Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and ShrubsWebster, Angus D.
History
Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs
Webster, Angus D.
Flowering shrubs; Flowering trees
LEDUM LATIFOLIUM (_syn L. groenlandicum_).--Wild Rosemary, or Labrador
Tea. This is a small shrub, reaching to about 3 feet in height,
indigenous to swampy ground in Canada, Greenland, and over a large area
of the colder parts of America. Leaves oval or oblong, and plentifully
produced all over the plant. Flowers pure white, or slightly tinted with
pink, produced in terminal corymbs, and usually at their best in April.
A perfectly hardy, neat-growing, and abundantly-flowered shrub, but one
that, somehow, has gone greatly out of favour in this country. This
plant has been sub-divided into several varieties, that are, perhaps,
distinct enough to render them worthy of attention. They are L.
latifolium globosum, with white flowers, borne in globose heads, on the
short, twiggy, and dark-foliaged branches. L. latifolium angustifolia
has narrower leaves than those of the species, while L. latifolium
intermedium is of neat growth and bears pretty, showy flowers.
L. PALUSTRE.--Marsh Ledum. This is a common European species, growing
from 2 feet to 3 feet high, with much smaller leaves than the former,
and small pinky-white flowers produced in summer. It is an interesting
and pretty plant. The Ledums succeed best in cool, damp, peaty soil.
LEIOPHYLLUM.
LEIOPHYLLUM BUXIFOLIUM (_syns L. thymifolia, Ammyrsine buxifolia_ and
_Ledum buxifolium_).--Sand Myrtle. New Jersey and Virginia, 1736. This
is a dwarf, compact shrub from New Jersey, with box-like leaves, and
bunches of small white flowers in early summer. For using as a rock
plant, and in sandy peat, it is an excellent subject, and should find a
place in every collection.
LESPEDEZA.
LESPEDEZA BICOLOR (_syn Desmodium penduliflorum_).--North China and
Japan. A little-known but beautiful small-growing shrub, of slender,
elegant growth, and reaching, under favourable culture, a height of
about 6 feet. The leaves are trifoliolate, small, and neat, and the
abundant racemes of individually small, Pea-shaped flowers are of the
richest and showiest reddish-purple. Being only semi-hardy will account
for the scarcity of this beautiful Japanese shrub, but having stood
uninjured in all but the coldest parts of these islands should induce
lovers of flowering shrubs to give it a fair chance.
LEUCOTHOE.
LEUCOTHOE AXILLARIS (_syn Andromeda axillaris_).--North America, 1765.
This is of small growth, from 2 feet to 3 feet high, with oval-pointed
leaves and white flowers in short racemes produced in May and June. It
is not a very satisfactory species for cultivation in this country.
L. CATESBAEI (_syns Andromeda Catesbaei_ and _A. axillaris_).--North
America. This has white flowers with an unpleasant odour like that of
Chestnut blossoms, but is worthy of cultivation, and succeeds best in
cool sandy peat or friable yellow loam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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