442 



TREES AND SHRUBS 



Name. 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order, 



Colour 



AND 



Season. 



General Remarks. 



Viburnum Lantana 

 (Wayfaring tree) 



Britain, also Europe, 

 North and Western 

 Asia, and N. Africa 



White ; 



May and 



June 



V. macrocephalum 



Cliina and Japan. 



Introduced from 



Cliina in 1844 by 



Fortune 



Pure white 



A beautiful native shrub. Its 

 chief beauty is in the colour of 

 the flowers and the gorgeous 

 Autumn leaf tints. Groups of 

 this are pictures of colour in 

 Autumn. The fruit, at first 

 black and afterwards red, 

 soon disappears before the 

 birds. The tree grows rapidly 

 and generally attains a height 

 of about 12 or 15 feet ; the 

 leaves are large and downy. 

 The way-faring tree should 

 be more planted in English 

 gardens. It will grow almost 

 anjrwhere. There are two 

 variegated - leaved varieties, 

 but these we know little 

 about, and we care more 

 for the type than any golden 

 variegation. 

 This must be included, but it 

 is not very hardy. Mr. 

 Bean, writing of it in The 

 Garden, November 17, 1900, 

 p. 36r, says: "The shrub 

 known under this name is a 

 cultivated form of a Chinese 

 species, in which all the 

 flowers have, under artificial 

 influences, become sterile. 

 The wild plant to which it 

 belongs is also in ctdtivation, 

 and is known as V. Kete- 

 leeri. In this type plant the 

 middle of the truss is piled 

 with perfect flowers, the 

 edges only being occupied 

 with the large and showy 

 sterile ones. V. macro- 

 cephalum is by far the most 

 striking plant, its large, 

 rounded or pyramidal trusses 

 of pure white flowers being 

 unequalled among the Vibur- 

 nums. The plant is, however, 

 better adapted for growing 

 in pots for greenhouse de- 

 coration or as a wall plant 

 than it is as a shrub in the 

 open. In my experience it 

 is scarcely hardy enough to 

 assume its best character 

 without some sort of protec- 

 tion. Although hard vrinters 

 may not kill it outright they 

 seriously cripple it. It is 

 only in recent years that 

 it has attained popularity, 

 but it has long been 

 known." 



