FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS. 



63 



P. sinensis is one of the most charming dwarf deciduous shrubs 

 we possess ; it should be grown on its own roots — grafted on Plum 

 stock it soon becomes unsightly and goes off. The double white 

 form is preferable to the reddish-tinted one, and is a more pro- 

 fuse flowerer. P. triloba, also from Japan, &c, should also be 

 grown on its own roots ; it, too, is perfectly hardy, although as a 

 w T all tree it makes one of the most beautiful trees we possess. 

 P. nana or Amygdalus nana, a native of Southern Eussia, &c, 

 is a delightful plant, and also quite hardy. 



Nuttallia cerasiformis flowers very early in the year, when few 

 things are in blossom in the open air ; it is a native of California, 

 and perfectly hardy in this country. I have not seen the Damson- 

 like fruits produced in Britain, but on the Continent it frequently 

 ripens fruit. Of the Spinas I have only space to mention a 

 few. S. arguta, a plant of hybrid origin, a creation of the gar- 

 dener's art, is an early-flowering kind, one of the very best ; in 

 spring it forms a snowy sheet of blossom. S. 6racfoa£a, introduced 

 from Japan by Siebold, is still comparatively but little known. 

 S. decumbens, a native of the Tyrolese Alps, is a pretty rock-plant ; 

 it grows about 6 inches in height, and bears a profusion of 

 white flowers about midsummer. S. dasyantha, a Chinese species, 

 is also worth a place even in the most select collection ; it has 

 heads of large showy snow-white flowers. Stephanandra flexuosa, 

 though the flowers individually are inconspicuous, is a graceful 

 deciduous bush with beautiful foliage. ExocJiorda grandiflora, 

 from China, perhaps does best as a wall-plant, although it is per- 

 fectly hardy— the large snowy-white flowers not being so likely 

 to be injured by the cold of our English springs. E. Alberti 

 is a Central Asian plant of much more recent introduction. 

 Eucryphia pinnatifolia is one of the numerous fine shrubs intro- 

 duced from Chili by Messrs. Veitch; in the neighbourhood of 

 London, at any rate, it is quite hardy. A beautiful shrub is 

 Bubus deliciosus, with large white Eose-like flowers; it is a native 

 of the Eocky Mountains, is perfectly hardy, and does best in a 

 good stiff loamy or clayey soil ; in light sandy spots it does not 

 assume its true character, and is not satisfactory. The Eoses, 

 the single ones, species or first crosses, would supply abundant 

 materials for a paper simply treating them from a purely gar- 

 dening standpoint. A fortnight ago B. littescens, with its large 

 creamy-yellow flowers, was a mass of flower at Kew. B. micro- 



