Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
terminal or lateral clusters, and the leaf thickish, nearly 
or quite evergreen, and glossy in Z. racemosa, which is 
perhaps the most widely cultivated. JZ. axillaris is 
commendable for its early blossoming, a circumstance 
not to be forgotten in laying out a lawn or garden. 
The flowers throughout the genus are of the typical 
heath form—petals united into a short tube, lobed or 
toothed at the apex. 
The most conspicuous and brilliant reminder of our 
Japanese indebtedness is the golden-flowered forsythia, 
abundant in the Park, to which allusion is elsewhere 
made. ‘The secret of its profuse flowering is in trim- 
ming it closely every year as soon as the blossoming 
period is past ; for next year’s flower-buds form chiefly 
on ¢his year’s growth; and if the stems are severely 
pruned, the vigor of the plant sends up a multitude of 
new shoots crowded with buds of the coming spring. 
Its slender, dark-green leaves, persistent almost till 
winter, are an added consideration to make this thor- 
oughly hardy shrub one of the most beautiful attractions 
in almost any situation. 
Our native elders, though having a shapely leaf of fine 
color, are of scattering growth, and so characterless as 
to be unfit for culture. But the European elder— 
Sambucus nigra—affords some varieties of marked 
beauty, the finest being the cut-leaved, very ornamental 
in foliage. Another, the golden elder, has yellow 
leaves which, massed with surrounding greens, is of 
striking effect ; and a third, with variegation of white 
and green, is an oddity that is more or less pleasing. 
The two species indigenous in this country, the com- 
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