CHAPTER XI

TREES AND SHRUBS WITH FINE FRUITS

The most important of all the groups of trees and shrubs, for their fruit, is the one comprising the hardy species of the Rose order. This includes, of course, besides the Roses, such trees and shrubs as the Thorns, Crabs, and Cotoneasters. Among the Thorns (Cratægus) are many very handsome sorts giving variety in size and colour of the fruits. It is unfortunate that many of them fall early and get spoilt by birds. At the same time birds add so greatly to the delight of the garden that we may well overlook their depredations. By many, indeed, these fruiting trees will be considered worth growing for the encouragement they give to bird-life. It may be well to remind planters that a considerable number of these fruiting trees and shrubs bear male flowers on one plant, female on another. People are often at a loss to understand why their Sea Buckthorns or Aucubas or Skimmias do not fruit, when the simple reason is that the plants are all male (or pollen-bearing), or that the female ones have no males to fertilise them. As a general rule, if these shrubs are grouped, one male to eight or ten females is a proper proportion. As plants raised from seeds come in about equal proportions of both sexes, it is necessary to select the females and keep just sufficient males to pollenise them, in order that the full beauty of the species as a fruit-bearer may be obtained. With Skimmias and Aucubas the proper proportions can be obtained by means of cuttings.

The following hardy trees and shrubs are the most conspicuous for the beauty of their fruits:--

ARBUTUS UNEDO.--A native of Western Ireland, has strawberry-like fruits of a bright-scarlet colour.

AILANTUS GLANDULOSA, a fine tree over 50 feet high, is very beautiful when covered with its red and yellow-winged fruits; there are male and female plants.

AUCUBAS, grown at first for their ornamental foliage merely, have latterly come into prominence as fruit-bearers; the female plants bear clusters of bright-red berries which remain long on the branches and are very attractive in winter.

BERBERIS.--The fruits of the Berberries are mostly covered with a plum-coloured bloom as in _B. Aquifolium_ and _B. Darwinii_, but none of them is handsomer than our native _B. vulgaris_ and its varieties. These have pendent racemes of fruits, varying in colour from the typical orange scarlet to white, purple, and black. _B. Thunbergi_ coral-red, very beautiful.

CRATÆGUS.--The finest of all the Thorns is _C. Pyracantha_, well named by the French "Buisson ardent." This shrub or small tree is valuable as a graceful evergreen, and when clothed (as it nearly always is in autumn) with its brilliant clusters of orange-red haws, it is one of the most beautiful objects in the garden. It is quite hardy in the open, but bears fruits more abundantly when planted against a wall. In that position also it is more easily protected from birds, which soon destroy the beauty of plants in the open. The variety _Lælandi_ is distinct from the type, but hardier, and bears bright berries in abundance. The Cockspur Thorn (_C. Crus-Galli_) has several varieties, all producing pendent clusters of scarlet haws. The varieties like _pyracanthifolia_, with narrow leaves and flat-topped habit, are the best in this respect; they retain the fruits well into the winter, and are not eaten by birds so freely as many are. The haws of _C. cordata_, the Washington Thorn, are small, but a brilliant orange. _C. punctata_, _C. Azarolus_, and _C. pinnatifida_ have the largest haws of any, and they are of a deep red, but fall early; the two first, however, are variable, and forms with yellow and other coloured haws belong to them. Those of _C. macracantha_ are bright red, and in favourable years are so plentiful as to make the tree wondrously beautiful. _C. coccinea_ and _C. mollis_ have also red haws, larger than those of _C. macracantha_, but they fall soon after they are ripe. The Common Hawthorn is pretty, but more noteworthy is its variety _aurea_, with bright-yellow haws. In _C. oliveriana_ they are black. The Tansy-leaved Thorn (_C. tanacetifolia_) has large yellow fruits, not badly flavoured, and with the fragrance of Apples. _C. orientalis_ has haws of a bright sealing-wax red, but in its variety _sanguinea_ they are of a deeper shade.

