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W. F. ALLEN. Strawberry Specialist. SALISBURY, MARYLAND 



take its natural form like a weeping willow, it is very 

 beautiful. It may be trained up on the columns of a 

 porch and make a very beautiful display. 



ALTHEAS. The name Althea is more properly applied 

 to our common Marsh Mallow. The plant commonly 

 called Althea is Hibiscus Syriacus. It belongs to the same 

 botanical family as the Marsh Mallow, the Malvaceae, 

 but unlike the ]Marsh ]\Iallow, it is a perennial shrub or 

 small tree. It can be grown to a single stem in a tree- 

 like form, or as a bush, and it makes a very attractive 

 hedge when planted with a variety of colors. The Althea 

 varies greatly in its flowers; some are double like its 

 relative, the double hollyhock. Others are single. Some are 

 white with a purple base to the petals, while others are 

 pure white, and still others rosy or red. Then, too, there 

 is a variety with leaves variegated with white that has 

 purple flowers. All the varieties are free-bloomers in 

 early summer and last a long time in bloom; no collection 

 of shrubs is complete without some of the varieties. 



HYDRANGEAS. There are a number of species of 

 shrubby Hydrangeas, and others that belong more to the 

 herbaceous section, but are partly shrubby. The most 

 popular of the shrubby Hydrangeas is the Japanese 

 Hydrangea, H. paniculata grandiflora. This makes a 

 large bush with immense heads of white flowers that 

 gradually change to a pinkish color as they get older. 

 The plant blooms in summer and the flowers last a long 

 time and make a wonderful show. 



The species Hydrangea paniculata is later in blooming 

 than the Grandiflora and is also desirable. As a single 

 specimen on a lawn there are few shrubs that make such 

 a display as Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, and it is 

 perfectly hardy anywhere. In fact, it is better suited to 

 the North and Middle States than the South, where it 

 seems to be short-lived. 



JASMINUM. There are a number of different species 

 that are commonly known as Jessamines. The Cape 

 Jessamine of the greenhouses and the open ground in 

 the South is Gardenia florida, and G. grandiflora. This 

 is a broad-leaved evergreen that is extensively grown in 

 greenhouses in the Middle States and the North, but 

 makes a large shrub in the open ground from eastern 

 North Carolina southward. The true Jessamines belong 

 to the genus Jasminum. These belong to the olive family, 

 and many are perfectly hardy, though some are green- 

 house plants. One of the most interesting of the hardy 

 ones is Jasminum nudiflorum. This is a trailing shrub 

 that can be trained as a climber. It is peculiar in bloom- 

 ing at every warm spell in winter showing its yellow flow- 

 ers on its leafless stems when nothing else is in bloom, and 

 continuing to bloom till the spireas and forsythias come. 



Jasminum grandiflonim is a climbing plant with pretty 

 evergreen foliage, and bears sweet-scented white flowers. 

 Jasminum revolutum has yellow flowers. It is a sort of half- 

 climber and does better as a bush. Cestrum parqui is a ten- 

 I der greenhouse plant, with small flowers that are very fra- 

 ! grant; it is known as night-blooming Jessamine. 



