59 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NOTES ON LITTLE-KNOWN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



By George Nicholson, V.M.H. 



There are so many trees and shrubs which are rarely seen except in 

 botanical establishments pure and simple, or only now and then in the 

 gardens of those who make them a special study, that it is quite im- 

 possible within the limits of a single paper to do more than call attention 

 to a mere selection of the most distinct species or those most desirable 

 from the point of view of ornament. As Mr. J. H. Veitch has written 

 another paper dealing, I presume, with the recent introductions of his 

 firm, I have purposely emitted many remarkable species which I have 

 reason to believe will be fully treated by him. Not a few of the plants 

 mentioned below are by no means new — some are decidedly old — but all are 

 both interesting and beautiful, and worthy of more extensive cultivation. 



Berberis congestifiora var. hakeoides is a native of the Cordillera of 

 Chili, whence it was introduced by Veitch in 1861. An excellent figure 

 of it was published in the "Botanical Magazine," t. 6770. It is quite 

 unlike any other Berberry in cultivation: it makes a large bush with 

 decurved branches leaded with globose masses of flowers, some of which are 

 sessile in the axils of the leaves, many more form consecutive heads, sessile 

 on the long leafless terminations of the branches, which gives the shrub a 

 very singular appearance. The colour of the flower is golden yellow ; the 

 species is quite hardy. A large specimen in the garden of Rev. Canon 

 Ellacombe is, I am told, worth a journey to Bitton to see. 



B. dictyophylla. — This is a much more recent discovery : it was first 

 found by Pere Delavay at an elevation of 3,000 ft. on Fanyangshan in 

 Yunnan, and was first cultivated and distributed by Mons. Maurice L. de 

 Yilmorin in 1897. It makes a charming bush of somewhat compact 

 habit : the pale yellow flowers are borne in May, singly or in pairs, in the 

 axils of the leaves ; the fruits are bright red. As a species it comes 

 nearest to the Himalayan B. angulosa : it is apparently quite hardy. 



Azara GilHesii. — This is the handsomest member of the genus. In the 

 neighbourhood of London it cannot be trusted to maintain itself as an 

 ordinary shrubbery plant, but it does well against a wall. In many places 

 along the south and west of England it would doubtless thrive perfectly 

 in the shrubbery. It has Holly-like evergreen leaves and minute flowers 

 collected into oblong heads resembling golden catkins, from the numerous 

 rich orange-coloured stamens. 



Bursaria sphiosa. — This member of the Pittosporacca will do as a 

 wall plant near London, but in more favoured spots makes a handsome 

 bush in the shrubbery. There is a fine specimen in Canon Ellacombe's 

 garden at Bitton: the terminal panicles of small white flowers followed 

 by the. pretty fruits are decidedly showy. Introduced from New South 

 Wall I in 1798 by the Marchioness of Rockingham. 



Tamarix hispida var. kashgarica. — A native of Central Asia with 

 pikes of bright rose-coloured flowers : it was raised by Mons. Lemoine of 



