Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



Hawk Moth (Sphinx ligustri}. Our forefathers, with- 

 out the wealth of beautiful shrubs to draw upon that 

 we have, loved the Privet and used it, as an old writer 

 said, "to make hedges or arbours in gardens . . . 

 wherein it is so apt that no other can be like unto it, 

 to bee cut, lead and drawne into what form one will, 

 either of beasts, birds, or men, armed or otherwise." 



The flowers, borne in the same kind of pyramidal 

 clusters as in the Lilac, are a creamy-white colour in 

 all Privets ; the leaves are of simple outline. The 

 Common Privet, though not strictly an evergreen, 

 since its leaves fall every spring, is practically one, 

 inasmuch as the new leaves have appeared before the 

 old fall. 



In the Oval-leaved Privet (L. ovalifolium) the leaves 

 are large, dark and very glossy. In one variety they 

 have a border of bright yellow, and the shrub is then 

 known as the " Golden Privet." It is very common in 

 window boxes, hedges, etc. 



The Chinese Privet, L. sinense, is far the hand- 

 somest of all, and well worth growing as a flowering 

 shrub. In July it is crowned with a mass of creamy 

 panicles of blossom, each cluster some four inches in 

 height ; while in autumn, like other Privets, it bears 

 small round purple berries which give it a second note 

 of interest. 



The Privets are all members of the Old World, and 



no 



