THE 



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VOL. VIII.] 



JULY, 1885. 



[No. 



THE OHIOj^^ANTHUS, WHITE FHINGE. 



Our more practical German cultiva- 

 tors have given this beautiful shrub the 

 very expressive and somewhat poetical 

 name of Schneejlocken hwiim. Nothing 

 could be more approjjriate, and we sug- 

 gest that this German name translated 

 into our mother tongue be henceforth 

 adopted as the common nauie, and that 

 we call it the SnowHake Tree. The 

 name given to it by botanists is much 

 the same, l)eing composed of two Greek 

 words, /t"j', snow, and a-jOo:;, flower, 

 because of the snowy lightness and 

 whiteness of its singular flowers. 



The general appearance of the leaves 

 and flowers is veiy well represented in 

 our colored plate. The leaves are large, 

 glossy, and of a dark green, contrasting 

 finely with the light, airy, snow-white 

 flowers, which are distributed among 

 them in drooping racemes. It is |)er- 

 lectly hardy in the County of Lincoln, 

 antl judging from its behaviour there 

 should be capable of enduring the cli- 

 mate much further north. It would 

 seem that it has not been very frequently 

 planted in Ontario, as it is seldom met 

 with among the collections of shrubs on 

 our lawns or public grounds. So beau- 

 tiful and intei-esting a tree deserves 

 more general trial, and we liave ob- 



tained this colored illustration for the 

 purpose of calling the attention of Can- 

 adian phmters to this superb little 

 lawn tree. 



It has been the fashion to plant 

 foreign trees and slirubs to the neglect of 

 those that are American, but the lover 

 of the beautiful will readily avail him- 

 self of those plants that are native tu 

 the soil, and in so doing, provide a col- 

 lection more rare and more ornamental 

 than if composed only of exotics. This 

 shrub is a native of North America, and 

 is found growing wild in Pennsylvania 

 and southward. It belongs to the Olive 

 family, and hence bear.s relationship to 

 shrubs and trees with which we have 

 all been liimiliar from childhood. The 

 well-known Lilac and Privet are mem- 

 bers of the same tribe, while our White, 

 Black and Green Ash, belong to another 

 tribe of the same family, European 

 cultivators have availed themselves of 

 this consanguinity to propagate our 

 shrub by grafting it upon their common 

 Ash, Fraxlnus excelsior. Besides our 

 American sjiecies, there is another na- 

 tive to the East Indies, which can only 

 be grown in a hot house, requiring 

 what is known among gardeners as 

 stove heat. And yet another was in- 



