28 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
" stopping " when grown cool, though its 
flowers may be hastened or kept back for 
awhile by change of temperature. It is one 
of the best kinds and though the flowers are 
small they are numerous and stand well when 
cut. Large trained plants are efl^ective in the 
greenhouse for early spring, coming after 
micranthum and odoratum, with dark slender 
stems, neat narrow leaves of deep green, and 
the mass of compact white heads in telling 
contrast. A house just secure from frost and 
a copious supply of water just suit this grace- 
ful herb from the mountain streams of 
Mexico. 
E. scandens. — A pretty little creeper with 
limp and glossy leaves of vivid green and heads 
of pale yellow flowers : better known as M/*/^tf/;/« 
scandens. 
E. serotinum. — A hardy perennial from Caro- 
lina, with stout stems of 3 to 4 feet, oval leaves 
coarsely toothed, and heads of small white or 
rosy-white flowers in late autumn. The large 
clusters are light and pretty for cutting and 
the plant of good effect in damp corners of the 
wild garden. 
E. serrulatum. — A pretty winter-flowering 
greenhouse shrub of rapid growth and loose 
habit, with narrow short-stalked leaves and 
rosy flowers in dense rounded heads. Uruguay 
and Brazil. In the south of Europe this makes 
an effective flowering shrub, and of late years | 
has been tried in the open air in the south-west j 
of England and Ireland. 
E. trapezoideum. — A stout shrub of rapid 
growth, rising 4 to 5 feet in a season as a bold 
bush with angular leaves and a multitude of 
little white flowers in flat clusters of 3 to 4 
inches across. Easily raised from cuttings or 
seed, flowering in winter and early spring. Syn. 
E. adenophorum. 
E. triste. — A strong greenhouse herb with 
hairy angular stems ; broadly oval, hairy, and 
wrinkled leaves ; and large erect heads of 
glistening white flowers. A little known plant 
from the mountains of Jamaica, which has 
recently gained favour in American gardens for 
pot-culture and cut bloom. 
E. vernale. — Though this plant gained an 
award of merit from the Royal Horticultural 
Society last spring it has been in cultivation 
for many years, though mostly under the name 
of E. grandiflorum. It is of dwarf growth, often 
not exceeding 1 8 inches ; with broad heart- 
shaped leaves of deep bronze-green, hairy, 
strongly veined, and whitish beneath ; large 
branching heads of flower several inches across, 
coming early in January and lasting for a 
month or six weeks. On first opening, the 
flowers are pale pink from the colour of the 
long protruding styles, but with full expansion 
they become pure white, lasting well but too 
stiff for cutting. The plant is slower growing 
than most kinds, with rigid reddish stems ; 
they flower well when quite small and may be 
grown on for several years without becoming 
too large. Mexico and Guatemala. Its many 
Latin names have caused confusion with this 
(as with many other) Eupatoriums : amongst 
its synonyms are Brickellia grandijiora, Agera- 
tum grandijiorum^ and Conoclinium. B. 
THE SPINDLE TREE. 
Among the pictures of the waning year 
there is Httle to compare with the au- 
tumn glory of the Spindle Tree, when, 
after such a season as that just closed, 
it flames forth with all its wealth of 
crimson capsules — "the fruit which in 
our winter woodland looks a flower," 
as Tennyson has it. A native shrub, 
the Spindle Tree is far from common in 
many parts of the country, though here 
and there more frequent, as in North 
Oxfordshire where it gladdens the eye 
on the skirts of many a woodland or 
the leafy walls of slumbering bye- ways. 
It has been said that the glory of rural 
England is its mossy lanes, and surely 
the winter glory of many a lane of 
Dorsetshire and Devon, and other parts 
of western England is due in great 
measure to the fine colour of Euonymus 
europceus. And yet how seldom is this 
hardy little shrub turned to account in 
our home woods, where its autumn glow 
might light up many a glade, flinging 
answer to the reddening sunsets of Nov- 
ember in double-dyed reflections of its 
own. With the late spell of frost and 
