Diervilla — Weigela. 



151 



of April and May. One great recommendation to it, is that 

 it is a plant of the easiest cultivation. Cuttings readily 

 strike any time during the winter and spring months, with 

 ordinary attention, and the plant itself grows well in any 

 good soil. It should be grown as it is in 

 China, not tied up in that formal, unnatural 

 way in which we see plants brought to 

 our exhibitions, but a main stem or two 

 chosen for leaders, and then when the 

 plant comes into bloom, the branches are 

 loaded with beautiful flowers which hang 

 down in graceful and natural festoons." 



D. rosea is the plant which thus attract- 

 ed Mr. Fortune's attention, and is still the 

 best known of the several species. His 

 account, as given above, is sufficiently full 

 and accurate to represent it as it appears 

 in this country, where it has made itself 

 entirely at home. The shrub possesses a 

 tendency to a somewhat straggling growth 

 not altogether objectionable, though it 

 must be cut back severely and at the 

 proper time, if a more regular and com- 

 pact head is desired. It grows to a height of six to eight 

 feet, with numerous slender stems and branches. The 

 leaves are ovate-lanceolate with finely toothed edges, and 

 are of good color throughout the summer. The flowers 

 put forth in early spring in great profusion, and are deep 

 rose, sometimes freely marked with white. There are 

 several varieties, one, D. r. nana, a veritable dwarf with a 



