46 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



Of shrubs there is quite a variety which blossom 

 during the midseason. By the middle of July the 

 last of the Buckeyes (Aesculus parviflord) is in flower. 

 This native of the southeastern states is a broad, 

 round-topped, much-branched shrub from six to ten 

 feet high, and every branchlet terminates in long, 

 narrow, erect spikes of small white flowers in which 

 the stamens are long exserted. This shrub requires 

 good soil and a moist situation, and is well suited 

 for planting in large masses or as a single speci- 

 men. 



The Pepperbush (Clethra), of which three species 

 are hardy in the Arnold Arboretum, is perhaps the 

 most beautiful group of native shrubs which flower 

 from mid-July. The most common is Clethra alni- 

 folia, a denizen of swamp borders and moist places in 

 the neighborhood of the coast from Maine to Florida. 

 As usually seen it is a bush from four to six feet tall, with 

 white, fragrant flowers borne in erect, terminal com- 

 pound clusters. Unfortunately the leaves are often 

 disfigured by attacks of red spider. A second species 

 (C. tomentosa) is native of Florida and flowers two 

 or three weeks later than the preceding from which 

 it differs chiefly in the covering of white hairs on the 

 lower surface of the leaves. The third (C. acuminata) 

 is an inhabitant of the forests of the southern Ap- 



