TREES AND SHRUBS. 



139 



succeeded by beautiful Cherry-like fruits; it is a, 

 native of Europe. A garden form, with silvery- 

 variegated leaves, variegata, and another, marked 

 ■with creamy- white, and tinged with red, eUgantissima, 

 are two excellent foliage shrubs. C. stolonifei'a has 

 the annual shoots of a bright red purple colour, 

 which renders the leafless plant a conspicuous object 

 in the shrubbery during the winter months. All the 

 Cornuses may be propagated from seed, or by 

 layering, and the variegated ones may be grafted on 

 the stronger-growing green-leaved species. 



Cotoneaster. — Of this genus of Rosacea about 

 fifteen well-marked species are known, and these are 

 natives of Europe, North Africa, temperate Asia, and 

 Mexico. A considerable number of forms exist of 

 some of these. C. vulgaris, frigida, and Simonsii are 

 the best of the deciduous species ; and buxifolia, 

 mierophyUa, and thymifolia of the evergreen ones. 

 C. vulgaris is interesting on account of its being one 

 of the rarest of our native plants, as it is confined to 

 limestone cliffs on the Great Orme's Head, but it is 

 common on the Continent; it has round, shortly- 

 stalked leaves, and shining globose red fruit. C. 

 frigida, a Himalayan species, is a robust-growing 

 tree, with large cymose clusters of scarlet fruits ; in 

 winter this is one of the most beautiful of berry- 

 bearing shrubs or trees. C. Simonsii, the origin of 

 which is not known with any degree of certainty, is 

 believed to be also Himalayan. It has glossy dark 

 green pointed leaves, about an inch long, and scarlet 

 top-shaped fruits, borne singly, or in pairs, from the 

 axils of the leaves of the short-jointed lateral 

 branches. C. buxifolia has Box-like leaves, dark 

 green, glossy above and woolly beneath. It does 

 weU treated as an ordinary shrub; if allowed to 

 develop at wUl, when planted in masses, it soon 

 forms an almost impenetrable thicket. C. miero- 

 phyUa is valuable for covering walls, banks, &o. ; it 

 has crowded, small, oblong, dark green shining leaves, 

 and duU red, roundish or top-shaped fruit. C. thymi- 

 folia is a pretty, small-growing, prostrate creeper, 

 with narrower, dull (not glossy) pale green leaves. 

 This, and the two preceding species, are Himalayan. 



Crataegus. — The common Hawthorn, or May 

 (C. Oxyacantha), furnishes an excellent example of 

 the genus Cratcegus, of which there are about fifty 

 species, most being hardy flowering trees or shrubs 

 of considerable beauty, both in flower and fruit. 

 The varieties of our native Whitethorn are very 

 numerous, and include single and double white, 

 pink, and scarlet flowers; in habit, too, there are 

 widely-differing forms — viz., tortuosa, with twisted, 

 erect branches ; pendula, with weeping ones, &c. C 

 coccinea, the Scarlet-fruited Thorn of the Northern 



United States, is a quick small tree, extremely 

 ornamental, either when covered with its corymbs of 

 large white flowers, or laden with the large bright 

 red fruits. G. cordata, or the "Vyashington Thorn, is 

 a neat-growing, small tree, with glossy-stalked 

 leaves and many-flowered corymbs ; this is interest- 

 ing as being the last of all the cultivated Thorns to 

 flower ; it lasts nearly to the end of July. C Crus- 

 galli, the Cockspur Thorn, is another North Ameri- 

 can species, with glossy leaves, handsome fruits, and 

 formidable curved spines ; there are numerous forms, 

 varying in the shape of the leaf, &o. C. melanocarpa 

 is not unlike C. Oxyacantha in general aspect, but 

 the fruits are black ; it is a native of Tauria, &c. 

 C. Pyracantha, the Evergreen Thorn, a native of 

 South Europe, rarely produces its beautiful fruits in 

 anything like abundance except it is treated as a wall 

 plant. C. P. Lelamdi is a garden form, which fruits 

 freely in a young state. C. ianacetifolia has deeply- 

 cut, greyish, Tansy-like leaves, and large, yellowish, 

 Medlar-hke fruits ; it is a native of the Levant, and 

 one of the most distinct of the cultivated Thorns. 



Cjrtisus. — There are about two-score species in 

 this genus as it is now understood, but not many are 

 worthy of special mention here. C. albus, the White 

 Spanish Broom, is one of the best of hardy shrubs, 

 flowering in May; the common British Broom, C. 

 Seoparius, is also well worth a place in the garden. 



C. nigricans is a free-flowering shrub, with trifolio- 

 late leaves, and erect, elongated, terminal racemes of 

 golden-yellow flowers ; it is a European species, from 

 three to six feet high, and is perfectly hardy. C, 

 purpureus is a beautiful Alpine shrub, with glabrous 

 obovate leaflets, and flowers ■ (usually borne in pairs 

 in the axils of the small leaves) rosy-purple, white, 

 or dull purple in colour ; as a rule this is grafted on 

 the common Laburnum. 



Dabeocia. — The only member of this genus is 



D. polifolia, St. Dabeoc's Heath, a native of Western 

 Europe — in the British Islands being only found in 

 the boggy heaths of Connemara and Mayo. It is a 

 pretty evergreen shrub, one or two feet high, with 

 shortly-stalked oval leaves, bright green and glossy 

 above, and white woolly beneath; the urn-shaped 

 flowers are borne in erect terminal racemes, and 

 vary in colour from crimson-purple to white. In 

 one of the garden forms, versicolor, purple and white 

 flowers, and others intermediate between the two, 

 are produced by the same plant. Dabeocia thrives 

 in a damp peat border, and makes a charming com- 

 panion plant to the hardy Heaths. 



Saplme. — About fifty species of Daphne are 

 known to botanists, and perhaps about half that 



