ORNAMENTAL DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 
105 
capsules, containing seeds, and in autumn the foliage before 
falling changes to a deep yellow. It succeeds in any good 
garden soil and makes a tree of about fifteen to twenty feet high. 
The Laburnum — Cytisus . — As a low growing ornamental 
tree or large shrub, the laburnum or golden chain has few 
rivals. The shape of the head is often irregular and pictur- 
esque ; its foliage is of a smooth shining and beautiful green ; 
it will grow in almost any soil, not wet, and when it flowers in 
June, its long pendant racemes of yellow or purple blooms make 
it extremely attractive and beautiful. The variety with yellow 
flowers, most commonly grown in the nurseries, makes a tree 
sometimes of fifteen to twenty feet in height; but it often 
loses its main stem, and sending up a cluster of stems, forms 
rather a shrub than a tree. The purple-flowering variety 
resembles in growth the common English, and occasionally its 
flowers revert back to the original yellow. There are several 
other varieties, but mainly differing only in form of foliage or 
period of bloom. They may be easily engrafted one upon 
the other, and thus one tree made to exhibit varied foliage and 
blooms, giving to it a unique appearance. As a single tree on 
small lawns, or for planting in cemeteries, or foregrounds of 
groups of trees, the laburnum is one of the most desirable. 
The Lilac — Syringa . — The common lilac — syringa vulgaris — 
is well known all over the country ; and although it has a great 
tendency to sucker, a little attention from year to year will 
enable the grower to keep it to a single stem, and it is then a 
beautiful tree in leaf, and pre-eminently so when in flower. 
Grouped with the snow-ball, red-bud, and other small-sized 
trees or large shrubs, it makes always an attractive appearance, 
and should not be thrown one side because it is common. There 
are several varieties with different shades of lilac and some pure 
white, and some with double flowers ; all, however, of general 
habit in growth. 
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