314 



DESCRIPTIONS OP THE SHRUBS 



species of filberts are so rare in cultivation that none need be mentioned in 

 this book except Purple-leaved Filbert — Corylus maxima purpurea, — 

 which is cultivated for its deep purplish red leaves rather than for fruit 



[Seeds; suckers.] 



Qufircus. The Oaks are nearly ah tall trees and the few shrubby forms 

 are practically never cultivated and so this book of ornamental shrubs 



needs no place for them. The 

 acorn fruit is distinctive and sepa- 

 rates oaks from all other plants. 



Bear or Black Scrub Oak (565) 

 — Quercus ilicifblia — is a spread- 

 ing shrub 5 to 10 feet high with 

 tangled branches and 3- to 7-lobed 

 leaves, the lobes ending in bristles 

 and the lower side covered with 

 whitish hairs. Chinquapin Oak — ■ 

 Quercus prinoides — is rarely over 

 8 feet high with wavy-edged leaves 

 having 4 to 8 blunt teeth on each 

 side. [Acorns.] 



Cast&nea. This genus includes 

 the Chestnut "trees and the Chin- 

 quapin shrubs and may be known 

 by the alternate simple straight- 

 veined leaves and the large spiny- 

 coated fruit with more or less 

 rounded nuts. Chinquapin (566) — 

 Castanea piimila — is a handsome shrub or tree 6 to 50 feet high with a 

 single (rarely 2) nut, J inch, in a prickly bur. The leaves are whitish-downy 

 below. Japan Chestnut (567) — Castanea crenS,ta — is a hardy shrub 

 or tree to 30 feet which begins to bear chestnuts when only a few years old 

 and but a few feet high ; the leaves are smooth below when mature. 



[Seeds.] 



Fig. 558. — Green Alder. 



Silix. The Willows form a large genus, nearly 200 species, of 

 hardy shrubs and trees abundant in all cold countries. A number of trees 

 are in cultivation and many of those which are only shrubby are con- 

 sidered worthy of ornamental use. There is no genus of plants more 

 difficult to separate into species than the willows. All are dioecious, 

 meaning that the pollen-bearing catkins are on one plant, the seed-form- 

 ing catkins on another, and thus many hybrids are found. 



