234 



SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. 



[chap. 



the plum tree. Silver-leaved Almond. — Lat. A. argenteciy 



is a taller sort, from the Levant, growing eight or ten feet 

 high, blowing rose-coloured flowers in April, and having leaves 

 covered on both sides with a kind of down, of a silver colour. — 

 Double Dwarf Almond. — Lat. A. pumila, is a third sort, a 

 smaller tree than the last, but with remarkable double flow^ers of 

 a pale rose colour, appearing in May and often again in Sep- 

 tember. All these trees are cultivated in the same simple man- 

 ner. They are hardy, and very handsome when in flower, though 

 there not bearing leaves and flowers at the same time is a re- 

 markable illustration of how much flowers borrow effect from 

 foliage. Propagate by grafting on the bitter almond, or on plum- 

 stocks, and give any situation and almost any soil. Cut out dead 

 wood when it occurs, and that will be all the pruning necessary 

 to these plants. 



323. ALL-SPICE, Carolina. — Lat. Calycanthus Floridus. A 

 hardy and exceedingly odoriferous shrub of Carolina, eight feet 



high, and blows a ruddy brown flower from May to August. 



Fruitful Calycanthus. — Lat. C. fertilis. A hardy shrub of 

 North America, three or four feet high, and blows a reddish brown 

 flower from May to August. Both sorts propagated by layers ; 

 but, as they take root ith difficulty, it is best not to remove them 

 until the third year. It Ukes a deep and fresh soil, or, still better, 

 heath-mould ; and should not be quite exposed to the sun. If 

 propagated from seed, it should have artificial heat to bring it up, 

 otherwise it lies two years in the ground. 



324. ALTHEA FRUTEX.— Lat. Hibiscus Syriacus. A beau- 

 ful shrub. A native of Syria, the Levant, and North America, 

 and of which there are four varieties, the red, the piirple, the 

 white, and the striped. It is a hardy late plant, coming into 

 leaf late in June, and blowing throughout August and September, 

 The flower comes on the young wood as well as on the present 

 year's wood ; and its form is very much that of the holyhock. It 

 grows to eight ot ten feet high generally, in America, and will 

 grow quite as high here. Indeed, there is one now* before the 

 door of the farm-house at the Duke of Devonshire's estate at 

 Chiswick that is full twelve feet high, and that blows regularly 

 every year. It ripens its seed here in an ordinarily good summer, 

 and, though generally propagated from cuttings or layers, is far 

 finer when propagated Ironi the seed, which comes up the first 



