Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



from China ; the second, also beautiful and hardy, but 

 dwarfer, Hamamelis japonica, from Japan ; while the 

 third the oldest known here Hamamelis virginiana, 

 comes from Virginia, U.S. George Ellwanger, writing 

 " The Garden's Story " in Rochester, in the State of New 

 York, says : " But, amid the melancholy of the autumn 

 muse and the gloom of autumnal skies I catch a pleas- 

 ing fancy to nurse through the tedious winter hours. I 

 thought the crocus the herald of spring: but in the 

 copse I already catch a gleam of vernal gold. The 

 witch-hazel (H. virginiana) is first to put forth its 

 sturdy blossom pure and fresh at this season. Often I 

 meet its flower-clusters in the wintry woods when all 

 its companions, save the oak, beech and hornbeam are 

 denuded of foliage, smiling at the cold and snow. Does 

 it not convey a meaning? Its pale yellow petals speak 

 to me of immortality, and its fragrant breath exhales a 

 promise of coming flowers." 



This Virginian Witch Hazel was brought to Great 

 Britain as long ago as 1736 by Peter Collinson, of Mill 

 Hill, who brought over from America so many foreign 

 plants Rhododendron maximum among them to grace 

 his garden. It has, however, never been very generally 

 cultivated in this country, and, indeed, in its case, the 

 special charm of the genus, the winter flowering and 

 studding of bare branches with gay colour, is some- 

 what in abeyance, for the flowers here tend to begin to 



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