352 List of Shrubs 
STONEBREAK FAMILY (SAXIFRAGACEAE) 
This very large family (some six hundred species) of mostly herba- 
ceous plants, with smaller or larger, white, star-shaped flowers in 
racemes or heads, familiar in the Hydrangea, contains at least four 
genera with about a dozen ornamental shrubs, attractive in foliage 
(large) and flowers. 
Itea, I. virginica Linn. (120), improperly called Virginia Willow, a 
native species from New Jersey south, tender in Ottawa, of a genus 
widely distributed; is an upright shrub, three to eight feet high, some- 
what coarse in form, but attractive by bright, lustrous foliage, turning 
scailet-crimson in summer or early fall, as well as by the dense, terminal 
racemes of small, white, fragrant flowers (June, July). It 1s adaptive 
to any situation, wet and dry, sunny and shady, a rapid grower; useful 
in grouping with other coarser shrubs in large plantations and at 
water-sides. It may be secured from the woods. 
Hydrangea. A genus of thirty to forty species, native and from Asia, 
and a long line of varieties and hybrids, some evergreen and mostly only 
semi-hardy, ornamental, with their large, showy rather than beau- 
tiful, broadly ovate leaves, and large clusters of beautiful, variously 
hued, late flowers. Forms with the enlarged sterile flowers are most 
generally planted. ‘They require rich soil and partial shade, though 
producing best flower effects in sunny sites. For best flower effect 
they should be pruned severely if large panicles are desired, less 
so (to two or three buds) if smaller but more numerous panicles 
are the object. They are admirable for specimens. border planting, 
or massing. 
* EH. paniculata Sieb., from Japan, is the hardiest, a large shrub, 
sometimes grown in tree form with globular head. The variety grandi- 
folia (121) is most generally planted, producing immense terminal 
heads (five by ten inches) of creamy-white, entirely sterile flowers 
(August, September), changing to purplish-red or bronze, and contin- 
uing till frost. For best flower effect and form it should be cut back 
to the ground annually in early spring, the new shoots producing flowers 
the same year; and something else should be planted in front, to relieve 
its coarseness and to form a foreground. 
fT. quercifolia Bartr. (122), a native of the Alleghanies, a hardy 
shrub, four to six feet high, with spreading branches, is much more 
satisiactory than the preceding, and is especially valuable for its large 
