GOOD TREES AND SHRUBS 217 



trellis work. Where the climate is cold grow the Akebia in a cold- 

 house, as it is well adapted for clothing pillars, rafters, &c., and its 

 purple, fragrant flowers, borne in drooping spikes, remain long in beauty. 

 A. lobata is another useful strong-growing climber. It may be distin- 

 guished from the other species by its three-lobed leaves. 



Amelanchiers (Mespilus). This a small group of hardy shrubs 

 and trees of small stature. No garden of any pretentions can be con- 

 sidered complete without one or more trees of the Snowy Mespilus. 

 It is very beautiful in spring when thousands of small white flowers 

 open to the sunshine. A healthy tree in April and May is a cloud of 

 wavy white petals. The value of Amelanchiers in the landscape is 

 not confined to spring alone, because the gorgeous colouring of the 

 decaying leaves in autumn is quite as welcome as the flower cloud of 

 the early year. Amelanchiers are not fastidious. There is hardly a 

 soil in which they refuse to grow, but a deep, rich, moist loam seems 

 to answer best, and if shelter from cold winds can be given so much 

 the better, because the flowers sometimes suffer in rough weather. A. 

 vulgaris (Common Amelanchier), indigenous to Southern Europe, is 

 one of the brightest of early spring-flowering trees. It is free in all 

 ways. A. canadensis (Snowy Mespilus), also known as A. botryapium, 

 is an old favourite, having been introduced from Canada upwards of 

 150 years ago. It is rather slow in growth, but reaches in the course of 

 years a height of between thirty feet and forty feet. It forms a round- 

 headed tree with long and somewhat pendulous branches, and when 

 young its smooth leaves are tender green, changing to a deeper shade, 

 and in autumn assume exquisite shades of yellow and orange. The 

 snow-white flowers are in graceful racemes and succeeded by crimson 

 fruit, from which plants can be readily raised, but when layered the 

 trees flower a season or so before those raised from seed, indeed before 

 they are two feet high. Little trees of this kind are welcome in the 

 conservatory as well as for massing on the grass. The variety oblongi- 

 folia is a gem and late flowering. It is much dwarfer in habit and gener- 

 ally ten days or a fortnight after the type in coming into bloom. The 

 flowers appear in short racemes. A. oligocarpa is a dwarf -growing shrub 

 of considerable beauty, but unfortunately very uncommon. It grows 

 about four feet high and bears large, pure white flowers generally in 

 pairs on well-matured wood. For small gardens the dwarf June Berry 

 (A. alnifolia) is worth remembering, as it rarely exceeds eight feet high 

 and flowers rather late in the season. Its flowers, like those of A. 

 canadensis, are produced lavishly, and the autumn-tinted foliage is strik- 

 ingly beautiful. 



Amorphas. These are in their way useful shrubs, the best of which 

 is A. camscens (Lead Plant), introduced from Missouri in the early part 

 of the present century. It grows about three feet high, flowers in 

 autumn, is quite hardy, and free both in growth and bloom. Its deep 

 blue flowers are borne in panicles and last a long time in fresh condi- 

 tion, and its silky white pinnate leaves are very attractive. A sandy 

 soil with an open sunny aspect suits it admirably, and considering the 



