FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 



397 



Name. 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order, 



Colour 



AND 



Season. 



General Remarks. 



*Prunus divaricata 



Wide distribution 



from Macedonia to 



Caucasus and 



Persia. 



Introduced in 1822 



White ; 



April or 

 late March 

 in a mild 



season 



P. spinosa (the Sloe) 



Britain, and 



Europe, North 



Asia, &c. 



P. Cerasus (the 

 Cherries) 



White 



P. acida 



Europe 



White ; 

 April 



P. Avium (the 

 Gean or Wild 

 Cherry) 



Europe, and a 

 woodland tree 

 in many parts 

 of these Isles 



Pure white 



April and 



May 



This is one of the most beauti- 

 ful of the Plums, but rarely 

 seen. A fine example of it is 

 now in the rock garden at 

 Kew, and when the weather 

 is mild before March is out, 

 this spreading tree is envel- 

 oped in snowy- white flowers. 

 But unfortunately its flowers 

 are sometimes spoilt by late 

 frosts. The growth is slender, 

 twiggy, and dark in colour. 



The Sloe or Blackthorn of the 

 English hedgerow is fami- 

 liar, but the variety *flore- 

 pleno is a good garden shrub ; 

 its spreading Spring shoots 

 are covered in April with 

 double white flowers, each 

 likealittle rosette, and longer 

 lasting than the Sloe of the 

 English lane. It is as yet 

 rare in British gardens. This 

 should be worked on the 

 type. 



A beautiful group of flowering 

 trees. They are propagated 

 by seeds or by grafting them 

 on stocks of the Gean (P. 

 Avium), but never resort to 

 this practice if possible to 

 avoid it. The small-growing 

 cherries, P. humilis, P. 

 Jacquemontii, P. japonica, 

 P. prostrata, and P. pumila, 

 must be increased by layers ; 

 the Gean stock kills them. 



P. acida would be little heard 

 of if it were not for its variety, 

 P. a. semperflorens, (the All 

 Saints' Cherry) , which blooms 

 twice or thrice in a season, 

 indeed, keeps up a scattered 

 succession from May to Sep- 

 tember. The first display of 

 flowers takes place in April, 

 and in about two months 

 afterwards it blooms again. 

 The fruits are very abundant, 

 and are scarlet in colour. 

 There are several other vari- 

 eties, but not of much con- 

 sequence. 



The Wild Cherry is pretty, and 

 it is interesting as the parent 

 of the fruiting cherries, but 

 neither this species nor its 

 varieties, decumana, white, 

 the cut-leaved laciniata, or 

 the weeping pendula, can 

 approach the beauty of the 



