X 



KERRIA, OR JEW'S MALLOW 



Kerria 



Kerria japonica . . . . Jew's Mallow 



/ var. flore pleno Common double-flowered 



Jew's Mallow 



I 



cottager's shrub. In no other garden is 

 it found so consistently as in his, and no 

 other shrub is cultivated by him half so 

 assiduously. Perhaps this is due to a certain quaint 

 neatness and primness about it, perhaps also to the 

 fact that being thin stemmed and lightly foliaged, 

 it is not greedy, aggressive or unduly obtrusive in a 

 small space. 



In its native home Japan it is prevalent both 

 wild on the mountains and cultivated in gardens, but 

 when, about 1700, it was first brought to England, it 

 came in its cultivated double-flowered form the form 

 we now know as Kerria japonica flore pleno where 

 the blooms are thick little rosettes of orange-yellow 

 petals, and to this day it is this cultivated variety that 



is the common Kerria of the cottage garden. At first 



72 



