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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BEAUTIFUL FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS. 

 By George Gordon, V.M.H. 

 [Lecture delivered March 17, 1908.] 



Until within recent years one of the weak points in the formation and 

 management of gardens has been the failure to appreciate the importance 

 of the more beautiful forms of arborescent vegetation in the creation and 

 improvement of garden scenery. As a result large numbers of gardens 

 lack much of the beauty and interest they might possess. In a consider- 

 able number we find only trees that are plentiful in the hedgerows and 

 woodlands, instead of trees of more moderate stature, remarkable for the 

 beauty of their flowers or foliage, or distinguished by the elegance of their 

 growth. 



Not until a comparatively short time ago did owners of gardens begin 

 to fully appreciate trees ; therefore they did not study them, or collect 

 them, or take any notice of them beyond that which all men take, because 

 of their general beauty and welcome shade. With this general indifference 

 it is not surprising that the more beautiful, rare, and expensive kinds were 

 not planted except in comparatively small numbers. 



In the park, and in the pleasure grounds, with so large an area as to 

 afford abundant space for their development, elms and oaks and beeches 

 are so grand, so overpoweringly beautiful, so deeply suggestive of the 

 abounding wealth of Nature, that, though we see naught else, the mind is 

 sure to be filled with worthy thoughts and graceful images. 



But in gardens of a moderate size there is not room for forest trees ; 

 there is not space to allow of their full development without imposing a 

 severe limitation on other plants, and thereby greatly reducing the diversity 

 of form and colouring which constitute so great a charm in a well-planned 

 and judiciously planted garden. Variety in habit, in leafage, and in flower 

 is essential to the full enjoyment of a garden; and therefore trees and 

 shrubs of moderate height and spread of branches, remarkable for the 

 beauty of their flowers or foliage, or for some other attribute, are especially 

 desirable. 



It is now many years since I began to devote special attention to such 

 trees and shrubs as are distinguished by the wealth and beauty of their 

 blossom, and commenced to impress their claims upon planters. I was 

 greatly perplexed to find that, although in botanic gardens and in nurseries 

 largely devoted to trees and shrubs the finest kinds were plentiful enough, 

 there was but little demand for them, and comparatively few were planted. 

 I could not help feeling that these beautiful plants could not be well known 

 to the owners of gardens generally, and some ten years ago I made such 

 arrangements as would enable me to bring them prominently before the 

 flower-loving community ; and the results have more than justified my 

 endeavour, for they have now attained to a high degree of popularity, 

 and thousands are now grown where at one time a few dozens were 



