Part 30

RUBUS.

RUBUS ARCTICUS.--Arctic Regions of both hemispheres. An interesting species about 6 inches high, with trifoliolate leaves, and deep-red flowers. For Alpine gardening it is a valuable species of dwarf growth.

R. AUSTRALIS, from New Zealand, is a very prickly species, with the leaves reduced to their stalks and the midribs of three leaflets. Not being very hardy it is usually seen as a wall plant.

R. BIFLORUS.--Himalayas, 1818. A tall-growing species with whitish, spiny stems, and simple three-lobed leaves that are tomentose on the under sides. The flowers are thickly produced, pure white, and render the plant highly attractive, and of great beauty.

R. DELICIOSUS.--This Rocky Mountain Bramble (1870) is a very worthy species, with three or five-lobed (not pinnate) leaves, and large, pure white flowers that are each about 2 inches in diameter, and produced in profusion from the leaf-axils. For ornamental planting this may be placed in the first rank of the family to which it belongs.

R. FRUTICOSUS.--Common Bramble, or Blackberry. Of this well-known native species there are several worthy varieties, of which the double-flowered are especially worth notice, blooming as they do in the latter part of summer. R. fruticosus flore albo-pleno (Double white-flowered Bramble), and R. fruticosus flore roseo-pleno (Double red-flowered Bramble) are very pretty and showy varieties, and well worth including in any collection. There is a pretty variegated-leaved form of the common Bramble, known as R. fruticosus variegatus.

R. LACINIATUS, Cut-leaved Bramble, might also be included on account of its profusion of white flowers, and neatly divided foliage.

R. NUTKANUS.--North America, 1826. This has white flowers, but otherwise it resembles R. odoratus.

R. ODORATUS.--Purple flowering Raspberry. North America, 1700. The sweet-scented Virginian Raspberry forms a rather dense, upright growing bush, fully 4 feet high, with large broadly five-lobed and toothed leaves, that are more or less viscid, sweet-scented, and deciduous. The leaves are placed on long, hairy, viscid foot-stalks. Flowers in terminal corymbs, large and nearly circular, purplish-red in colour, and composed of five broad, round petals. The fruit, which is rarely produced in this country, is velvety and amber-coloured. It is a very ornamental species, the ample Maple-like leaves and large flowers rendering it particularly attractive in summer. The leaves, and not the flowers as is generally supposed, are sweetly scented.

R. ROSAEFOLIUS.--Rose-leaved Raspberry. Himalayas, 1811. Another half-hardy species, and only suited for planting against sunny walls. Leaves pinnate, finer than those of the Raspberry. R. r. coronarius, with semi-double white flowers, is better than the type.

R. SPECTABILIS.--The Salmon Berry. North America, 1827. Grows about 6 feet high, with ternate or tri-lobate leaves that are very thickly produced. Flowers usually bright red or purplish-coloured, and placed on long pendulous footstalks. It is of very dense growth, occasioned by the number of suckers sent up from the roots.

There are also some of the so-called American Brambles well worthy of attention, two of the best being Kittatiny and Lawton's:

The brambles are particularly valuable shrubs, as owing to their dense growth they may be used for a variety of purposes, but especially for covering unsightly objects or banks. They are all wonderfully floriferous, and succeed admirably even in very poor and stony soils. Increase is readily obtained either from root suckers or by layering.

RUSCUS.

RUSCUS ACULEATUS.--Butcher's Broom, Pettigree and Pettigrue. Europe (Britain), and North Africa. This is a native evergreen shrub, with rigid cladodes which take the place of leaves, and not very showy greenish flowers appearing about May. For the bright red berries, which are as large as small marbles, it is alone worth cultivating, while it is one of the few shrubs that grow at all satisfactorily beneath the shade of our larger trees.

R. HYPOPHYLLUM.--Double Tongue. Mediterranean region, 1640. This species has the flowers on the undersides of the leaf-like branches; and its variety R.H. Hypoglossum has them on the upper side. Both are of value for planting in the shade.

SAMBUCUS.

SAMBUCUS CALIFORNICA.--Californian Elder. A rare species as yet, but one that from its elegant growth and duration of flowers is sure, when better known, to become widely distributed.

S. GLAUCA has its herbaceous parts covered with a thick pubescence; leaves pubescent on both sides, and with yellow flowers produced in umbels.

S. NIGRA.--Common Elder. Bourtry, or Bour tree. Although one of our commonest native trees, the Elder must rank amongst the most ornamental if only for its large compound cymes of white or yellowish-white flowers, and ample bunches of shining black berries. There are, however, several varieties that should be largely cultivated, such as S. nigra foliis aureis (Golden Elder), S. nigra fructu albo (White Fruited), S. nigra laciniata (Cut-leaved Elder), S. nigra argentea (Silver-leaved Elder), S. nigra rotundifolia (Round-leaved Elder), the names of which will be sufficient for the purposes of recognition.

S. RACEMOSA.--Scarlet-berried Elder. South Europe and Siberia, 1596. This is almost a counterpart of our native species, but instead of black the berries are brilliant scarlet. It is a highly ornamental species, but it is rather exacting, requiring for its perfect growth a cool and moist situation. Of this there is a cut-leaved, form, named S. racemosa serratifolia.

S. ROSAEFLORA is said to be a seedling from S. glauca, but differs in many important points from the parent. It has smooth shoots and branches, ovate-acuminate leaves that are downy beneath, and flowers rose-coloured without and white within. They are produced in short, spike-like clusters, and are almost destitute of smell. The reddish rings at the insertion of the leaves is another distinguishing feature.

For freedom of growth in almost every class of soil, and readiness with which they may be increased, the more showy kinds of Elder are well worthy of attention.

SCHIZANDRA.

SCHIZANDRA CHINENSIS.--Northern China, 1860. This is a climbing shrub, with oval, bright green leaves, and showy carmine flowers. For clothing arbors and walls it may prove of use, but it is as yet rare in cultivation.

S. COCCINEA, from North America (1806), is another uncommon species in which the leaves are oblong and petiolate, and the flowers red or scarlet. For purposes similar to the last this species may be employed.

SCHIZOPHRAGMA.

SCHIZOPHRAGMA HYDRANGEOIDES.--Climbing Hydrangea. Japan, 1879. As yet this is an uncommon shrub, and allied to the Hydrangea. It is of slender growth, the stems rooting into the support, and with pinky-white flowers. As an ornamental climber it is of no great value, and requires a favoured spot to grow it at all satisfactorily.