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The Japanese Guelder Rose {V. tomentos- 

 uni). — A beautiful hardy shrub from the far 

 East, of spreading habit and branches of 8 or 

 more feet, hairy while young. It is handsome 

 at all seasons, distinct and beautiful in leaf, 

 showy in its clusters composed in part of large 

 sterile blossoms, and in its bright scarlet fruits 

 ripening to bluish-black. Though in itself 

 worth a place in any garden, this species is 

 most familiar in its improved form known as 

 V. plicatum, or the Japanese Snowball Tree, 

 one of the commonest and best-loved plants in 

 Japan. In this kind all the flowers composing 

 the cluster are enlarged and sterile, appearing 

 as white rounded masses borne with great 

 freedom. It forms a flat spreading head, 6 or 

 8 feet high when fully grown, with reddish- 

 brown shoots, distinct in foliage, and flowering 

 when quite small. Its neat habit is adapted to 

 small gardens, needing no restraint — in fact, it 

 is averse to cutting. It is stiffer and less grace- 

 ful than the common Snowball Tree, also less 

 hardy and not so easily transplanted, but its 

 showy flowers are a purer white, clustered 

 thickly in pairs upon the shoots during May 

 and June and lasting long in beauty. Isolated 

 or grouped its effect is good, and it is one of 

 the few shrubs that do well upon a north wall 

 seldom reached by the sun. For forcing it is 

 the best of all, small plants potted in autumn 

 flowering early and lasting well in the green- 

 house, where they are less subject to aphis than 

 Opulus. Easily increased from cuttings of half- 

 ripened wood in close frames, or by layers of 

 the side-shoots. There are several varieties 

 with distinctive names, includinggrandiflorum, 

 with very large clusters ; rotundifolium, with 

 broader leaves and somewhat earlier in bloom; 

 cuspidatum, distinct in leaf but of slow growth 

 and shy in flower; and a variegated form. 



Vetter's Viburnum (V. Vetteri). — A gar- 

 den cross raised in Germany between Lentago 

 and nudum, and only differing from the first 

 named in small details. 



VeitchWiburnum(K^/^/). — Another 

 of Veitch's introductions from China, closely 

 allied to and nearly resembling their other new 

 kinds, already described. 



Wright's Viburnum [V. Wrightit). — An 

 erect shrub of free growth from the mountains 

 of North Japan, and quite hardy in Britain 

 though as yet hardly known. It is of spreading 



habit and nearly allied to V. dilatatum, but yet 

 finer in fruit. The leaves are large, thick, and 

 rounded, coarsely dented, and brilliantly tinted 

 with scarlet and ruddy purple on fading. Its 

 large fruits are very handsome in their early 

 stages, making this new kind one of the finest 

 for autumn beauty. B. 



THE LILY-PINK {Aphyllanthes 

 monspeliensis) . 

 The month of May is everywhere beau- 

 tiful and nowhere more so than in the 

 south of Europe, where the floral wealth 

 of an entire summer is crowded into 

 those few weeks of early heat, before the 

 fierce sun succeeds in banishing the last 

 freshness of spring. Then is the time for 

 the lover of scarce plants to forsake the 

 beaten tracksand scour the shady woods, 

 following the mountain streams — im- 

 passable in winter and already shrinking 

 day by day to a waste of stones — and 

 searching the sunny hillsides for the 

 hidden treasures among their myriad 

 flowers, over which the air hangs heavy 

 with mingled perfume. It was upon some 

 such pathless ramble that I first saw the 

 Lily-Pink or ' ' FloweringRush of Mont- 

 pelier" in its beauty, and, never having 

 seen the little gem in the gardens of the 

 homeland, I stood transfixed. A little 

 dell, still freshened by the dews and never 

 wholly parched even in August, with a 

 kindly screen of Spanish Broom (Spar- 

 tium), of Myrtle, and Lentiscus, cutting 

 off the chilly down-draught so treach- 

 erous after nightfall, and just sheltered 

 from the fiercest of the glare by scanty 

 Pine boughs. Within that narrow space 

 the plants were massed in scores and 

 hundreds, though outside that little co- 

 lony it disappeared completely and only 

 once again did I light upon it in my 



