of our bare November woods. There are two species of this 
genus, one taller than the other, but both equally hardy and 
cheerful. The bush species of Amelanchier are quite as useful 
in the spring garden as the tree kinds, the reddish copper- 
colored leaves, the white tasselled flowers and the bird-inviting 
fruit, make it not only welcome but essential. With it comes 
Azalea, or as we should not call it, Rhododendron .Vaseyi, 
perhaps the most beautiful pink flower of all the spring. It too, 
blooms before any sign of leaf and this shrub is at its best 
surrounded by a cluster of Poet's Narcissus and under-carpeted 
by a foamy mass of Araois or Grape Hyancinth. Vaseyi is 
followed by Nudiflorum, the Piaster flower of our woods; in 
May the rocky hillsides of Connecticut are full of its pink loveli- 
ness. 
If we have New England conscience or New England blood 
in our veins we shall feel obliged to add the Bhodora to our 
collection of American Azaleas blooming before the leaves, but 
all the same it is not a pretty shrub. Its colour is a lilac-pink 
and although we are grateful to it when we see it growing in 
the endless Muskeag swamps of the North, it is really not 
interesting in a garden. All the Azaleas make a ball of fine 
fibrous roots and so they are quite easy to transplant and they 
like a rich sandy loam with a few handfuls of well rotted peat 
if possible. 
The dwarf Almond trees which are forced into bloom by the 
hundreds now-a-days are hardy little shrubs and although they 
are always given us as Japanese Cherries, if we have patience 
enough to cut them back and plant them out in our spring garden 
we shall soon see by comparing them with the real Cherries 
what they actually are. The very double little pink flowers 
look a good deal like pink chiffon roses which we eagerly buy 
for trimming today. The Beach Plum, Primus maHthna, is 
familiar to any one who knows the south side of Long Island in 
spring. It covers the sandy land just out of the reach of the 
spray and often grows in openings in the shrub woods so that 
even as the train passes one can see white colonies of it which, 
with a truly feminine instinct, seem to know that the blue Lupine 
growing beside it is most becoming. Although Cydonia japonica 
the Pyrus japonica of our youth, has lost much of its popularity 
by reason of its apparently too attractive qualities for the San 
Jose scale, it is none the less lovely and we can keep the scale 
in check by careful watching and spraying at the proper seasons. 
There are varieties of this which are distinct improvements over 
the old type, a pure white one, a rose bordered with white, a 
rose-red and ' a dwarf Maulei, with its orange-scarlet flowers, 
this last variety is particularly beautiful when trained as a wall 
shrub against a grey wall. 
You are probably waiting with considerable impatience for 
the mention of the name Porsvthia. This Chinese shrub was 
11 
