GENISTA (Ulex) HISPANICA. SPANISH FURZE.
| Name. | Country or Origin and Natural Order. | Colour and Season. | General Remarks. |
| Genista | Leguminosæ | ...... | A popular group of shrubs,
allied to the Cytisus, and
delighting in dry sandy
soils. A group of the finer
species is very rich in
colour when in flower. |
| *G. æthnensis | Slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily | Golden yellow; July and August | This Broom is perfectly
hardy near London. It is
one of the rarest of shrubs
in gardens in spite of its
beauty, and it flowers in
July and August, a season
when even inferior
flowering shrubs are not
plentiful. It has a rather
gaunt, yet not inelegant
habit, and assumes a
somewhat tree-like form
when old, being often
reduced to a single stem at
the base. It carries,
however, a wide head of
thin cord-like, arching or
pendulous branches, with
little or no foliage except
when the wood is quite
young. The flowers are of a
rich golden-yellow, and
during the series of hot
summers we have experienced
in recent years have been
especially abundant. It
would, indeed, be difficult
to find a shrub better
adapted for hot, light
soils than this, a fact
that is amply proved by the
way it succeeds at Kew. It
is a good plant for
associating with
medium-sized evergreens,
which hide its bare stems
and render it more
effective when in flower.
It grows 10 feet to 14 feet high,
and is thus one of the
tallest—if not the tallest—of
the Brooms hardy in
Britain. It ripens seed
freely, and is best
propagated by that means. |
| G. cinerea | South-West Europe | Yellow; July | This is a shrubby plant for
the rock-garden in sunny
places. |
| *G. hispanica | South-West Europe | Yellow; July | A dwarf and charming shrub,
1 foot to 2 feet high, and
when in bloom covered with
flowers. One of the best of
its race. |
| G. monosperma | Sicily | White | Not well known but
interesting. Sandy soil.
Tender. |
| G. pilosa | Europe, England | Rich Yellow; May and June | A prostrate plant for the
rock garden. Ordinary soil. |
| *G. radiata | Central and Southern Europe | Yellow; Summer | Very beautiful when in full
flower on the rock garden,
and will even succeed in a
rough wall. |
| G. sagittalis | Europe | Yellow; May and June | Another dwarf species for
rock garden. |
| G. tinctoria | Britain | Yellow; July and September | The double variety
flore-pleno and elatior are
finer than the species.
Elatior makes quite a bush
and is very attractive
when in full bloom. |
| *G. virgata | Madeira | Yellow; June and July | This must attain a certain
age and size before it
displays its full beauty,
small plants flowering
sparsely or not at all,
while older specimens are a
glorious sight during the
period of flowering.
Thoroughly hardy in at
least the southern half of
England, self-sown
seedlings of it having been
known to spring up in
considerable numbers under
old plants in sheltered
positions. In a shrubbery
or wood it makes a
brilliant blaze of yellow.
It succeeds in almost any
soil or situation provided
it is not too heavy or wet.
Under favourable conditions
it reaches a height of 16
feet to 20 feet, with
rather straggling branches,
every little twig of which
is covered with flowers in
season. The leaves are
about half an inch in
length, and covered with
white, silky hairs on the
under side and a few
scattered ones on the upper
surface. Easily raised from
seed. Excellent for barren
land. |
THE SPANISH FURZE ON ROUGH SLOPE.
GENISTA MONOSPERMA.
| Name. | Country or Origin and Natural Order. | Colour and Season. | General Remarks. |
| Gordonia Lasianthus (Loblolly Bay) | Virginia to Florida; Ternstrœmiaceæ | White; July | A sub-evergreen shrub 6 to
8 feet high, bearing
beautiful white flowers
like single Camellias. It
needs a sheltered spot and
a moist peaty soil. |
| G. pubescens | Georgia and Florida | White | Of rather smaller growth
than the preceding, while
the leaves are pubescent
underneath. The flowers,
too, have the tuft of
yellow stamens more
pronounced than in G.
Lasianthus. Both need the
same treatment. |
| Halesias (Silver Bell, or Snowdrop trees) | Styraceæ | ...... | This is a beautiful family
of flowering trees, named
after Dr. Stephen Hales.
