ence to its pages. The descriptive notes and hints on
cultivation, the selected lists of Trees and Shrubs for various special
purposes, and the calendarial list which indicates the flowering season
of the different species, may be considered all the more valuable for
being concisely written, and made readily accessible by means of the
Index.

No work written on a similar plan and treating solely of Hardy
Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs has hitherto been published;
and it is not supposed for a moment that the present one will entirely
supply the deficiency; but should it meet with any measure of public
approval, it may be the means of paving the way towards the publication
of a more elaborate work--and one altogether more worthy of the
interesting and beautiful Flowering Trees and Shrubs that have been
found suitable for planting in the climate of the British Isles.

Of the fully thirteen hundred species and varieties of Trees and Shrubs
enumerated, all may be depended upon as being hardy in some part of the
country. Several of them, and particularly those introduced from China
and Japan, have not before been included in a book of this character.
Trials for the special purpose of testing the hardiness of the more
tender kinds have been instituted and carried out in several favoured
parts of England and Ireland.

A.D.W.
HOLLYDALE, WOBURN.

PREFACE TO SECOND AND CHEAP EDITION, 1897.

The First Edition of Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs having
been sold out, it has been considered desirable to run off a second and
cheap edition on exactly similar lines to the first, and previous to the
more elaborate illustrated edition which is now in hand.

A.D.W.
BOXMOOR, HERTS, 1897.

HARDY ORNAMENTAL FLOWERING TREES & SHRUBS.

ABELIA.

ABELIA CHINENSIS (_syn A. rupestris_).--The Rock Abelia China, 1844.
This is a neat, twiggy shrub, growing from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, with
slender shoots, and very pleasing, shining green serrated leaves. The
tubular, sweet-scented flowers are produced in clusters at the ends of
the shoots, even the smallest, and are of a very delicate shade of
pink--indeed, almost white. It makes an excellent wall plant, but by
no means refuses to grow and flower freely without either shelter or
protection, provided a fairly rich and well drained soil is provided.
From August to October is the flowering period of this handsome
deciduous shrub. This is the only really hardy species