

 three or four others more or less common, a Veronica, 

 the Mahonia (Berberis aquifolium), the Japonica (Cy- 

 donia) and the Kerria; but the rest the vast majority 

 so far as the ordinary garden is concerned are more 

 often than not conspicuous by their absence. And 

 yet, if garden owners would but realise it, they have 

 in them the most valuable asset possible in the 



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