FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



385 



Name. 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order. 



Colour 



and 

 Season. 



General Remarks. 



'Ligustrum sinense 

 (Chinese Privet) 



China 



White 



L. vulgare (Com- 

 mon Privet) 



Europe 



White 



*Liriodendron tuhpi- 

 fera (Tulip tree) 



United States ; 

 Magnoliacese 



Yellow ; 

 June 



The finest of all Privets as re- 

 gards its flowers. It forms 

 a sub-evergreen shrub from 

 12 to 15 feet high, with arch- 

 ing branches, and frond-like 

 arrangements of the smaller 

 branchlets, which are clothed 

 with leaves about the size of 

 those of the Common Privet, 

 and pale green in colour. 

 The white flowers are borne 

 in such profusion towards the 

 end of July that the entire 

 plant is quite a mass of that 

 colour. It needs a well- 

 drained soil. 



As a hedge plant this is to 

 a great extent superseded 

 by L. ovalifolium, but it 

 is still a useful shrub for 

 rough places. It is one of 

 the subjects that can be 

 clipped into all manner of 

 shapes, hence it is very popu- 

 lar for topiary work. 



The Tulip tree is one of the 

 most beautiful and distinct 

 of all our hardy trees, for the 

 peculiarly shaped four-lobed 

 leaves cannot be confounded 

 with those of any other. It 

 occurs over a considerable 

 extent of country in North 

 America, and when suitably 

 situated attains a height of 

 130 to 140 feet. Though 

 these dimensions are not 

 reached in this country, speci- 

 mens nearly 100 feet high 

 are known, and its great value 

 as a timber tree has been de- 

 monstrated here as well as in 

 the United States, where it is 

 given the name of the White 

 Wood. The yellow Tulip- 

 like flowers, from whence its 

 popular name in this country 

 is derived, are very pretty, 

 but as a rule borne at such 

 a height that their beauty 

 cannot be seen. They, how- 

 ever, add to the interest and 

 charm of the tree, and with 

 the handsome leafage and 

 the rich yellow hue of the 

 foliage in the Autumn, as 

 well as its thorough hardi- 

 ness and almost complete 

 indifference to soil and situa- 

 tion, make it one of the most 

 desirable of our large grow- 



2 B 



