474 
DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 
THE ARALIA. Aralia. 
Otherwise known as the angelica tree and Hercules club. The 
stout, club-like, and prickly annual canes of this curious shrub 
make the latter name not inappropriate. It has a partly perennial 
character, the canes usually dying to near the ground, like the 
raspberry, at the end of the year, and renewing themselves an¬ 
nually. These grow quickly to the height of eight to twelve feet, 
and bear immense doubly-compound leaves which form into an 
umbrella-like head of picturesque luxuriance. We have seen it 
established as a tree, with a trunk six or seven inches in diameter; 
and grown in this way, it has an unusually distinctive character ; 
but it does not often make for itself a good trunk, and is oftener 
not quite a tree, nor yet a shrub. Flowers in large, loose panicles, 
greenish-white, in August and September. Height ten to twenty 
feet. 
There is a Japanese species, A. japonica , that is smaller, and 
has not, it is believed, been introduced in American gardens. 
THE AZALEA. Azalea. 
A deciduous shrub of the rhododendron family, natives of both 
hemispheres. The species vary in height from six inches to fifteen 
feet. The following are a few of them : 
Azalea pontica , a native of the eastern borders of the Medi¬ 
terranean. Height four to six feet. Flowers yellow; in May and 
June. “ There are a great number of varieties of this species in 
the gardens, differing principally in the color of their flowers and the 
hue of their leaves. The flowers of the species are of a fine bright 
yellow; but those of the varieties are of all shades, from yellow to 
copper or orange color; and they are sometimes of a pure white, 
or of white striped with yellow and red. Besides, as this species 
seeds freely, and is easily cross-fecundated with the North Ameri¬ 
can species, an immense number of varieties of it have been 
originated in British and Continental gardens” (Loudon). Some 
