Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



between them for effect, it must suffice to indicate here 

 some half-dozen species that suggest themselves as 

 specially desirable and hardy for British gardens. 



Conspicuous among all is the low-growing St. John's 

 Wort of our picture, the H. calycinum, with the hand- 

 somest flowers of the whole species, flowers perhaps even 

 the finest in the whole list of British wild flowers. It 

 is not a genuine native, however, for its home is in 

 South-east Europe, but it has become naturalised here to 

 the great enrichment of our land. Its magnificent yellow 

 flowers are three or four inches across, and they lie 

 wide open facing the sun, giving back gold for gold, 

 therefore is it sometimes known as the " Terrestrial Sun." 

 Within the five shining petals is a great ring of stamens, 

 rather reminiscent of those in a wild rose, hence another 

 pretty and more common name for it is " Rose of 

 Sharon." And since the many stamens have a general 

 air of fluffiness, the plant has also been called " Aaron's 

 Beard" by the country folk. When one looks closely 

 into the stamens, one finds that they are not in a 

 simple ring, as are those of the wild rose, but are really 

 in five bunches. This bunching arrangement, sometimes 

 into three, sometimes into five groups, according to the 

 species, is characteristic of the family Hypericinece, and 

 marks it off from those nearest allied to it. The group- 

 ing has arisen through the three or five original stamens 

 having branched off into these bunches in the course 



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