Berry-Bearing Shrubs 
By MARIE von TSCHUDI PRICE 
PART I 
C OMPARED with the cultivation and knowl¬ 
edge of shrubs in Great Britain and on the 
continent of Europe, not omitting Australia 
and Japan so rich in shrubs, America is far behind 
and has much to learn of their usefulness and beauty. 
Our native shrubs are not so numerous and in many 
cases not so beautiful as those of the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere, but many of the foreign varieties have been 
introduced and grown with successful results and 
demonstrate that there is no more pleasing group of 
growing things than shrubs. They tempt the ama¬ 
teur as well as the professional gardener to seek a 
more extended acquaintance with them. I hey are 
easy to cultivate, useful, highly ornamental and have 
an infinite variety of charm, a charm that commences 
when their colored branches begin to bourgeon and 
which continues month by month while their flowers 
bloom, their dark green leaves change to vivid reds 
and yellows and the last one falls revealing their 
glowing fruits. 
Miniature trees, some growing to the height of 
twenty feet or more are seen among the hollies. I heir 
greatest beauty is to be found among the smaller and 
even dwarf varieties, both of the evergreen and de¬ 
ciduous species and especially attractive are those 
shrubs that bear fruit ranging in colors from light 
yellow, orange, white, black, blue and many shades 
of red from pink to deep crimson and retain them 
until the buds of another spring are putting forth on 
the leaf denuded branches. There are also many 
beautiful shrubs that do not bear berries but it is 
proposed here to mention only those valued for their 
richly colored fruit in winter, attractive when the 
landscape is bleak and gray or white with whirling 
snowflakes. 
Among the ornamental and hardy evergreen shrubs 
of interest are the Skimmias, so called from a Jap¬ 
anese word signifying “hurtful fruit,” but as the birds 
eat them, the warning in their name must be in¬ 
tended for man. They are easily cultivated in peat 
or rich loam and are increased by cuttings planted 
under glass. The best varieties are S. foreman!, 
S. fortunei and S. Japonica and the brilliant red 
berries of the first named species wdl remain bright 
on the branches for two years if the birds do not 
trouble them. This is a gentle hint to all bird lovers 
to cultivate such shrubs having winter berries that 
the little brothers of St. Francis may eat and be 
merry. Of the natural order aquifoliaceee the Skim¬ 
mias are of the same order as the hollies and belong¬ 
ing to the rue family ( rutacece ) they can claim kindred 
to the genus citrus to which the orange and lemon, 
the prickly ash and hop trees belong. Producing an 
abundance of white flowers, delightfully fragrant, 
they are beautiful in appearance and leave a pleasant 
memory, unlike the common, garden variety of the 
rue family “emblem of bitterness and sorrowful 
remembrance,” natives of Japan and the Himalayas 
as only a few of the half dozen species are in orna¬ 
mental cultivation. They do not thrive in the open 
further north than Washington City. South of the 
District of Columbia they may be used to advantage 
for borders and are valuable shrubs to be planted in 
cities as they are not affected by smoke. Cultivated 
in greenhouses some varieties bear two harvests of 
fruit in a season and on this account, they make 
beautiful pot plants growing well in a sandy compost 
of peat loam. The Sknnmia Japonica has the flowers 
blooming beside the ripened berries, suggesting the 
orange and lemon trees distinguished also for this 
charming characteristic. 
Among ornamental evergreen and deciduous trees 
and shrubs, conspicuous during the winter for black, 
red and sometimes yellow fruit, the hollies should be 
widely cultivated, their height in their native habitat 
placing them among the trees and their shape and 
size under different conditions among the shrubs. 
I hey are to be found in the North and South temper¬ 
ate zones, in the tropics and radiate in all directions 
from South America, their seeming center of distri¬ 
bution. Holly, whose patronymic is Ilicinece, be¬ 
longs to the genus ilex and is a member of the great 
aquifohacece family group having needle or thorn- 
pointed leaves. The wizardry of nature having 
transformed the long lobes of the oak-leaves into 
spiny terminations or changed them into narrow 
and pointed leaves, the holm-oak of Southern Europe 
(Quercus ilex ) and the live or evergreen oaks of 
America, with their spiny-tipped leaves, are among 
their well-known kindred and the hollies seem to be 
a remote connecting link between the genus ilex and 
the genus quercus to which the great oak trees belong. 
The hollies grow to the best advantage in soil rich 
and well drained and the evergreen varieties in 
situations partially shaded from the sun. The 
evergreens should be transplanted in the early au¬ 
tumn when the young wood has ripened or in the 
early spring before the new wood commences to grow. 
They may be increased by budding or grafting on 
other varieties and cuttings of the ripened wood 
will root in a sheltered place or under glass. They 
may be trained or clipped into any desired shape, used 
28 
