DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERING SHRUBS. 413 
there are two varieties with variegated foliage. All that 
we have tried have proved as hardy as a Lilac, flower 
most profusely, and are very handsome and sweet-scentede 
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DIRCA,.—LeatueR-woon. 
[Dirca is the name of a fountain near Thebes, and probably applied to this 
plant because it grows near mountain rivulets.] 
Dirca palistris—— Leather-wood, Wicopy.— This is a 
much branched shrub, from three to six feet high, found 
in wet, marshy and shady places. It is conspicuous, when 
in flower in April, for the number of yellow blossoms, 
which fade and fall rapidly as the leaves expand. The 
wood is very pliable, and the bark of singular toughness 
and tenacity. It has such strength, that a man cannot 
pull apart so much as covers a branch of half or third of 
an inch in diameter. It is used by millers and others for 
thongs. The aborigines used it as a cordage. 
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EVONYMUS,—Srinpiz Tree.—Strawserry TREE. 
[Euonymus was a heathen divinity ; according to Epimenides she was the 
mother of the Furies by Saturn.] ~ 
Euénymus Americénus.—Burning Bush.—An elegant 
shrub, growing eight to fifteen feet high, producing rather 
inconspicuous purple flowers in clusters, which are ‘suc- 
ceeded by brilliant scarlet fruit, that remains after the 
foliage has fallen; highly ornamental. The foliage is 
handsome; the branches erect, of a fresh green color. 
There is a variety with purplish-red berries, and another 
with white berries. Upon the opening of the valves which 
enclose the seeds, the white variety shows to great ad- 
vantage, the valves being white, and the berry-like seeds 
alight scarlet. The fruit is produced in great profusion. 
