96 
LAWN AND SHADE TREES. 
kept in a pit frame during winter, and placed in the out-door 
shrubbery on approach of spring. The flowers produced in 
May of our native varieties are almost white, varying to a pink, 
while those of the pontica are a bright yellow. Writers say they 
must have peat soil in order to succeed, but we have found any 
good loamy soil to answer, provided we mulched it with leaves 
or leaf mold. The same soil and care suitable for growing 
rhododendrons answers well for azaleas. 
The Amorpha. — There are a number of varieties of the 
amorpha or bastard indigo, all more or less ornamental, both 
from their foliage as well as their long spikes of blue or purple 
flowers produced in July and August. Their stems occasionally 
die after three or more years old, hence they should always be 
grown in the bush form, cutting out the oldest stems from year 
to year. Any good garden soil will answer for them, provided 
it is not too wet or too dry. 
The variety nana is the most dwarf, growing only one to two 
feet high ; glabra , growing four to six feet ; and fragvans , eight 
or more feet in height. They are all good for planting on the 
borders of water-streams or ponds, and also for strong contrasts 
and backgrounds in masses. 
The Amelanchier. — Under the common name of shad bush, 
the amelanchier vulgaris is well known and admired, when in 
early spring its peculiarly- formed flowers cover the tree, as it 
were, like a white sheet. It is then seen at a distance as beau- 
tiful as any of the magnolias, and when planted so that some 
evergreen shall be contiguous and form its background, no 
plant creates more universal attention* or admiration. It makes 
a small tree of from twelve to twenty feet high. 
The June Berry— A. botryapium — has also white flowers in 
April, hanging in pendulous racemes ; the bark and wood more 
smooth, and the tree of not quite as large growth as the shad 
bush. It is a very desirable small tree for door-yards or small 
