126 TREES 



cypress swamps, and climbing to elevations of nearly three 

 thousand feet on the slopes of the Blue Ridge. 



A wonderful new species of symjplocos has come into 

 cultivation from Japan and will enjoy a constantly in- 

 creasing popularity. Its fragrant white blossoms, before 

 the leaves, make the tree look like a hawthorn; but its 

 unique distinction is that the racemed fiowers give place 

 to berries of a brilliant turquoise blue, which make this 

 shrubby tree a most striking and beautiful object in the 

 autumn when the leaves are turning yellow. 



THE FRINGE TREE 



Native to the middle and southern portions of the 

 United States is a slender little tree {Chionanihus Vir- 

 ginica, Linn.), whose sister species inhabits northern and 

 central China. Both of them cover their branches with 

 delicate, fragrant white flowers, in loose drooping panicles, 

 when the leaves are about one third grown. Each flower 

 has four slender curving petals an inch long, but exceed- 

 ingly narrow. In May and June the tree is decked with 

 a bridal veil of white that makes it one of the most ethereal 

 and the most elegant of lawn and park trees at this su- 

 preme moment of the year. Later the leaves broaden 

 and reach six to eight inches in length, tapering narrowly 

 to the short petioles. Thick and dark green, with plain 

 margins, and conspicuously looped venation near the 

 edges, these leaves suggest a young magnoha tree. Blue 

 fruits the size of plums succeed the flowers in September, 

 denying the magnolia theory and shading to black before 

 they fall. The flesh is dry and seeds solitary under the 

 thick skin of the drupe. 



