314 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SHRUBS 



species of filberts are so rare in cultivation that none need be mentioned in 

 this book except ruKi-LE-LEAVEi) FiLuiiKT — Corylus maxima purpurea, — 

 which is cultivated for its deep purplish red leaves rather than for fruit. 



[Seeds ; suckers. ] 



Quercus. The Oaks are nearly all tall trees and the few shrubby forms 

 are practically never cultivated and so this book of ornamental shrubs 



needs no place for them. The 



acorn fruit is distinctive and sepa- 

 rates oaks from all other plants. 



Beau or Black Sckub Oak (5G5) 

 — Quercus ilicifolia — is a spread- 

 hvj; shrub 5 to 10 feet high with 

 tangled branches and 3- to 7-lobed 

 leaves, the lobes ending in bristles 

 and the lower side covered with 

 whitish hairs. Chinquapin Oak — 

 Quercus prinoides — is rarely over 

 8 feet high with wavy-edged leaves 

 having 4 to 8 blunt teeth on each 

 side. [Acorns.] 



Castanea. This genus includes 

 the Chestnut trees and the Chin- 

 quapin shrubs and may be known 

 by the alternate simple .straight- 

 veined leaves and the large spiny- 

 coated fruit with more or less 

 rounded nuts. Chinquapin (566) — 

 Castanea i^umila — is a handsome shrub or tree 6 to 50 feet high with a 

 single (rarely 2) nut, ^ inch, in a prickly bur. The leaves are whitish-downy 

 below. Japan Chestnut (567) — Castanea crenata — is a hardy shrub 

 or tree to 30 feet which begins to bear chestnuts when only a few years old 

 and but a few feet higli ; the leaves are smooth below when mature. 



[Seeds.] 



Fig. 558. — Green Alder. 



Salix. The "Willows form a large genus, nearly 200 species, of 

 hardy shrubs and trees abundant in all cold countries. A number of trees 

 are in cultivation and many of those which are only shrubby are con- 

 sidered worthy of ornamental use. There is no genus of plants more 

 difficult to separate into species than the willows. All are dicecious, 

 meaning that the pollen-bearing catkins are on one plant, the seed-form- 

 ing catkins on another, and thus many hybrids are found. 



