78 



Flowers of May. 



with a vivid red and purple. Spircea Niundertii is much less known, but is 

 not inferior, at least in its blooming season. Its pliant shoots, bending 

 with the weight of their clustering white flowers, look as if bowed under a 

 load of freshly-fallen snow. It is only in plants well established, and 

 developed by several years' growth, that the beauty of this spiraea becomes 

 fully apparent ; for the individual flowers are smaller than those of several 

 other varieties. Spircea ulmifoUa very soon follows, — a fine robust sort, 

 of the hardiest constitution, and great vigor of growth. The flowers are 

 in large white clusters, and very ornamental. Caragana speciosa is a shrub 

 of a very different race, with drooping, pea-shaped flowers of a bright 

 yellow. Its early bloom makes it desirable. 



Uvularia grandiflora is a native perennial of no little beaut}', with 

 yellow, drooping flowers. The large native Convailaria, Solomon's-seal, 

 with its pendent flowers of green and white, is also well worth a place at 

 the back of the flower-bed, where, in a rich, moist soil, it becomes a much 

 finer plant than in its wild state. The Actceas, also natives, are beginning 

 to bloom ; but they are most striking when in fruit, with their shining 

 berries, white and coral-red. 



