452 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
very attractive when grown in a group in the wild garden 
or in the shrubbery. S. flexuosa bears small white flowers in 
branching panicles in June, and S. Tanakae, greenish blossoms 
in loose panicles at same time. Height 3 to 4ft. Members of 
the Rose order (Rosaceas). Increased by suckers in autumn. 
Grow in good ordinary soil, and plant in autumn. Allied to 
the shrubby spiraeas. 
Taxodium (Summer-leafing Cypress. — A genus of de- 
ciduous coniferous trees, of which T. distichum is the chief 
species. This is a very elegant and beautiful tree of pyramidal 
habit, growing upwards of goft. high in this country. In the 
United States, its native habitat, it grows freely in swamps 
and moist land generally, and in England it thrives best 
near the margins of water in moist soil. The leaves are of a 
lovely deep green in summer, and change to a reddish tint in 
autumn. Plant in the autumn. Increased by seeds sown in 
sandy soil in pans in a cold frame ; also by cuttings of the 
young shoots inserted in sandy soil in gentle warmth in 
summer. 
Taxus (Yew). — Well-known hardy evergreen coniferous 
shrubs or trees. The Common Yew (T. baccata) is a native 
of Britain, and some of the finest trees of it are to be seen in 
old country churchyards. In gardens it is grown in the mixed 
shrubbery, often as a hedge shrub, and formerly extensively 
grown in cottage and large gardens as a shrub, with its 
branches trained and clipped into all sorts of fanciful figures. 
The tree readily lends itself to this sort of thing, a phase of 
gardening more curious than beautiful. When grown as a 
hedge shrub the soil should be trenched 3ft. wide and deep 
and young plants a foot or so high planted min. apart in 
May or September. Yew hedges are best trimmed in April 
before new growth begins, or in September, when growth has 
ceased for the season. Of the Common Yew there are many 
beautiful varieties which make excellent garden shrubs. The 
Irish Yew (T. baccata fastigiata) is an upright growing kind, 
and a very handsome shrub to grow singly on the lawn or in 
the mixed shrubbery. Its golden leaved variety (aurea) and 
silver-leaved form (argentea) are also extremely pretty. Then 
there is the Golden Yew (T. baccata aurea), a variety w'hich has 
the tips of its shoots a rich golden-yellow ; the Dovaston 
Yew (T. baccata Dovastonii), a variety with long leaves and 
pendulous branches, a very elegant shrub ; T. baccata elegan- 
tissima, a variety of compact habit with its leaves striped with 
yellow ; and T. baccata nana, a dwarf dense-foliaged variety 
which only grows 3ft. high. Any or all of the foregoing make 
handsome lawn trees. The Yews will succeed in ordinary 
