Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
Japan and China, as usual, are our main resource for 
ornamental hydrangeas. Worthy of mention, though 
inferior, is our own oak-leaved—/. guercifolia—with 
large sterile blossoms mingled with the fertile ones in 
the same cluster. The process of cultivation always 
tends to transform stamens and pistils into petals, mak- 
ing the flower only for show, without the means of self- 
propagation, resulting usually in such metamorphoses as 
we find in the cultivated rose and chrysanthemum with 
a multitude of petals. But there is a singular difference 
in the process, in the hydrangea, wherein the flower’s 
force is expended in simply ev/arging the calyx—it has 
no corolla—instead of multiplying the number of sepals. 
It may here be remarked, that while color and form— 
mere sensuous beauty—may be equally appreciated by 
all, intelligent interest in nature’s processes of growth, 
which afford a considerable part of the subject’s at- 
tractiveness, is quite impossible without an understand- 
ing of structural botany ; and this is where the modern 
‘¢short methods ’’ of nature-study reveal their super- 
ficiality. 
Among the rugged, dark-green-foliaged shrubs and 
trees, one of the most interesting and sometimes prac- 
tically valuable genera is the alder; too coarse-fibred 
for good effect at short range, it can be massed along a 
water-course, pond, or lake very satisfactorily ; indeed, 
there is nothing that quite takes its place in that situa- 
tion. Its growth is thrifty, and its compacted roots 
prevent erosion of the shore. Our three native species 
are all shrubs, with no conspicuous differences, and a 
practical value of them all is their protection of tender 
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