94 : 
LAWN AND SHADE TREES. 
grounds. In rock-work planting, the hispida may be used 
advantageously. 
The Althea — Hibiscus Syriacus . — The rose of Sharon, as it is 
most commonly called, is a shrub of almost universal use in 
planting. It grows from six to eight feet high, and does best 
in light dry soils. It is of a stiff, formal shape, even when left to 
take its own natural way ; but as it bears the shears well, and 
in fact seems thereby to increase its blooms, plants may be so 
clipped as to present broad masses of foliage and flowers from 
the ground upward. As an ornamental hedge plant it takes on 
its foliage too late in spring, and is also partially tender, occa- 
sionally killing during a very cold winter. There are varieties 
with white pink or purple and variegated flowers, both single 
and double. It blooms during the last of August or early in 
September, and where single plants are wanted of a regular 
systematic form, or for the back-plants of masses on straight 
lines, it is valuable. 
The Alder — Alnus. — Until within a few years the alder has 
not been much planted, but recently there have been introduced 
some varieties with foliage so strikingly marked, that wherever 
there is a moist soil, or a low group is wanted near a spring, 
their planting will be found advisable. 
Of the varieties most prized are the oak-leaved, the serrate- 
leaved, and the lasciniated or cut-leaved. In growth, the alder 
usually rises to a height of about ten to twenty feet, with foliage 
all of a dark green color. 
The Almond — Amygdalus. — The dwarf double flowering 
almond — amygdalus pumila — is one of the oldest flowering 
shrubs of our knowledge. Its period of early flowering (April), 
together with their profusion and beauty ; its slender twigs and 
general graceful delicacy in form of growth ; the perfect hardi- 
hood of the plant, all combine to make it a shrub of great value 
in decorative gardening. On account of its low growth and 
