Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



a certain brilliancy and considerable prettiness under 

 the bright May and June sun, though doubtless the 

 fact that they compete for notice at the very height of 

 the spring's output of beauty is the real reason that 

 they are not more appreciated. Dr. Lindley, the bot- 

 anist, waxed very warm in his appreciation of these 

 "snow-white flowers which, reposing on a rich couch of 

 green, have so brilliant an appearance that a poet would 

 compare them to diamonds lying on a bed of emeralds." 

 They are of the familiar rose type the Cotoneasters 

 belong to that peerless family the Rosacece and hence are 

 related to the hawthorn, cherry laurel, apple, pear, rowan, 

 cherry, quince and other of our most charming flower- 

 ing trees and shrubs. Indeed, the very name Cotone- 

 aster signifies quince-like, Cotoneum being "a quince 

 tree " and aster ad instar similar, though the tiny 

 white flowers are, at first sight, very unlike the large, 

 beautiful flowers of the quince. The name seems trace- 

 able to Conrad Gesner, " a Germane physitian," " a 

 very learned, painfull, honest, and juditious writer" (ac- 

 cording to Gerard), who, under it, describes what was 

 later called " Gesner's wilde Quince " in a book on 

 plants published in Venice in 1541. 



Each flower has five sepals, five petals and many 

 stamens; the end of the flower stalk is cup-like, the 

 petals and stamens being on the edge of this cup, and 



the fruits set partly within it, partly projecting. Out 



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