THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1915 



C. Fargesii, ah three native of China and 

 Japan. Unfortunately the two Cleroden- 

 drons are not hardy as far north as Bos- 

 ton, Mass. 



Of shrubs there is quite a variety which 

 blossom during the midseason. By the 

 middle of July the last of the Buckeyes 

 (Aesculus parvi flora) is in flower. This 

 native of the southeastern states is a broad, 

 round-topped, much-branched shrub 6-10 

 feet high, and every branchlet terminates 



moist places in the neighborhood of the 

 coast from Maine to Florida. As usually 

 seen it is a bush 4-6 feet tall, with white, 

 fragrant flowers borne in erect, terminal 

 compound clusters. Unfortunately the 

 leaves are often disfigured by attacks of 

 red spider. A second species (C tomentosa) 

 is native of Florida and flowers two or three 

 weeks later than the preceding from which 

 it differs chiefly in the covering of white 

 hairs on the lower surface of the leaves. 



Kalopanax ricinifolium growing in the Arnold Arboretum from seed collected in 1892. Thirty-five feet high, 

 shade tree for America, thriving in ordinary garden soil. Bears masses of white flowers 



A valuable 



in long, narrow, erect spikes of small white 

 flowers in which the stamens are long 

 exserted. This shrub requires good soil 

 and a moist situation, and is well suited for 

 planting in large masses or as a single 

 specimen. 



The Pepperbush (Clethra), of which 

 three species are hardy in the Arnold 

 Arboretum, is perhaps the most beautiful 

 group of native shrubs which flower from 

 mid-July. The most common is Clethra 

 alnifolia, a denizen of swamp bo^rs and 



The third (C. acuminata) is an inhabitant of 

 the forests of the southern Appalachian 

 mountains and is a less desirable garden 

 plant. A fourth species (C. canescens), 

 hardy in the vicinity of Boston, hails from 

 Japan and exceeds in beauty any of the 

 American kinds, but unfortunately it does 

 not readily make itself at home with us. 

 The inflorescence is larger than in the 

 American species and the plant grows to a 

 greater size. As I write I have in mind a 

 fine specimen fully 14 feet high, which is 



growing on a windswept corner in a garden 

 at Winchester, Mass. Every year each 

 branchlet of this bush terminates in large 

 clusters of fragrant, white flowers. In 

 Japan this Pepperbush is widely dis- 

 tributed and in moist forests is often a tree 

 40 feet tall with a smooth gray-brown trunk 

 5 feet and more in girth. 



At midseason the Spiraeas are all past 

 but their place is well taken by the closely 

 allied genus Sorbaria which is distinguished 

 by its pinnate leaves and terminal com- 

 pound panicles of flowers. Five species 

 are hardy in the Arnold Arboretum and 

 thrive in ordinary garden soil. The best 

 results are obtained by planting them in rich 

 loam in a moist place, and by the side of a 

 pond or stream their grace and beauty is 

 seen to best advantage. They are excel- 

 lent subjects for the wild garden and to 

 develop their full beauty they must have 

 plenty of room. One of the finest of these 

 Sorbarias is S. arbor ea, a very com- 

 mon shrub in central and western China 

 whence I introduced it to the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum and elsewhere. On the Chino- 

 Thibetan borderland this plant is very 

 abundant and grows 15 to 20 feet tall and 

 as much through, and bears in profusion 

 much-branched arching panicles often 2 feet 

 long of pure white flowers. From the ex- 

 treme northwestern Himalayas came S. Ait- 

 chisonii, with smooth shoots and pale green 

 leaves and even larger masses of flowers 

 than the preceding which it resembles in 

 size and habit. In the Hokkaido and 

 Saghalien the well known 5. sorbifolia is a 

 shrub 3-5 feet tall with erect shoots which 

 terminate in rigidly upright wide-branched 

 panicles 18 inches high. I retain a vivid 

 recollection of the picture this shrub pre- 

 sented last August in Saghalien. There, 

 on the margins of grassy swamps and 

 swampy woodlands and by the side of 

 streams and ponds, this plant luxuriates in 

 great abundance; its pyramids of white 

 flowers with their prominent stamens, 

 reared on rigid stems 3 to 5 feet tall and 

 subtended by numerous large deep green 

 leaves, presented a never-to-be-forgotten 

 spectacle in that lonely, silent land. 



The other two species (S. assurgens from 

 western China and 5. stellipila from north- 

 ern Japan) are also well worth growing. A 

 sixth species (S. Lindleyana) from the 

 Himalayas is not hardy with us. 



Three species of Adam's Needle {Yucca 

 flaccida, native of the southern Appala- 

 chians, Y .filamentosa from Stone Mountain, 

 Georgia, and Y. glauca, native of the east- 

 ern slopes of the Rocky Mountains) are 

 hardy in the Arnold Arboretum. With 

 their spear-like leaves these plants are 

 interesting at all seasons and when in 

 flower there are few if any subjects more 

 beautiful. The tall, branching inflores- 

 cence and nodding white flowers, in the 

 daytime more or less top-shaped, expand 

 on moonlight nights when they attract 

 the moths which effect the fertilization 

 of the flowers. 



Of shrubs with yellow flowers there are 

 several, all native of southern Europe, the 



