128 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



tive way; and, if so, it might well be 

 raised and allowed to take the place of 

 the ordinary shrubbery seen even in 

 places that are famous for their gardens. 

 In these, when we get away from the 

 garden, the common Elder, Laurel, and 

 Privet, and other woody shrubs, are 

 sometimes seen almost by the acre. Why 

 should not such really beautiful things 

 as the Alpine and common Laburnums 

 be grown freely and naturally in lieu of 

 such weeds ? It is not only one Labur- 

 num we have to think of, but two beau- 

 tiful species, one coming later in flower. 

 In recent years these trees have varied 

 in a remarkable way ; and the varieties 

 gained on the Continent are remarkable 

 for grace as well as fine colour, the 

 racemes of some being nearly as long as 

 the arm. 



Usually for bold gardening effects 

 the wild type of tree is the best, but in 

 this case the varieties are certainly most 

 remarkable and very little known com- 

 pared with what they deserve to be. In 

 these varieties we have proof of what we 

 get by raising such things from seed — 



a splendid addition to flowering trees. 

 We ought not only, therefore, to sow 

 seed that we may buy, but we should 

 follow the good old-fashioned way of 

 saving seed of the trees we have, and all 

 who have these beautiful new Labur- 

 nums in their gardens should save the 

 seed, not only for stock for bold plant- 

 ing in copses and shrubberies, but also 

 for the advantage of raising new forms. 



Of the two wild Laburnums there 

 are numerous varieties, differing more 

 or less from the parents. The number 

 of named varieties of L. vulgare in 

 nursery lists exceed a score, and among 

 the finest varieties are those named Al- 

 schingeri) Carlieri^ and gra72diflorum , 

 all bearing very long racemes. Of the 

 Alpine Laburnum good varieties are 

 W itereri, Parksi^ grandiflorum^ and bi- 

 ferum^ all having long racemes. There 

 is some doubt as to which species these 

 newer varieties belong, but their value 

 is the main consideration, and the best 

 of them are hybrids between the two, 

 or forms of the Alpine Laburnum. 



''S 



Trees for their Beauty. — I wantyou to under- 

 stand, in the first place, that I have a most intense, 

 passionate fondness for trees in general, and have 

 had several romantic attachments to certain trees in 

 particular. Now, if you expect me to hold forth in 

 a " scientific " way about my tree-loves — to talk, for 

 instance, of the Ulmus americana^ and describe the 

 ciliated edges of its samara, and all that — you are an 

 anserine individual, and I must refer you to a dull 

 friend who will discourse to you of such matters. 

 What should you think of a lover who should de- 

 scribe the idol of his heart in the language of science, 

 thus — Class, Mammalia ; Order, Primates ; Genus, 

 Homo ; Species, Europeus ; Variety, Brown ; In- 

 dividual, Ann Eliza ; Dental Formula. 



No, my friends, I shall speak of trees as we see 

 them, love them, adore them in the fields, where they 



are alive, holding their green sunshades over our 

 heads, talking to us with their hundred thousand 

 whispering tongues, looking down on us with that 

 sweet meekness which belongs to huge but limited 

 organisms — which one sees in the brown eyes of 

 oxen, but most in the patient posture, the out- 

 stretched arms, and the heavy drooping robes of 

 these vast beings endowed with life, but not with 

 soul — which outgrow us and outlive us, but stand 

 helpless — poor things ! — while Nature dresses and 

 undresses them, like so many full-sized but under- 

 witted children. . . . Who cares how many stamens 

 or pistils that little brown flower, which comes out 

 before the leaf, may have to classify it by ? What 

 we want is the meaning, the character, the expression 

 of a tree, as a kind, and as an individual. — O. W. 

 Holmes. 



