TREES AND SHRUBS. 



77 



cutting remarkably well, and forms a dense mass of 

 twigs and foliage. A cut-leaved variety, incisa, has 

 smaller deeply-slashed leaves, and is a very pretty 

 object as a single specimen on a lawn, or in any spot 

 where its distinctive peculiarities can be fully seen. 

 The American Hornbeam, C. Americana, is well worth 

 planting for the brilliant tints often assumed by its 

 decaying leaves in autumn. 



Carya [Hickory). — There are about ten species of 

 the genus Carya, all of them natives of North 

 America, where they are known under the general 

 name of Hickory. All are decidedly ornamental 

 deciduous trees, related to the Walnut, and most of 

 them more or less like it in habit. They are well 

 worth growing, and some attain in a short time con- 

 siderable dimensions. C. olivaformis is the Pecan- 

 nut, the delicious nuts of which are frequently 

 imported into this country for dessert. C. alba, the 

 Shell-bark Hickory, has large handsome foliage, and 

 forms a noble tree. 



C. amara (the Bitter-nut or Swamp Hickory) has 

 bitter fruits, with the shell thinner, and less head 

 than in other species, and with the bark of the 

 trunk close and smooth. In its native habitats it 

 affects a moist soil, but there are fine specimens in 

 the neighbourhood of London, which flourish in a 

 dry, poor, gravelly soil. 



Cassandra calycalata is the only member of 

 the genus Cassandra. It was formerly included under 

 Andromeda, and like that plant does best in a damp 

 peat border. It is a hardy evergreen dwarf bush, with 

 small, oblong, leathery, flat leaves and waxy- white 

 flowers, produced from the axils of the upper small 

 leaves. In a wild state this species is found in 

 North-eastern Europe, Northern Asia, and North 

 America. 



Cassiope tetragona, with three or four other 

 species it is not necessary to mention here, was, like 

 Cassandra, formerly included under Andromeda, and. 

 it requires similar treatment. It is a beautiful little 

 shrub, with scale-like imbricated leaves, and globular, 

 pendulous, Lily of the Valley-like flowers, produced 

 in May. A native of Lapland. 



Castanea (the Spanish Chestnut, Castanea sativa) 

 is, when in flower in July, one of the most striking 

 and conspicuous of the trees of the first magnitude 

 which are hardy in the climate of Britain. The 

 long, erect, yellowish catkins give a feathery appear- 

 ance to a well-flowered tree, and create a distinct 

 effect in the landscape. A large number of garden 

 varieties are grown in some nurseries, some of the 

 best being aspleniifolia (or dissecta), with deeply- 



cut Fem-like leaves ; and aureo-variegata, with the 

 leaves conspicuously blotched and margined with 

 golden-yellow. C. pumila, the Chinquapin of the 

 North-eastern United States, is the only other 

 species of the genus Castanea ; it generally forms a 

 shrub, but sometimes makes a small tree, twenty 

 feet high, and has small, pointed, very sweet nuts, 

 about half the size of those of the commoner 

 Chestnut ; the leaves, too, are white and downy 

 beneath. 



Catalpa.— The best of the Catalpas are the 

 two North American species, C. bignonioides and C. 

 speciosa. Both have heart-shaped leaves, downy 

 beneath, and open compound panicles of handsome 

 flowers produced in August ; in colour these are 

 white, slightly tinged with violet, and dotted with 

 purple or yellow in the throat. C. speciosa is said to 

 have flowers larger than those of the commoner 

 species, and to expand its flowers a fortnight earlier. 

 The golden-leaved form of C bignonioides is a very 

 striking ornamental tree, and one which does not 

 seem to suffer, like so many golden-leaved trees, 

 from bright sunlight. 



Ceanothus. — Many of the Ceanothus, and 

 especially some of the freer-flowering garden 

 varieties which have been raised during recent 

 years, make excellent shrubbery plants. Few, if 

 any, are thoroughly hardy ; but many if cut down to 

 the ground by frost will spring up again and flower 

 freely the succeeding summer. In fairly sheltered 

 sunny spots they make a brilliant show, and the 

 flowers range from white to deep bright blue, 

 purplish, kc. For wall plants, C. papillosus, C. 

 rigidus, and C. Veitchianus are amongst the most 

 suitable. 



Cerasus {Cherry Laurels and Cherries). — For 

 convenience of reference, the following plants, now 

 included by the best authorities under Prunus, are 

 retained under the most familiar generic name. One 

 of the most important of all evergreens hardy in 

 the climate of Great Britain is undoubtedly Cerasus 

 Lauro-cerasus, the so-called common Lanrel, which 

 is, however, an altogether misleading name, as the 

 true Laurel, the Laurel of ancient literature, is the 

 Sweet Bay, Lauras nobilis. The common Cherry 

 Laurel is a native of Eastern Europe, and was long 

 ago introduced to cultivation in this country. Ac- 

 cording to Sir Joseph Banks, it was " introduced by 

 Master Cole, a merchant, living at Hampstead, some 

 years before 1629, when Parkinson published his 

 ' Paradisus Terrestris, ' and at that time we had in 

 our gardens Oranges, Myrtles of three sorts, Laurus- 

 tinus, Phillyrea All these were at that 



