PLANTING FOE AUTUMN AND WINTER EFFECT 



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They are said to be allied to the Spiraeas, but have little or no superficial 

 resemblance to them. 



Dinwrphanthus mandshuricus, which is an Aralia, I have not yet 

 tried in mass cut down, but I mean to do so, as it suckers most freely with 

 us in Herts. The subtropical-looking foliage, large heads of flowers,, 

 small black fruit, and strange thorny rugged limbs when bare, all tend to 

 make an old plant a remarkable object. It is perfectly hardy when 

 dormant, but is liable to be killed by hard late frosts in April. 



Aristotelia Macqui, a native of Chili, is stated in the 1 Kew Hand List ' 

 to be tender and to require a wall, but has grown to be a large healthy 

 bush with us ; its flower is a greenish- white, the petioles are bright red, 

 and the wood is a conspicuous reddish-brown. 



Cratcegus liorrida is very remarkable in winter, having clusters of 

 thorns at short intervals, which face every way. This was one of the woods 

 we exhibited at the show last year. 



Cratcegus chlorosarca is a novelty which I got from Louis Chenault 

 at Orleans. It has stout limbs, a bold indented foliage, chocolate-coloured 

 varnished wood, with large dark purple leaf-buds. 



Cratcegus Pyracantha Lelandi, though usually grown as a creeper r 

 forms a valuable evergreen standard, and fruits very freely on a strong- 

 soil, the orange berries lasting as long as the birds will let them. 



Bibes alpinum grows in a close compact form with slender grey 

 knotted twigs, and has an appearance after the fall of the leaf quite 

 unlike any other Currant, or indeed any other plant known to me. 



Sambucus pyramidata has the same .light grey wood as the common 

 Elder, but its extremely close fastigiated form makes it surprising 

 that it is so rarely seen, especially as it is easily propagated from cuttings * 



Spircea aricefolia and the old-fashioned S. Lindleyana, the largest 

 grower of its varied tribe, are both conspicuous in winter, the former for 

 its graceful dead flower-heads, and the latter for its stems. 



Garry a elliptica, a dioecious plant, rather tender when not on a wall, is 

 of value for its evergreen Ilex-like foliage, and still more for its fine grey 

 catkins, lasting from November to February. No one but a botanist 

 would imagine that three plants, superficially so distinct as the Garry a, 

 the Aucuba, and the Cornus, all belong to the same order. 



Ligustrum coriaceum, a curious evergreen, quite hardy, but a slow 

 grower, has rich dark green convoluted leaves in such profusion that no 

 wood is seen ; they almost suggest a sea-shell in their form. 



Syringa Josikcea is an old Lilac which came from Hungary in 1835 

 and for some reason has gone out of fashion here. It is quite unlike the 

 ordinary Persian type ; it most nearly resembles S. Emodi of any which I 

 know, but the foliage is larger, darker, and more striking ; the stout stiff 

 scarlet-coloured twigs with dark purple leaf-buds make it very noticeable 

 in winter. It grows to be a very large shrub. We have one 20 feet high 

 in our London garden with the stem as thick as a man's thigh. 



Elceagnus parvifolia is worth growing for the clear silvery-grey wood. 

 It is deciduous, and hardier than its evergreen congeners. E. argentca, 

 another deciduous form, has the same merits as the preceding in winter, 

 and the silver undersides of the leaves look well when there is a breeze ; 

 it bears also in autumn a profusion of small red berries. 



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