Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



in delicate habits is frequently obviated " ; but to-day 

 its merits are overlooked and its claims consigned to 

 oblivion. 



The Rock Roses do not rank among the very hardiest 

 shrubs, but still there is no need, as is so often done, 

 to credit them with great delicacy. The Laurel-leaved 

 Rock Rose (C. laurifolius) has survived 32 degrees 

 of frost at Kew, and C. ladaniferus will live through 

 20 degrees of frost ; C. cyprius is even hardier. Of 

 late years there has seemed a tendency to overlook 

 them, which is a great pity, for there are few flowering 

 shrubs to match them in beauty, and, given one of the 

 warmest aspects in a garden, they will flourish very 

 generally. For instance, the hardy C. laurifolius men- 

 tioned above, with leaves reminiscent of the laurel, makes 

 a magnificent shrub. In May it is a mass of red buds, 

 in June great flowers as large as a five-shilling piece, 

 or larger, cover it thickly. The life of each blossom is 

 short, it is true only a few hours but the multitude 

 of on-coming buds, charming in their wrapping of crim- 

 son bracts, speaks of a great succession to make up 

 for individual shortness of life. Each blossom is re- 

 markably like that of a single rose such a rose as is 

 borne by a Penzance brier but careful anatomical study 

 will show that here all the parts of the flower are distinct 

 and set separately upon the end of the flower stalk, 



while in the rose there are considerable adhesions, and 



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