GOOD TREES AND SHRUBS 209 



these check young shoots, and sometimes, especially when accompanied 

 by late spring frosts, kill the tender growths outright. It is a beautiful 

 plant for clambering amongst the branches of old trees and hiding 

 trellis work. Where the climate is cold grow the Akebia in a cold- 

 house, as it is well adapted for clothing pillars, rafters, &c., and its 

 purple, flagrant flowers, borne in drooping spikes, remain long in beauty. 



AmelanchierS. This is a small group of thoroughly hardy 

 shrubs and trees of small stature. No garden of any pretensions 

 can be considered complete without one or more trees of the Snowy 

 Mespilus. It is very beautiful in spring when thousands of small 

 white flowers open to the sunshine. A healthy tree in April and May 

 is a cloud of wavy white petals. The value of Amelanchiers in the 

 landscape is not confined to spring alone, because the gorgeous colouring 

 of the decaying leaves in autumn is quite as welcome as the flower 

 cloud of the early year. Amelanchiers are not fastidious. There is 

 hardly a soil in which they refuse to grow, but a deep, rich, moist loam 

 seems to answer best, and if shelter from cold winds can be given so 

 much the better, because the flowers sometimes suffer in rough weather. 

 A. vulgaris (Common Amelanchier), indigenous to Southern Europe, is 

 one of the brightest of early spring-flowering trees. It is free in all 

 ways. A. canadensis (Snowy Mespilus), also known as A. botryapium, 

 is an old favourite, having been introduced from Canada upwards of 

 150 years ago. It is rather slow in growth, but reaches in the course of 

 years a height of between thirty feet and forty feet. It forms a round- 

 headed tree with long and somewhat pendulous branches, and when 

 young its smooth leaves are tender green, changing to a deeper shade, 

 and in autumn assume exquisite shades of yellow and orange. The 

 snow-white flowers are in graceful racemes and succeeded by crimson 

 fruit, from which plants can be readily raised, but when layered the 

 trees flower a season or so before those raised from seed, indeed before 

 they are two feet high. Little trees of this kind are welcome in the 

 conservatory as well as for massing on the grass. The variety obovalis 

 (syn. oblongifolla) is a gem and late flowering. It is much dwarfer in 

 habit and generally ten days or a fortnight after the type in coming 

 into bloom. The flowers appear in short racemes. A. oligocarpa is a 

 dwarf-growing shrub of considerable beauty, but unfortunately very un- 

 common. It grows about four feet high and bears large, pure white 

 flowers generally in pairs on well-matured wood. For small gardens the 

 dwarf June Berry (A. alnifolia) is worth remembering, as it rarely 

 exceeds eight feet high and flowers rather late in the season. Its 

 flowers, like those of A. canadensis, are produced lavishly, and the 

 autumn-tinted foliage is strikingly beautiful. 



AmorphaS- These are in their way useful shrubs, the best of 

 which is A. canescens (Lead Plant), introduced from Missouri in the early 

 part of the present century. It grows about three feet high, flowers in 

 autumn, is quite hardy, and free both in growth and bloom. Its deep 

 blue flowers are borne in panicles and last a long time in fresh condi- 

 tion, and its silky white pinnate leaves are very attractive. A sandy 

 soil with an open sunny aspect suits it admirably, and considering the 



