.-,8 FAMILIAR GARVBX FLOTTSliS. 



thankful that such bits of sunshine, as they seem, should 

 drop down into nooks so needing;' them, and have then 

 gone into the counti'y and seen laburnums again, what a 

 difference ! In a really well-furnished country garden 

 the laburnums are equal in splendom- to any trees that 

 are grown. Instead of calling them fountains we might 

 call them mountains of gold. 



The varieties of laburnum are not many, but they are 

 interesting. The Scotch laburnum is generally regarded 

 as a distinct species, and is named C[////x/(f/ Alpiiumi ; but, 

 in our opinion, it is a variety, and we have noticed other 

 varieties that unite it with C. lahurnum by a series of 

 gradations. The most distinctive character of the Scotch 

 laburnum is to be found in the seed-jjod, which is glabrous, 

 distinctly stalked, and winged along the upper suture. 



The most remarkable variety is the one named C//tisns 

 xLlunii, or Ijiihiiruiiiii .Idaini. It is regarded as a hybrid 

 between the yellow and the purple laburnum. If plants be 

 allowed to have any sort of ideas of their own, we should 

 say that Adam's laburnum Ix'longs to the class of people 

 who can ne\"er make up their minds what course to take in 

 life, and so you can never calculate what they will do next. 

 True it is that if this variety be grafted on the common la- 

 burnu.m the compound structure becomes the most ridiculous 

 thing under the sun. In one part of the tree we shall see 

 flowers of a good pur])le, in another part flowers of a dirty 

 jDurple, and again in another part flowers of a bright 

 yellow, and sometimes the three s(jrts are all closely assn- 

 ciated and make a most alisurd mixture. If we mark a 

 branch that bears purple flowers, and watch it the next 

 season, we may chance t.) find it then producing yellow 

 flowers, and rire rcrsd ; and 1he vagaries of the graft run 



