38 DECORATIVE PLANTS, TREES AND SHRUBS 



dards but also as bushes they are effective and spring-like, and they 

 make good back row plants in the shrub border. They are all pro- 

 pagated by budding on the mahaleb cherry stock. 



COTONEASTERS 



The best-known cotoneasters have small box-like dense foliage 

 of the deepest green from which gleam out like globules of fire 

 myriads of deep red berries. For centuries this shrub has been 

 grown and held in popular esteem, as is evidenced by the numerous 

 old specimens up and down the country, the best of which are found 

 covering the walls of village homes. The varieties are numerous 

 and of varying habit, some dwarf and creeping, fitted only for rockery 

 work, others with outspread arms and lofty head embracing the 

 gable ends of houses and long since past the second-story windows. 

 Among the best-known varieties are buxifolia, microphylla, horizon- 

 talis, simonsii, thymcefolia, etc. Most of the varieties seed freely 

 enough and may be so raised, but we prefer the quicker and better 

 way of striking the cuttings with other things in late summer. The 

 whole of these are exceedingly hardy, are evergreen, or nearly so, and 

 can be put to a variety of uses according to their several habits. As 

 a winter decorative shrub it has no mean claims, for the berries 

 often hang on them until the advance of spring clothes the various 

 growths with thousands of white starry blooms. 



CYTISUS (BROOM) 



The varieties of the cytisus may be named " legion." We can 

 only select a few because after all the number of what we term 

 " market varieties " is limited. They differ widely in form and 

 habit and that is why, as a family, it is so attractive. All, or nearly 

 all, are exceedingly showy, and all the common yellow broom, 

 " scoparius," is, when in bloom, a sight for the gods, giving points 

 even to the laburnum. If the cytisus has one distinguishing charac- 

 teristic more than another it is the extreme prodigality with which 

 it produces its bloom. There are several dwarf-growing varieties 

 very suitable for rock gardens, where they are most effective, such 

 for instance as ardoini, kewensis, decumbens, schipkaeensis, pros- 

 trata, etc., but the demand is likely to be greater for the bush and 



