Part 12

From the delicacy and fragrance of its flowers the Common White Jesamine (page 57) ranks as one of the most popular plants of the garden. It forms a slender-growing, climbing plant, with feather-shaped leaves and acutely-pointed leaflets, and flowers from May to October.

The Common Lilac (page 58) is familiar with its purple or white-coloured spikes of flowers, which open in May. It forms a tall-growing plant, with large heart-shaped leaves.

Travers's Speedwell (page 59) is a charming evergreen shrub about four feet high, with short racemes of pale-mauve-coloured flowers, which open in June and July. The leaves are arranged four-rowed along the shoots, with short footstalks, narrow-oblong in shape, and dark-green in colour.

A plant peculiar to cottage gardens is the Common Lavender (page 60), which produces long-stalked spikes of blue flowers throughout the summer. These flowers are usually cut and dried for their lasting fragrance, whilst the much-appreciated lavender water is distilled from the flowers. It forms a dense-growing bush about two feet high, with long narrow-shaped leaves.

On page 61 is illustrated the Poet's Laurel or Sweet Bay, a beautiful evergreen shrub from South Europe. In many parts of Britain it grows over 21 feet high, but it is usually grown in tubs for floral decoration. The leaves, which are spear-shaped, have an agreeable, slightly bitter taste, and are used in cooking and for confections. The flowers, which are borne in the axils of the leaves, are yellowish in colour, but inconspicuous, and appear in early spring.

The Spurge Laurel (page 62), one of the European (British) shrubs, forms an evergreen bush about three feet high, with thick, shining, spear-shaped leaves. The sweet-scented flowers, of a greenish-yellow colour, appear in February and March, but are inconspicuous, and are borne in drooping clusters at the base of the leaves. Fruit of this plant is highly poisonous.

The Mezereon (page 63) is a conspicuous plant early in March through the leafless branches being covered with red, fragrant blossoms, succeeded later in summer by scarlet berries set amidst lance-shaped and acute-pointed leaves. The Mezereon forms an erect-shaped bush, about four feet high, of which the bark is used medicinally. A white-flowering form of this plant is in cultivation and bears yellow-coloured berries in summer.

Another of the British shrubs is illustrated at page 64 in the Butcher's Broom, a plant growing about two feet high, with rigid, spiny, widened branches on which are borne the small, white solitary flowers, which open in March and April. For a photograph on a larger scale, see Wild Flowers at Home, Fourth Series ("Nature Book" No. 16), page 58.

--------------------

The Latin nomenclature adopted for the shrubs in this volume is that of the "Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs" (1902) issued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The English and French names are compiled from various sources; where none existed, suitable appellations have been coined. The German names are due to the kindness of Herr Andreas Voss.

Gowans's Nature Books

The object of these little books is to stimulate a love for nature and a desire to study it.

Each Volume contains Sixty Photographs by the best Nature Photographers, and is printed on the finest paper obtainable.

No. 1.--WILD BIRDS AT HOME. Sixty Photographs from Life, by Chas. Kirk, of British Birds and their Nests.

No. 2.--WILD FLOWERS AT HOME. First Series. Sixty Photographs from Nature, by Cameron Todd.

No. 3.--WILD FLOWERS AT HOME. Second Series. By the Same.

No. 4.--BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS AT HOME. Sixty Photographs from Life, by A. Forrester.

No. 5.--WILD BIRDS AT HOME. Second Series. By Chas. Kirk.

No. 6.--FRESHWATER FISHES. Sixty Photographs from Life, by Walford B. Johnson and Stanley C. Johnson, M.A.

No. 7.--TOADSTOOLS AT HOME. Sixty Photographs of Fungi, by Somerville Hastings, F.R.C.S.

No. 8.--OUR TREES AND HOW TO KNOW THEM. Sixty Photographs by Chas. Kirk.

No. 9.--WILD FLOWERS AT HOME. Third Series. By Somerville Hastings, F.R.C.S.

No. 10.--LIFE IN THE ANTARCTIC. Sixty Photographs from Life, by Members of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition.

No. 11.--REPTILE LIFE. Sixty Photographs from Life, by Walford B. Johnson and Stanley C. Johnson, M.A.

No. 12.--SEA-SHORE LIFE. Sixty Photographs by the Same.

No. 13.--BIRDS AT THE ZOO. Sixty Photographs from Life, by W.S. Berridge, F.Z.S.

No. 14.--ANIMALS AT THE ZOO. Sixty Photographs by the Same.

No. 15.--SOME MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES AND THEIR EGGS. Sixty Photographs by A.E. Tonge, F.E.S.