VIBURNUM ACERIFOLIUM.—Dockmackie. New England to Carolina, 1736. This is one of the handsomest members of the family, being of slender growth and compact and neat in habit. It grows to fully 4 feet in height, and is well supplied with neatly three-lobed leaves, these in the autumn turning to a deep crimson. The flowers, too, are highly ornamental, being borne in fair sized clusters, and white or yellowish-white. It is a very desirable and beautiful plant, quite hardy, and of free growth in any fairly rich soil.
V. AWAFUKII.—Japan, 1842. This is another rare and beautiful plant, of neat habit, and producing an abundance of showy white flowers, that are, however, seldom produced in this country.
V. DAHURICUM.—Dahuria, 1785. This is a charming hardy species, which in May and June is covered with numerous umbels of showy white flowers. It forms a rather spreading bush of 6 feet or 8 feet high, with gray downy branches, and neat foliage. The berries are oval-oblong, red at first, but becoming black and faintly scented when fully ripe.
V. DENTATUM.—Arrowwood. A native of the United States, 1763. This can be recommended as a distinct and beautiful shrub, with cymes of white flowers that are produced in plenty. The leaves are dark green, smooth, and shining, and strongly veined, while the bark is ash-coloured, and the berries bright blue.
V. LANTANA.—Wayfaring Tree. Europe (Britain). This is a native species of large bush, or almost tree growth, with rugose, oblong, serrulated leaves, and large, flat cymes of white flowers appearing in May and June. The whole tree is usually covered with a scaly tomentum, while the fruit is a black flattened drupe.
V. LENTAGO.—Sheepberry and Sweet Viburnum. North America, 1761. This resembles our native V. Lantana, with dense clusters of white blossoms succeeded by black berries.
V. MACROCEPHALUM (syn V. Fortunei).—China, 1844. This is a Chinese species, but one that cannot be depended on as hardy enough to withstand our most severe winters. It has very large heads or panicles of white neutral flowers. Against a sunny wall and in a cosy nook it may occasionally be found doing fairly well, but it is not to be generally recommended.
V. NUDUM.—American Withe Rod. Canada to Georgia, 1752. This is also worthy of being included in a selection of these shrubs.
V. OPULUS.—Guelder Rose. A native shrub of great beauty, whether in foliage, flower, or fruit. The leaves are variously lobed or deeply toothed, large and handsome, and the flower heads of good size, flat, and composed of a number of small flowers, the outer only being sterile. Individually the flowers are dull and inconspicuous, but being produced in amazing quantity, they have a very pleasing and effective appearance. The great bunches of clear pinky berries render a fair-sized plant particularly handsome and attractive, and for which alone, as also beauty of autumnal foliage, the shrub is well worthy of extensive culture. It grows fully 15 feet high, and may frequently be seen as much through. V. Opulus sterilis (Snowball Tree) is one of the commonest occupants of our shrubberies, and a decidedly ornamental-flowering shrub. The large, almost globular flower heads hanging from every branch tip, are too well-known to require description, and have made the shrub one of the most popular in ornamental planting.
V. PAUCIFLORUM is a native of cold, moist woods from Labrador to Alaska, and may best be described as a miniature V. Opulus. It rarely grows more than 4 feet high, with small cymes of flowers, that are devoid of the neutral flowers of that species.