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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



dozen species 'belonging to the genus Jitglans, and of 

 these three are North American, the rest from Asia. 

 Perhaps the most important of all is the common 

 "Walnut, J. regia, of which there are very numerous 

 varieties, differing -widely in the foliage characters 

 as well as in the size and shape of the fruit, the 

 thickness of the shell, &c. J. r. laciniata is one 

 of the most distinct of those with ornamental 

 leaves, the leaflets being deeply and irregularly cut ; 

 this fruits very freely, and in some places is cul- 

 tivated for the nuts. /. r. mmophylla is more 

 curious and interesting than beautiful ; as a rule the 

 lateral leaflets are suppressed, and the leaf consists 

 of the terminal leaflet only. /. r. elongata furnishes 

 the very large, long nuts, which are so popular in 

 Covent Garden Market. /. nigra, the Black Walnut 

 of the Eastern United States, is a brown-barked, 

 large, handsome tree, with valuable purplish-brown 

 wood, turning blackish with age ; /. cinerea, the 

 Butternut, from the same botanical region as the 

 last, is a tree from thirty to fifty feet high, with 

 greyish bark and widely spreading branches. Both 

 are quite hardy in this country. 



Ealmia. — ^Amongst free-flowering hardy shrubs 

 there are few subjects more beautiful when in flower 

 than the species of Kalmia, or American Laurel, 

 described below. They thrive thoroughly in a damp 

 peat border, and are readily raised from seeds, which 

 are ripened freely in this country. There are only 

 some half-dozen species altogether, aU natives of 

 North America. K. angustifolia has flowers more 

 crimson in colour, and about two-thirda less than 

 those of the Mountain Laurel, or Calico-bush, K. 

 latifolia ; it is a shrub two or three feet in height, 

 with narrowly-oblong stalked leaves, light green 

 above and whitish beneath, and many-flowered 

 lateral corymbs, opening in May and June. K. 

 glauca has nearly sessile, oblong leaves, white- 

 glaucous beneath, with revolute margins ; the shrub 

 only grows about a foot high, and has terminal 

 corymbs of lilac-purple flowers. K. Atrswte has bristly 

 hairy leaves and branches, and scattered rose-coloured 

 flowers, solitary in the axils of the leaves of the 

 season. E. latifolia has stalked, ovate-lanceolate or 

 elliptical leaves (bright green on both sides) taper- 

 ing to each end, and terminal corymbs of viscid, 

 pubescent flowers, varying in colour from deep rose 

 to nearly white ; the variety known in nurseries as 

 K. myrtifolia is a very floriferous, pale-flowered form 

 of dwarf, compact habit, and with leaves much 

 narrower than those of the type, which is the tallest 

 and most robust of the genus. 



Eerria Of this genus of Boaacea, there are only 



a couple of species, one of which, K. japoniea, is fre- 



quently met with in old-fashioned gardens. The 

 double-flowered form is the most common, and is at 

 home either as a bush in the shrubbery, or trained 

 against a wall ; in both positions it flowers freely. 

 The variegated form is a weaker grower, with 

 single flowers, and smaller leaves, margined broadly 

 and blotched with creamy- white ; this requires a 

 sheltered place — ^planted out in the cool conservatory 

 it makes a most attractive object. The single state 

 of the ordinary type is a graceful shrub with 

 apparently a more prolonged flowering season than 

 the double plant. These plants have long been 

 cultivated by the Chinese and Japanese. They grow 

 freely in this country under varied conditions as 

 regards soU, and are easily increased by cuttings. 



Koelreuteria panieulata is the only species of 

 this genus of Sapindacem in general cultivation. It 

 is a native of Northern China, and is a handsome, 

 small, deciduous tree, producing a profusion of yeUow 

 flowers, in large terminal panicles, in June and 

 July ; these are followed in the Southern counties 

 by large, inflated, reddish seed-vessels, which are 

 very conspicuous. The leaves are unequally pinnate, 

 with deeply-toothed leaflets ; in autumn they assume 

 a deep yellow colour. A second species from China 

 has just been introduced. 



Laburnum. — AU .the Laburnums — there are 

 only three species — are wonderfully beautiful, and 

 two of them are amongst the most popular of 

 flowering trees, or shrubs. The third is yet rare, 

 and in any case will never be so widely grown as 

 either L. alpintim or X. vulgare. The former is 

 readily distinguished from the latter by the dis- 

 tinctly-winged upper suture of the seed-pod ; in L. 

 vulgare the hairy pod has its upper suture thickened 

 and keeled, but not winged. There are many 

 varieties of these two species, some of which it is 

 difScult to assign to their proper places without 

 seeing the seed-pods. As a rule, though, the golden 

 racemes of L. alpimim, the so-called Scotch Labur- 

 num, are longer than those of i. vulgare. Fragrana, 

 hirsuium, and pendulum (a weeping form) are the 

 best of the varieties of i. alpinum. Of L. vulgare 

 the following are the most distinct and desirable 

 varieties : aureum has golden-yellow leaves ; Carlieri 

 has very narrow leaflets and long racemes ; involutum 

 has peculiarly curved leaflets ; Parkesii has very long 

 racemes of darker-coloured flowers than the type ; in 

 guereifolium the leaflets have sinuated margins not 

 unlike those of an Oak-leaf ; Watereri, a very free- 

 flowering variety, with large, deep yeUow flowers, in 

 very long racemes. The so-called Purple Laburnum, 

 Z. Adami, is supposed to have been a graft-hybrid 

 between L. vulgare and Cytisus purpureut ; old trees 

 frequently produce three distinct types of flower — 