COTONEASTERS.--Not enough use is made of Cotoneasters in gardens. They grow well in almost any soil, and are all marked by elegant or neat habit. They are very pretty when in flower, but it is in autumn, when laden with fruits, that they attain their greatest beauty. One of the tallest of them is _C. frigida_, and this bears a great abundance of rich scarlet-red berries in flat clusters. In the nearly allied _C. bacillaris_ they are almost black. _C. rotundifolia_ is a dwarfer shrub, but the finest of all the Cotoneasters for its fruit; it grows about 4 feet high, and has small, very dark green, persistent leaves; the fruits are about the size and shape of the haws of the Common Hawthorn, and are brilliant scarlet red; they are ripe in October, and from then till March make one of the most beautiful of winter pictures. In _C. buxifolia_ the fruit is very abundant, but the red colour is not so bright as in the preceding. _C. horizontalis_, now getting to be a well-known shrub, has very pretty, globose, bright-red fruits, small but freely borne. _C. Simonsii_, of medium height, has brilliant red berries, as has _C. acuminata_, a near ally, but taller. The dwarfest section of Cotoneaster, viz., _thymifolia_, _microphylla_ and its variety _glacialis_ (or _congesta_), which are so useful for rockeries, have all scarlet berries.

CELASTRUS ARTICULATUS is a vigorous climber from Eastern Asia, remarkable for the great beauty of its fruits, which are golden yellow within, and when ripe split open and reveal the shining scarlet-coated seeds. _C. scandens_ has orange-coloured seeds.

CORIARIA JAPONICA is very beautiful in autumn, when it succeeds as well as it does with Canon Ellacombe at Bitton, the fruits being covered then with the persistent petals which are of a lovely coral red.

CORNUS CAPITATA (_Benthamia fragifera_) only succeeds to perfection in the south-western counties; its strawberry-like red fruits are very handsome.

COPROSMA ACEROSA is a dwarf New Zealand shrub suitable for the rockery; it has variously-shaded, transparent, blue-green berries.

ELÆAGNUS MULTIFLORA (or _E. longipes_) is the most ornamental in the genus with regard to its fruits. They are remarkably abundant, orange-coloured, and specked with reddish scales.

EUONYMUS EUROPÆUS, our native "Spindle tree," is most beautiful in autumn, when, after a favourable season, it is covered with its open red fruits revealing the orange-coloured seeds within.

FRAXINUS MARIESII is one of Messrs. Veitch's introductions from Japan, and is a dwarf tree, one of the "Manna" Ashes; the thin keys are of a bronzy-red colour and pretty.

GLEDITSCHIA TRIACANTHOS is the "Honey Locust." The pods are not brightly coloured, being at first green, then brown, but they are long, thin, and wavy, like crooked scimitars, and hanging in numbers on the tree; have a very curious and (in this country) uncommon aspect.

HEDERA (Ivy).--Some of the "tree" forms of Ivy produce berries freely; the most ornamental of them are the red, yellow, and orange-coloured varieties of _H. Helix arborescens_.

HYMENANTHERA CRASSIFOLIA, from New Zealand, is a dense-growing, stiff-branched, dwarf shrub, chiefly noteworthy for the white berries it bears.

HYPERICUMS.--_H. Androsæmum_ and _H. elatum_ produce rather handsome clusters of black fruits.

HIPPOPHAË RHAMNOIDES, the Sea Buckthorn, is one of the most brilliantly coloured of all berry-bearing shrubs. It produces them in marvellous profusion, and they are bright-orange coloured. Birds do not molest the berries, and unless caught by severe frosts (which turn them grey) they lighten the garden wonderfully up to, and sometimes after, the New Year. The necessity of growing both sexes of plants has already been noted, but isolated females may be artificially impregnated by shaking pollen over them when in flower.

ILEX (Holly).--The berries of the Holly are so well known that we need only mention the yellow-berried one (_fructu-luteo_), which is not common, but very effective in winter.

LIGUSTRUM.--The Privets are of little consequence as fruit-bearing shrubs, and only _L. sinense_ need be mentioned; it is frequently very striking in early winter, being covered then with great clusters of purple-black, shot-like berries.

LYCIUM CHINENSE.--Nearly all the Box Thorns in this country belong to this species. As for _L. europæum_ and _L. barbarum_, the names are very common, but the plants themselves very rare. _L. chinense_ is very ornamental in the fall of the year, its long graceful branches being well furnished with rich red berries. _L. rhombifolium_ is one of its forms.

MAGNOLIA TRIPETALA is occasionally noticeable in autumn because of its large upright fruits of a reddish-purple colour.

MACLURA AURANTIACA, the "Osage Orange," bears a remarkable orange-coloured fruit 2 to 3 inches in diameter. The tree is quite hardy, but we have not heard of its bearing fruit in this country. This is perhaps because male and female flowers occur on different plants.

