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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



handsome, hardy, deciduous shrub, with large white 

 flowers, produced in elongated racemes in May. It 

 thrives in any soil, hut likes a rich loam, and a 

 sunny situation. All the Exochordas are natives of 

 Eastern Asia. 



Fabiana imbricata is the only memher of the 

 genus Fabiana which is worthy of mention here. It 

 is a beautiful, erect, Heath-like shrub, with white 

 funnel-shaped flowers produced in great profusion in 

 May and June. In the Southern counties, and parti- 

 cularly along the coast, it forms a fine bush in the 

 open border ; elsewhere it is better to accord it the 

 protection of a wall or some similar shelter. It 

 thrives well in a peat border, but does fairly well 

 in soils in which no peat is present. A native 

 .of Chili. 



Fagus [Beech). — Of the fifteen species of Beech 

 now known to botanists, only our common native 

 Beech, F. sylvatica, and its North American ally, F. 

 ferruginea, are worthy of mention. The former 

 varies very considerably in habit, in the colour and 

 cutting of its leaves, &c. Its geographical distribu- 

 tion is rather curious, as in Europe it occupies a 

 triangular area between Norway, Asia Minor, and 

 Spain, and it is also found in Japan. The common 

 form is too well known to need description ; it is one 

 of the noblest of all our native trees, and attains a 

 large size, particularly on chalk and limestone. The 

 Copper and Purple Beeches, F. s. cuprea and F. s. 

 purpurea, are among the best of foliage trees for 

 striking landscape effects, and F. s. pendula is one of 

 the boldest and most picturesque of weeping trees. 

 F. s. Remilliensis is another form of weeping habit, a 

 much more formal tree than the last-named variety ; 

 it is best suited for covering an arbour, where its 

 regularly pendulous branches will soon form a dense 

 shade — in habit this is not unlike the Kilmarnock 

 Weeping Willow. F. s. asplenifolia , or as it is 

 sometimes called, F. s. Comptonicefolia, has elegantly 

 cut Fern-like leaves, and erect or ascending branches. 

 Besides these there is a silver variegated form, 

 another with golden-margined foliage, &c. 



Forsythia. — This genus comprises a couple of 

 species, both natives of China and Japan. They are 

 very ornamental, deciduous shrubs, of the easiest 

 cultivation. F. viridissima, an erect- growing bush, 

 has simple, entire leaves, and flowers abundantly in 

 March and April ; this sometimes attains a height of 

 ten feet, but is generally met with from three to six - 

 feet high. F. suspensa, on the other hand, is a 

 graceful creeper, with long flexible shoots, and 

 simple or trifoliolate leaves ; although this flowers 

 profusely when grown as a bush in the ordinary 



shrubbery, its beauty is best seen when planted 

 against a wall, and its long shoots annually nailed 

 in ; under such conditions it forms a mass of bright 

 yellow flowers. F. Fortunei and F. Sieboldi varv 

 very slightly in colour, and have long and short 

 styles ; in fact, are exactly analogous to the pin-eyed 

 and the thrum-eyed individuals of the common 

 Primrose, &c. 



Fothergilla alnifolia. — The only species of 

 the genus is a dwarf-growing, deciduous shrub, with 

 white, fragrant flowers, which appear in April and 

 May before the Alder-like leaves are developed. It 

 is a native of North-eastern America, and thrives 

 best in a moist peat border. There are several 

 varieties, differing more or less in the shape of the 

 leaves, &c. 



Fraxinus [Ash).— About thirty species of Ash 

 are known, nearly all of which have been, or are, in 

 cultivation. They are confined to temperate regions 

 of the northern hemisphere, and the species men- 

 tioned below are the most distinct and ornamental. 

 F. Americana, the White Ash of the North-eastern 

 United States, is a large forest tree, with grey 

 furrowed bark, smooth grey branchlets, and rusty- 

 coloured buds. F. excelsior, our native Ash, has a 

 large number of garden varieties, many of which 

 are superior to the type for purposes of ornament. 

 F. e. pendula, the Weeping Ash, is one of the most 

 popular of weeping trees, and of this thei-e is a form 

 with yellowish bark. F. e. heterophylla is a curious 

 form in which the lateral leaflets are suppressed, and 

 the leaf is generally composed of but the terminal 

 leaflet, a state of affairs which not unfrequently 

 occurs amongst trees with pinnate leaves. F. e. crispa 

 has very dark green curled foliage, but is more 

 curious than beautiful. F. Mariesii is a Japanese 

 species which has been recently introduced to this 

 country. It belongs to the Ornus group, in which 

 the petals are present, and add considerably to the 

 beauty of the tree. Unlike the section of which the 

 common Ash may be taken as the representative, the 

 flowers are produced at the same time as the leaves, 

 and the copiously branched panicles give a graceful 

 feathery appearance to the trees. F. Ornus, the 

 Manna Ash or Flowering Ash of Southern Europe, 

 is, with the exception of the last-named, the hand- 

 somest Ash in cultivation. Its greenish-white 

 flowers are borne in plume-like clustered panicles, 

 and are particularly conspicuous in May and June. 

 F. quadrangulata, the Blue Ash of the North-eastern 

 United States, has bold leaves a foot to a foot and a 

 half in length ; it attains a height of sixty or 

 seventy feet, and is readily distinguished from its 

 allies by its square branchlets. 