The flowers are like the
snowdrop in shape, hence
the name, and there are two
distinct sections, American
and Asiatic. The Halesias
like a rich, moist, loamy
or peaty soil. Although
often trees of considerable
size in their native homes,
they mostly retain a
somewhat shrubby character
in this country. All the
species, however, except H.
parviflora, can, by pruning
away the lower branches, be
made to form small trees. |
| Halesia corymbosa (Syn. Pterostyrax corymbosum) | Japan, in the province of Higo | White, tinted with pink or yellow; Spring | Mr. Bean writes in The
Garden, May 19, 1900, p.
361, about this species as
follows: "I do not know if
there is any authenticated
instance of its having
flourished in Britain or
even in Europe, most plants
so called being H. hispida.
It was first found on the
mountains of the most
southern of the main
islands of Japan, in the
province of Higo, and may
possibly not be quite so
hardy as H. hispida.
Judging by pictures and
dried specimens, its
racemes, whilst having much
the same general character
as that species, are
shorter, broader, and more
branched, and the flowers
are not so numerous on the
branches of the racemes,
and the fruits are more
downy than bristly. The
flowers have the same
one-sided arrangement on
the racemes." |
| H. diptera | South-eastern United States | White; late Spring | Not a common species, and
dwarfer than H. tetraptera.
The flowers are white,
Snowdrop-like, and are
borne on slender pendulous
stalks as in H. tetraptera;
they differ, however, in
having the corolla almost
lobed to the base. Very
distinctive is the
seed-vessel, which has but
two prominent wings, the
other two being only
rudimentary. Whilst not
perhaps equal in merit to
H. tetraptera this species
appears to have been
undeservedly neglected. Its
dwarf bushy habit will also
render it more suitable for
some positions; it loves
abundant moisture at the
root. It blossoms rather
later than H. tetraptera. |
| H. hispida | China and Japan. Introduced about 1870 | White | This belongs to the Asiatic
group of Halesias, and is
very distinct from the
American species. It is a
vigorous shrub, a small
tree with large oblong
leaves, and small flowers,
which are very numerous on
the raceme, which is 4
inches to 8 inches long.
One striking peculiarity of
the raceme is that the
flowers are arranged on the
upper side only of its
branches (a somewhat
similar arrangement is seen
in Freesia flowers). The
seed-vessels are covered
with bristly hairs. Mr.
Bean says, "Whilst
perfectly hardy at Kew in
the open, it blossoms more
freely on a wall. The
finest specimens I have
seen of this Halesia are
growing near a
carriage-road leading to
Mr. Gumbleton's house and
garden at Belgrove,
Queenstown." It flowers in
this country in June.
|
| H. parviflora | South-eastern United States. Introduced in 1802 | White; end of May | This is invariably a shrub.
It is represented in the
Kew collection by a large
bush, which flowers as a
rule with great freedom
towards the end of May each
year. The arrangement of
the flowers is more
racemose than fasciculate,
and whilst they are very
abundant they are not so
large as in H. tetraptera
or H. diptera. They are
white and Snowdrop-like.
The seed-vessels are only
slightly and unequally
winged. On the whole,
therefore, the species is
easily distinguished from
its two fellow American
species. The grace and
abundance of its bloom make
it well worthy of
cultivation wherever a
variety of hardy shrubs is
desired. |
| *H. tetraptera (Common Snowdrop tree) | South United States. Introduced by a London merchant named Ellis in 1756 | White; May | A beautiful tree. Whilst
according to Prof. Sargent
it occasionally attains a
height of 80 to 90 feet in
its native country, it is
seldom more than 20 feet
high in the British Isles.
Its flowers are like pure
white Snowdrops, hence the
popular name. The
seed-vessels are 1½
inches to 2 inches long,
and have four prominent
wings that transverse them
lengthwise. |
| H. t. Meehani | This originated as a seedling in Meehan's Nursery, Germanstown, Philadelphia. | White | A very handsome and
distinct variety, with
shorter flower-stalks, and
thicker and more coarsely
wrinkled leaves than the
type. |
SHOOT OF SNOWDROP TREE (Halesia tetraptera).
