New Trees and Shrubs. 26^ 



NEW TREES AND SHRUBS. 



By J. L. Russell, Professor of Botany to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



The following descriptions of some ornamental trees and shrubs of 

 Northern California and Oregon are from " Reports of Explorations of the 

 Pacific Railroad," vol. vi., 1857 : — 



The California Buckeye, ySscu/us Ca/iformca (Nutt). — A shrub, or low- 

 spreading tree, with large rose-colored flowers in a dense thyrse ; fruit 

 large, spheroidal, slightly tuberculated. Though usually a wide-spreading 

 shrub, yet it sometimes assumes the style of a tree of twenty feet in height, 

 and would become a valuable acquisition to cultivators of ornamental 

 shrubs if introduced into our Eastern collections. 



The Vine Maple, Acer ci'ra'n/ia^um (Pursh). — A small shrub-like tree, 

 with slender trunks springing from the same root, which assume a sarmen- 

 tous character, arching and bending towards the earth, and rooting at the 

 ends. Its foliage resembles that of the sugar-maple : its wood is hard and 

 fine-grained, and, from its dwarf size and habit, might be used to advantage 

 in ornamentation. 



The Large-leaved Maple, Acer inacrophylbim (Pursh). — A small tree, 

 with immense pale-green leaves, and long racemes of flowers. Conspicuous 

 through portions of Oregon, and \ery ornamental. 



The Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glauca (Lindley). — A large evergreen 

 shrub, with red bark, which peels off as it grows old ; ovoid, smooth, leath- 

 ery, entire leaves set vertically ; flowers in terminal racemes, pinkish white, 

 urceolate in shape ; fruit a flattened, black, smooth, spheroidal berry, with 

 rough, triangular seeds. Its wood is hard, of a reddish color, and resem- 

 bles that of the apple-tree ; its branches much twisted and crooked, and 

 useful in making rustic work. It is one of the characteristic shrubs of the 

 Californian flora, abundant on the hills and mountains. From the fancied 

 resemblance of its berry to a little apple, it has received the Spanish name 

 of Manzanita. Growing eight or ten feet high, with many stems or trunks 

 covered with red bark, and with its vertical evergreen leaves, it is worth 

 cultivating as an ornamental plant. 



The Vi2Axo\^2i, Arbutus Meiiziesii (Pursh). — A small tree, twenty-five 



VOL. V. 34 



