480 
DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 
Chinese species that blooms profusely from July to September. 
Height four to five feet. The India chaste tree, V. arborea , is the 
largest species, and has broader and paler leaves. Flowers pur¬ 
plish, in July and August. Height thirty feet. Half-hardy. All 
the family require a dry soil. 
THE CLETHRA. Clethra. 
This shrub, though indigenous in our 
woods, has been brought into notice in the 
New York Central Park, more than ever be¬ 
fore. There are specimens there of several 
varieties. Fig. 162 represents one of them. 
Fig. 16 1 
The Alder-leaved, C. alnifolia , forms a 
dense low shrub, covered in July with a mass of white flowers in 
racemes or spikes, and in September with a load of seeds that are 
showy, and rather ornamental. It also blooms a little for the 
second time in September. Hardy. Leaves abundant, light-col¬ 
ored, and without gloss. Height three to four feet, and greater 
breadth. A native of swamps. 
The Fragrant Clethras grow by many divaricating sprouts 
or suckers, into a broad mass of coarse light-colored foliage. A 
specimen in the Central Park is eight feet high, ten feet in diame¬ 
ter, and, in September, one of the best single masses of shrub 
foliage. 
The Downy Clethra, C. tomentosa , differs principally in having 
the underside of the leaves covered with white down. 
The Large Clethra, C. acuminata , is a large shrub or low 
tree, with flowers like the first-named sort. A native of the high 
mountains of the Carolinas. 
COLUTEA, OR BLADDER SENNA. Colutea arborescens. 
A quick-growing straggling shrub, with delicate acacia-like leaves, 
of a warm light color. Its flowers are small and yellow, in July 
