FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



381 



Name. 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order, 



Colour 



AND 



Season. 



General Remarks. 



*Laburnum (Cytisus) 

 vulgare (Golden 

 Rain or.Chain) 



Laburnums grow so freely 

 almost everywhere that they 

 are somewhat overdone in 

 gardens, but it is so beau- 

 tiful a tree that many would 

 say: "I don't mind how 

 many laburnums I have in 

 the garden. ' ' Mr. Goldring, 

 writing in the " Gardeners' 

 Magazine " about labur- 

 nums, says : — 



" Besides the common way 

 of growing the laburnum as 

 a shrubbery or plantation 

 tree, it may be put to various 

 other uses. It is a beautiful 

 covering for a wall on the 

 north, east, or west sides. In 

 some old gardens one meets 

 with huge trees of it cover- 

 ing large areas of wall, and 

 affording a lovely sight at 

 flower time. This is a com- 

 mon way of growing it on 

 the Continent, and in some 

 of our old botanic gardens it 

 may be seen trained against 

 a wall as a host for the wis- 

 taria, which flowers about 

 the same time, and produces 

 a lovely contrast of colour. 



" I have pleasing recollec- 

 tions of seeing it in some old 

 gardens trained over a path 

 as a covered way before per- 

 golas were in vogue in this 

 country. For several weeks 

 such covered pathways are 

 glowing with colour, and for 

 the rest of the summer they 

 afford a pleasant shade. In 

 some of the old Sussex gar- 

 dens laburnum ' tunnels ' 

 are still to be seen, and they 

 are worth imitating in new 

 gardens. 



' ' Of the two commonly 

 grown species of laburnum, 

 L. vulgare and L. alpinum, 

 there are numerous varieties, 

 differing more or less from 

 the types, though the differ- 

 ences in some cases are 

 slight, even from a garden 

 point of view. A laburnum 

 is a laburnum to most people, 

 and nothing more, but there 

 is a great difference between 

 a worthless seedling with 

 short flower clusters of a poor 

 yellow, and the varieties such 



