Chionanthus — Fringe Tree. 239 



best effects on the lawn when placed in proper positions 

 and intermingled with other varieties. In the South, it 

 sometimes makes a tree thirty feet high, but farther north 

 it is usually much smaller, and has a tendency to grow in 

 clumps or thickets. 



The speckled alder, A. incana, grows freely in New 

 England. The younger shoots are brown and downy, 

 and dotted with orange. As they advance in age, the 

 bark turns to a bottle-green, and the dots become almost 

 white. The leaves are large, oval, rounded at the base, 

 much the same as those of the other kinds, but are slightly 

 more serrate, being toothed at the termini of the principal 

 veins. They are four to five inches in length, and three 

 to four in width, standing on short, stubby footstalks. 



The green or mountain alder, A. viridis, is a shrub of 

 but three to eight feet in height. The leaves are round, 

 ovate, sometimes downy on the under side, and sharply 

 toothed. It prefers mountainous regions, and seldom suf- 

 fers from the cold. Like most of the others it withstands 

 high winds, and affords excellent protection for more 

 tender sorts. 



CHIONANTHUS— Fringe Tree. 



THIS is a small genus of low, spreading trees, of the 

 order Oleacece, which should rank among the 

 hardy plants. The botanical name is derived 

 from chion, the Greek for snow, and anthos, flower ; and 

 it is applied very fittingly because of the peculiar inflores- 

 cence which elsewhere has scarcely a parallel in nature. 

 The best-known and most valuable species, C. virginica. 



