DECIDUOUS FLOWERING SHRUBS 
Tue deciduous shrubs remarkable for the beauty of 
their flowers are so numerous, so varied in character and 
so wondrously beautiful when yielding of their floral 
wealth as to form the most important of all the groups 
of ligneous vegetation. From the opening of the 
singularly formed and attractively coloured flowers of 
the Hamamelis in January until the later Philadelphus 
attain the zenith of their beauty about midsummer there 
is a continuous procession of flowers of the most delight- 
ful description. Some few kinds produce their flowers 
at a later period, but the fact that these shrubs contribute 
with remarkable prodigality to the charms of the garden 
for fully six months of the year should be sufficient to 
ensure their being largely planted in both large and 
small gardens, and in country and town districts. More 
especially should this be the case when it is remembered 
that those most effective when in bloom are at least as 
attractive at other seasons of the year as kinds with 
inconspicuous flowers. ‘Those enumerated in this chapter 
do not include all that are worth the attention of 
planters, but they comprise the very best in their respec- 
tive classes and are more than sufficient to produce the 
most delightful effects in gardens large enough to afford 
full scope for the display of taste by the garden artist. 
ABELIAS.— These form a small group of deciduous and 
evergreen shrubs that are less generally useful than the 
majority of shrubs remarkable for the beauty of their 
flowers; but they are sufficiently attractive to justify 
their being planted where the conditions are favourable 
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