THE GARDEN 
MAGAZINE&E 
FEBRUARY, 1916 
The Chimonanthus (Merotia praecox) has extremely 
fragrant, waxlike, palest yellow and wine colored 
flowers in late winter. Good for Southern gardens. 
January and February, when the twigs are 
bare and when snow carpets the ground and 
all around is dreary and uninviting. The best 
known of these is the Japanese Witch Hazel 
(H. japonica), so abundant in the woods of 
the Nikko region of Japan and elsewhere in 
that land. It is a large bush twelve to fifteen 
feet high, with many stiff, ascending-spreading 
branches and twiggy shoots and smooth leaves 
like those of the native H. virginiana. The 
star-shaped flowers, each with five long, strap- 
like, canary yellow petals, surrounded by a 
calyx which is wine-colored on the inside, are 
fragrant and thickly stud the shoots and 
branches. The variety arborea is distinguished 
by its more golden-yellow petals and more 
richly colored calyx and its flowers open a lit- 
tle in advance of those of the type. 
The finest of the genus is the Chinese #. 
mollis, which is similar in habit to the Jap- 
anese kind but has larger flowers which open 
earlier and larger leaves which are softly hairy 
on the underside. This shrub is native of the 
mountains of central China and, although it is 
now some thirty-six years since it was intro- 
duced to cultivation by the late Charles Maries, 
it is little known and far too rarely seen in 
gardens. A few years ago a Witch Hazel, 
which forms thickets in the gravelly beds and 
on the margins of streams in southern Mis- 
souri, Arkansas and Louisiana, was recog- 
nized as a new species and named H. vernalis. 
Some small plants were obtained and these 
opened their flowers for the first time under 
cultivation in the Arnold Arboretum on 
January 15, 1913, a little before those of its 
Asiatic relatives. The flowers are fragrant 
and, though smaller, are more freely produced 
than in any other species. The inside of the 
calyx is wine-colored as in the Asiatic species; 
the narrow petals are erect-spreading, some- 
what undulate with the apex inflexed, usually 
yellow, often golden and in some flowers 
stained with wine color. The leaves resemble 
those of the common American Witch Hazel 
but are more hairy and are often somewhat 
glaucescent on the under surface. Its habit is 
stoloniferous (i. e. it suckers freely) and in 
this respect it differs from all other species. 
The plants when they first flowered were not 
more than two and a half feet high; but they 
have grown much since, though they have not 
attained their maximum height, which is said 
to be six feet. 
These Witch Hazels are the first of all woody 
plants to blossom; they are perfectly hardy, 
and every season, no matter how inclement the 
weather, put forth a wealth of flowers from the 
twenties of January to early March. Not only 
are they excellent subjects for planting in 
parks and gardens generally, but they are par- 
ticularly valuable for town gardens. ity 
smoke does not affect them injuriously; they 
will withstand considerable neglect and abuse 
and may be kept in bounds by pruning. It is 
passing strange that plants so useful and so 
very desirable for enlivening: gardens with 
flowers during dull winter months should have 
received so scant recognition. 
SOME SWEETLY FRAGRANT SHRUBS 
The Spicebush (Benzoin aestivale) and 
Leatherwood (Dirca palustris), two common 
inhabitants of the thickets and swampy woods 
of New England and elsewhere on the Atlantic 
seaboard, are among the first of native shrubs 
to open blossoms. The Spicebush is a tall 
shrub with moderately stout stems and twiggy 
branches and bears innumerable clusters of 
small yellow flowers. The Leatherwood is a 
compact bush three to five feet high, and much 
more in diameter, and has pale yellow, bell- 
shaped flowers. 
A number of our earliest flowering shrubs 
hail from Europe and, with conspicuous flow- 
ers, the first to open are the Heath (Hrica 
carnea) and the Mezereon (Daphne mezereum) . 
The former opens its little pink urns in quan- 
tity even before all the snow has melted from 
around it. This, and its white form (alba), 
are compact little plants six inches to a foot 
tall and are absolutely hardy and easily grown, 
provided they be planted in positions fully ex- 
posed to the sun and air. Vhe Mezereon is a 
woodland shrub but when once established 
thrives in the open border. It is a sturdy bush 
seldom exceeding four feet in height with erect 
branches, and in early spring its twigs, 
throughout their entire length, are covered 
with rose-colored, or in case of the variety alba 
with white, fragrant flowers. 
Very beautiful too is the Garland-flower 
(Daphne cneorum), a native of the Caucasus. 
This is a low-growing tufted plant not exceed- 
ing a foot in height, but densely branched and 
with grey-green leaves and terminal rounded 
The Apricot is a handsome small tree with clear 
pink flowers in profusion. It will grow and flower in 
New England 
clusters of rose-pink, deliciously scented flow- 
ers. ‘The charming plant blossoms most pro- 
fusely in the early Spring, and through the 
summer and autumn a few flowers continue to 
open. Both for the rockery and open border 
this is a delightful subject. 
For the most ornamental of early spring- 
flowering shrubs and trees, the gardens of east- 
ern North America depend, not upon native nor 
Magnolia denudata or conspicua growing on the old Prince Estate at Flushing, N. Y., whence many present 
favorites were introduced to cultivation. The most showy large blooms of any early spring flowering tree 
