May 21, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



249 



The Leather-wood or Moose-wood (Dirca palustris) of our 

 northern woods bears the earliest yellow blossoms of any na- 

 tive shrub, unless we include stray flowers of the autumn 

 blooming native Witch Hazel. It is not a showy plant, but on 

 account of the early development (first week of April at the 



much earlier, and occasional open blossoms may be found in 

 the first warm days of spring. The cultivated Japanese spe- 

 cies {Andromeda Japonica) has more handsome and larger 

 flowers, but they are not to be relied on in this latitude. In spite 

 of an unusually mild winter, and among plants in varyingsitua- 



Fig. 38. — Berberis Sicboldii — See page 2 



Arboretum) of its modest blossoms it attracts attention, and it 

 deserves a place in every shrubbery. It is a shrub which 

 never requires pruning, as it is of slow, compact growth. 

 There is no very early flowering, broad-leaved evergreen 

 shrub so generally satisfactory as Andromeda floribunda. The 

 racemes of white flowers are usually in their best condition 

 about the first week of May, although they are conspicuous 



tions, hardly a flower bud survived to open with those of its 

 American congener. 



The Leather-leaf {Cassandra calyculata) is another early 

 flowering plant of the Heath family which may also be called 

 evergreen. It reaches its fullest bloom at about the same 

 time, but is not so conspicuous as the Andromeda, because 

 the flowers, which are somewhat larger, are disposed in a 



