458 
DECIDUOUS SHRUBS . 
far countries, and more from the wilds of our own country. When, 
therefore, in the following or the preceding descriptions, there is 
more warmth of praise of some tree or shrub that is little knowm 
than of some of the beautiful well-known sorts, it must be remem¬ 
bered that we are writing partly for a class who are disposed to 
follow St. Paul’s injunction; — “prove all things; hold fast that 
which is good.” 
The growth of shrubs singly to develop the greatest beauty and 
size they can be made to attain, will produce results that few per 
sons, even among those familiar with shrubs, are aware of. How 
few of those who have seen tartarian honeysuckles all their lives, 
have ever seen one standing out alone in a rich soil, ten feet high 
and fifteen feet in diameter of head, and arching to the lawn like a 
miniature Connecticut valley elm, yet this would be a common size 
and form if this shrub were planted and kept with the intention of 
developing its greatest beauty. The common snow ball viburnum 
can be grown much larger, probably sixteen feet high, and of much 
greater breadth of branches ; the latter bending to the ground with 
a graceful sweep that the early growth of the shrub does not promise. 
The little red-fruited St. Peterswort or Indian currant, known in 
some localities as the red waxberry, which is usually tucked in among 
other shrubs as not important enough to stand alone, forms one of 
the most symmetrical and graceful of low shrubs when grown as a 
single specimen. In short, among all our commonly cultivated and 
well-known shrubs, one is rarely found which has had a fair chance 
to develop all its beauty. 
The difference between a forest grown oak, and the spreading 
oak of an old park is well known, but the fact that the same differ¬ 
ence obtains between shrubs grown in the mass or grown singly is 
not generally understood. 
There is much difference in the value of nursery plants for 
growing good specimen shrubs, depending on the nature of their 
roots, and the stockiness of the stems. Seedlings generally make 
the best roots, but as the choicest varieties of most fine shrubs do 
not come true from seed, the nurserymen propagate them princi¬ 
pally by cuttings and layers, and the commoner varieties by suckers. 
Cuttings generally have roots spreading pretty equally on all sides, 
