PLANTING- FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER EFFECT. 



175 



which appeared on one of our plants of C. sanguined at Aldenham. It 

 gives promise of being just as vigorous as the type, and ought to prove 

 a valuable addition to the garden. 



Cornus flaviramea. — I have had this only two or three years, having 

 bought it from Spath in Berlin. At present it is rare in England, but 

 need not remain so, for it strikes very readily from cuttings. It is similar 

 in vigour and habit to the preceding, but has, as its name imports, bright 

 yellow instead of scarlet bark in winter. It will, I think, prove a desirable 

 acquisition. 



.Cornus sanguinea atro-sanguinea. — This is a somewhat improved form 

 which was recently introduced by Veitch of Chelsea, and though at first 

 it showed a disposition to revert to the type, now that the variant is 

 thoroughly fixed it is worth growing as a single specimen by those who 

 care for this interesting and diversified order of plants. 



Sambucus nigra aurea, the Golden Elder, is too garish when seen 

 close, and when too freely used, as is often the case in small villa gardens, 

 approaches nearly to a disfigurement ; but when planted at the water- side 

 the reflection is very brilliant. The right way to use it is to mass it 

 where it can be seen from a distance, and to cut it also clean down every 

 spring. The canes, which grow to about the same height as Cornus 

 sanguinea, are then in winter of a uniform very light grey, and contrast 

 admirably with any adjoining dark evergreen mass such as Cotoneaster 

 Simonsii. 



Forsythia suspensa is fast in growth and graceful in habit, but wants 

 plenty of room. The long waving pendulous shoots are covered with 

 yellow bloom in early spring, and show up with a clear brown colour in 

 winter. 



The canes of Rubus odoratus roseus have much the same colour as 

 those of the common Raspberry, but it has the advantage of a hand- 

 somer leaf and a more decorative compact habit. Moreover, the bloom is 

 very nearly as good as R. nobilis, the charms of which I see my friend, 

 Sir Herbert Maxwell, has been vaunting. It has the additional advantage 

 where quantity is required of reproducing itself very freely from suckers. 

 It should be lightly pruned and the dead canes removed in spring. 



Rubus phoenicolasius, or Japanese Wineberry, is one of the best of 

 the Brambles in autumn and winter. It has much the same habit as the 

 common Blackberry, is perfectly robust, and sends up a fair amount of 

 young plants. The scarlet fruits, with their rust-coloured sheaths and 

 the stout hirsute lake-red canes, all join to make it a valuable addition 

 to a wild garden. R. biflorus is generally treated as synonymous with 

 R. leucodermis, which is in fact distinct from it, and has a creeping habit 

 like a Blackberry, whereas the former has upright canes like a Raspberry, 

 and is most showy in winter, when it presents the curious and distinct 

 effect of having been washed all over with lime white. In the cold stiff 

 clay soil to which I am accustomed it does not, however, appear to be 

 over hardy or vigorous. 



Spircea Douglasii, cf which S. bella is a somewhat improved form, 

 grows with us like a weed, and reproduces itself by the hundred. I used 

 to look upon it as barely worth growing until it was massed and cut down 

 every spring ; now the beds are quite a sight. They are about 2 feet 



