AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES. 



175 



one^, some of an agreeable acid flavour, and others like 

 miniature apples_, both in shape and taste — are quite re- 

 freshing amidst evergreens and common trees which never 

 produce a noticeable fruit or flower. Some are as large as 

 marbles, others more pyriform in shape, but large and 

 eatable ; such indeed as I should be very glad of if I were 

 cast ashore on some desolate isle, like old Byron, and such 

 as would have been a godsend to poor Burke and Wills and 

 their party, who lived upon the tiny and miserable Nardoo 

 fruit. Where the feeding and attracting of the feathered 

 tribes is a consideration, there is nothing to equal these 

 exotic thorns. Among the best kinds are the following : — 

 C. coccinea, and its varieties, coraJlina and maxima ; C. 

 nigra ; C. crus-galli, and its varieties, splendens, pyr acanthi- 

 folia, and saHcifolia ; C. punctata, and its varieties ; C. ma- 

 crantha ; C. Azarolus ; C. obtusata, a variety of the common 

 species which grows seventy feet high ; C. Douglasi, a purple- 

 berried North American kind, named after the famous and 

 unfortunate plant-collector Douglas, who sent us home the 

 noble Douglas fir and a host of valuable American plants ; 

 C. Orien talis, C. Leeana, C. Aronia, berries yellow ; and C. 

 tanacetifolia, a native of Greece, and its German variety 

 glabra; but almost all the species are worth growing. The 

 well-known evergreen species, C. pyracantha, so extensively 

 used for training against houses and walls, will not do for 

 association with these ; but it is of course valuable for the 

 embellishment of the walls of the town garden. 



It should be observed that the above species flowering at 

 various times, and some of them a good deal later than the 

 May and its numerous varieties, prolong the bloom of the 

 family for a considerable period. They are more suited for 

 grouping in the irregular and diversified parts of parks and 

 public gardens than anything else, and may also be used 

 with good effect in squares ; avoiding, however, the very 

 common error of putting all our native and hardy shrubs 

 roughly in under the shade of big trees, &c. Numerous 

 subjects are never seen to present their native charms in 

 consequence of being overcrowded, or overshadowed, or 

 robbed at the root by heavy-feeding neighbours. If a 



