2j4 



SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. 



[chap. 



height, and blows a blue flower during the whole of the summer. 

 It will sow itself when in a strong earth, and likes a warm but 

 airy situation. 



394. PYRUS SFECTABILlS—Bouble-flowering apple, is 

 a beautiful shrub. It is a double-blossoming apple, indeed, which 

 every one can imagine the beauties of ; but it is not so common in 

 shrubberies as it ought to be. Propagated by grafting upon the 

 common crab, or upon common apple-stocks. Blows in April 

 and May, and is hardy. 



395. REST-HARROW, the purple-flowered shrubby. —Lat. 

 Ononis fruticosa. A shrub of the Dauphine mountains, and fit 

 for borders of spring shrubs. It grows two or three feet high, and 

 blows a red flower from June to October. Propagated by sowing 

 the seeds in beds of light earth, but the plants must be put in pots, 

 and sheltered from the frost for two years, when they will be 

 strong enough to stay in the open earth. Layers will root too. 



396. RHODODENDRON. This is the Latin, and the only 

 English name of one of the handsomest shrubs that we have any 

 knowledge of. Its native lands are cold ones, the Alps, Siberia, and 

 North America. It stands our climate, therefore, very well ; but 

 it is fondest of a peaty soil, and therefore should have some such 

 mixed with whatever other garden soil it is planted in. It will 

 grow and blow without this humouring, to be sure, but not so 

 well by any means as with it. The flow-er of this plant appears 

 in June, and lasts throughout the month : it is not fragrant, but 

 its size, shades of variety, and bold structure, make up for this. 

 The plant is evergreen, grows freely, and to the height of many 

 feet, in soils that it likes. There are some now in the grounds of 

 the Rustic Cottage in Kew^ Gardens that are about sixteen feet 

 high. It grows in a very straggling form, however, and is a 

 mere shrub. It is propagated by layers, by seed, or by cut- 

 tings ; but most easily by the two former. The seed should be 

 sown early in the spring in broad-mouthed pots and in a sandy 

 soil, very thinly covered, and placed in a frame, upon a gentle 

 heat, and carefully shaded. Very little water should be given 

 before and after the plants come up ; and when they have been 

 up about six ^^eeks they should be very carefully potted out 

 singly, and again placed in a gentle heat, shaded and sparingly 

 watered. Cuttings from very young wood will thrive if put under 

 hand-glasses and excluded from the air a little time by the glasses 



