352 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



single-flowered type; as it does not produce seeds, 

 this must be raised from cuttings. 



Ulm-us (Mm).— AH the Ehus— there are ahout 

 sixteen species —are natives of the north temperate 

 zone. All are hardy in this country, and the follow- 

 ing is a list of the more remarkable and valuable 

 species and varieties. 



V. alata, from the United States, is conspicuous 

 on account of the corky winged branches ; the ovate- 

 oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, acute, thickish leaves 

 are downy beneath. The hard, compact, unwedge- 

 able wood is employed for hubs of wheels, &c. As 

 a rule the tree does not exceed thirt}' or forty feet in 

 height. 



XT. mnericana, the White Elm, is a large and well- 

 known ornamental tree, usually with spreading 

 branches and drooping branchlets ; the branches are 

 not corky, and the ohovate-oblong, or ovate, abruptly- 

 pointed leaves have sharply — often doubly — serrated 

 margin3. 



U. campestris is the common Elm of Britain ; as, 

 however, it never seeds with us, it is fair to assume 

 that it is not a true native, but an introduction 

 from Central or Southern Europe, &c. It is a very 

 large tree, sometimes 125 feet high, with a trunk 

 twenty feet in girth. A very large number of 

 garden forms have originated from this species, some 

 with yellowish, purplish, or variegated leaves, others 

 with variously curled, or crisped, foliage. Some of 

 the best are the following : aurea, a neat, small- 

 growing, slender form, with golden-yellow leaves; 

 Berardii, with dark green leaves about the size of 

 those of the Myrtle ; fastigiata differs principally 

 from the type in its erect habit; microphylla is a 

 small-leaved distinct form ; and pendula has weeping 

 branches. 



V. montana, the Scotch Mountain or Wyoh Elm, 

 has much larger leaves than V. campestris. Like 

 that species, too, it possesses a host of garden forms, 

 amongst the most noteworthy being nana, a compact 

 dwarf-growing bush, not exceeding four or six feet 

 in height by as much through in a quarter of a 

 century ; pendula is one of the most decided and 

 desirable of all weeping deciduous trees; Jilicifolia 

 has deeply-cut, thick, rigid leaves. 



Vaocinitiia. — This genus contains about a, 

 hundred species of evergreen or deciduous shrubs, 

 natives of Europe, and temperate and sub-tropical 

 Asia and America. All do best in a peaty soil, and 

 those here described are hardy as well as very orna- 

 mental. In the limits of the British flora the genus 

 is represented by the Whortle-berry, V. MyrtiUus ; 

 the Cowberry, V. Vitis-Idaia ; and V. ttliginosum ; 

 the second-named being a pretty little procumbent 



shrub, with glossy evergreen Box-like leaves, pink- 

 tinted flowers, and globose, red, acid fruits ; V. 

 uligmosum has bluish-black berries. 



V. corymbosum is the common or Swamp Blue- 

 berry of the North-eastern United States ; it has 

 ovate or oblong leaves, and large dense clusters of 

 pink-tinted flowers, the corollas varying consider- 

 ably in size and shape; the leaves are deciduous, 

 and the sweet blue or black berries are covered with 

 a fine bloom. This species grows .from five to ten 

 feet in height. 



V. pennsylvanicum, the Dwarf Blue-berry, grows 

 little more than a foot in height, and has large 

 sweet berries, ripening in July ; the leaves are lan- 

 ceolate or oblong, distinctly serrulate, with bristle- 

 pointed teeth. 



ViTaurnum. — This genus contains about eighty 

 species, the majority of which are found in tem- 

 perate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Some 

 of these, notably the sterile cultivated form of the 

 Guelder Rose, V. Opulus, and the Chinese, V.pUcatum, 

 are amongst the most beautiful of hardy, deciduous, 

 flowering shrubs. 



V. Lantana, the Wayfaring Tree, is an indigenous 

 plant, with rugose, oblong, serrulate leaves clothed 

 — especially beneath— with a scaly tomentum. It 

 ranges from six to twenty feet in height, and when 

 laden with its large, flattened, sessile clusters of red 

 or blacHsh-red fruits, is a very ornamental object. 

 There is a form in cultivation with very prettily 

 golden-variegated leaves. 



V. Lentago, the Sweet Viburnum or Sheep-berry 

 of the Eastern United States, has bright green, finely- 

 serrate, ovate, strongly-pointed leaves, with long 

 margined petioles ; the oval, edible, black fruit, halt 

 an inch or more in length, ripens in autumn. The 

 flowers in this species are all perfect, and the tree 

 attains a height of from fifteen to thirty feet. 



V. macroeephalwn, a Chinese species, is not unlike 

 V. Lantana in foliage characters. The form in cul- 

 tivation is a dwarf, compact-growing bush, with 

 enormous heads of white barren flowers. 



V. nudum, the White-rod of the Eastern United 

 States, has thickish, oval, oblong, or lanceolate, dark 

 green leaves, the margins of which are entire, 

 repand, or crenate ; the cymes of white flowers are 

 sessile, and the round-ovoid black fruits are about 

 a quarter of an inch in length. This species, of 

 which there are two or three varieties in cultivation, 

 ranges from six to ten feet in height, and flowers in 

 May or June. 



V. Opulus, the Guelder Rose, is probably, next to 

 the Lilac and Laburnum, one of the most popular of 

 flowering shrubs. Perhaps it would be more correct 

 to say this of the variety sterilis, the Snowball-tree, 



