gardener can only be persuaded that small trees, reasonably 
small shrubs and unreasonably large clumps of herbaceous plants 
are the only things real] y worth planting, she will have learned 
at one gulp a large part of what it takes most of us years to 
learn. The reason for this is not far to seek. The smaller plant 
has smaller roots and when dug for moving, fewer of these are 
lost; therefore the small tree or bush starts ahead in its new 
place without much reduction of its mechanics; it quickly makes 
new fibrous roots and after a year will make as much growth as 
if it had never been disturbed. It is easy to see why the same 
cannot be true of the larger plants. In the case of herbaceous 
material, the nurseryman naturally anxious to propagate in 
order to increase his stock, does not usually send out clumps of 
herbaceous plants large enough to satisfy any gardener, whereas 
these plants are so small compared with trees and shrubs that 
* it is possible by careful digging to get the whole root system 
even of large clumps. 
Please forgive me if I do not go through the rest of the 
spring flowering trees in detail; the Mountain Ash, the Silver 
Bell tree, the Laburnum, both the common and the Scotch, the 
Thorns, both English and American, and the Black Haw and 
Nannyberry, but if we tarry much longer among the trees we 
shall be found perching in the branches when the summer 
garden is in full bloom. 
If we follow the example of the trees given us by the 
Magnolia which blooms before its leaves, we shall begin by talk- 
ing of the shrubs which do as their larger brothers do. Any one 
who is familiar with the English woods in spring must remember 
the pink flush of the Mezereum which clothes itself throughout 
the entire length of its twigs with a close mass of purplish-pink 
flowers. This is not as ugly as it sounds because at the time of 
the year at which it flowers there is little else to conflict with 
it. This bush is perfectly hardy but we must take a little care 
in transplanting it as none of the Daphnes, of whom it is one, 
would be suited to our modern life since they much dislike being 
moved about, 
o „ Another shrub which we neglect in an entirely unjustifiable 
' way is our own Fothergilla. It was named in memory of Dr. 
John Fothergill, a distinguished English physician who did 
much to stimulate the interest of the gardeners of the early 
eighteenth century in the new plants then recently found in 
America and sent to the mother country. 
This lovely shrub so rarely seen in cultivation, like the 
Mezereum, covers itself with bloom before it shows any leaves, 
and the pure white clover-like flowers are quite charming when 
the Shad-bush is just shaking its snow of petals to the ground. 
Curiously enough Fothergilla is a member of the Witch-hazel 
family and is one of the earliest of the spring procession of 
shrubs. Yet this near relation, the "Witch-hazel, is the last flower 
10 . 