PERNETTYA MUCRONATA.--First among ericaceous plants for beauty in fruit is this Magellanic plant and its varieties. It is dwarf and bushy, with small white flowers followed by enormous quantities of berries about the size of peas. These vary in colour from white to deep crimson, and are undoubtedly some of the most valuable of all hardy berry-bearing shrubs. The varieties are very beautiful.

PALIURUS AUSTRALIS (Christ's Thorn) has flat, disk-like fruits, freely borne in suitable years; they are green, and if not particularly ornamental, are very quaint and interesting.

PTELEA TRIFOLIATA.--The same may be said of the abundant clusters of hop-like fruits seen in this tree.

PYRUS.--In this genus, which includes the Mountain Ash, the Crabs, and the White Beam trees, there is a great wealth of beautiful fruiting trees. The Mountain Ash or Rowan tree (_P. Aucuparia_), when laden with its hanging corymbs of rich scarlet berries is a delightful picture, and it reaches its full beauty in August. Not so well known is the variety _fructu-luteo_, with yellow fruits. A near relative of the Rowan tree is _P. americana_, its New World representative, but it is not so beautiful. The fruit is almost identical, but the tree is of a stiff and less graceful aspect. The new _P. thianschanica_, which also belongs to the Rowan tree group, has bright-red, globose berries. Perhaps of all the genus Pyrus, none on the whole are so beautiful in autumn as the Crabs. _P. baccata_, the Siberian Crab, with its bright-red, cherry-like fruits, and _P. Ringo_ from Japan, with bright-yellow ones, are the best of the true species. The hybrid "John Downie" Crab is also very beautiful in autumn.

The flowering QUINCES are not particularly attractive in regard to the colour of their fruits, but some of them--notably those of the dwarf _Pyrus Maulei_--are very sweetly scented.

Some very handsome fruits are borne by the various White Beam trees (_Pyrus Aria_ and its allies). Perhaps the best of them is _P. lanata_ (or _Sorbus majestica_), which has flat clusters of bright-red berries. But many of the varieties of _P. Aria_ itself are very attractive. One of the latest additions to this group is _P. alnifolia_, a neat-habited small tree from Japan and China. It has oblong coral-red fruits.

ROSA.--Beauty at fruiting time is an almost proverbial attribute of the Roses. None is more beautiful than our native Dog Rose (_R. canina_). Though in many an English hedgerow, an out-of-the-way corner in many a garden might be given up to the Dog Rose and its varieties for the sake of their wealth of scarlet hips in autumn. _R. tomentosa_ and _R. mollis_ are other red-fruited natives of Britain. All the members of the Scotch Rose group (_pimpinellifolia_) have black fruits. Of exotic species, one of the most valuable is _R. rugosa_; its flat, orange-shaped hips are so abundant and brightly coloured that they make a brilliant picture. _R. microphylla_ has yellow prickly fruits, whilst those of _R. macrophylla_ are pear-shaped and scarlet. The deep-crimson hips of _R. pomifera_, covered with bristly hairs like large gooseberries, are as remarkable as any. Some of the American species, although the fruits are usually small, are handsome, such as _R. nutkana_ and _R. Carolina_. The elongated, pear-shaped fruits of _R. alpina_ and its variety _pyrenaica_ are bright red, and have a pleasant, resinous odour when rubbed.

RAPHIOLEPIS JAPONICA, with its clusters of small, round black berries, should be planted at least against a wall; it is a rather slow-growing evergreen shrub with strawberry-like flowers.

RHAPHITHAMNUS CYANOCARPUS can only be grown outside against a wall, or in Cornwall or similar localities, but where it will succeed it is well worth growing, not only for its pale-blue flowers, but for the bright-blue fruits that follow them.

Some of the RHAMNUS, such as the native _R. catharticus_ and _R. Frangula_, bear abundant crops of purple-black berries.

The dense pyramidal fruit-clusters of the Stag's-horn Sumach (_Rhus typhina_) are often attractive, being covered with crimson hairs. Those of _R. glabra_ are similarly coloured.

RUBUS PHOENICOLASIUS has spread in cultivation recently, and has beautiful scarlet berries. It is hardy enough, but birds are so attracted by the bright colour, that it requires protection from them when in fruit.

SAMBUCUS.--The scarlet-berried Elder, _S. racemosus_, is by far the handsomest of the genus, but although it flowers freely enough, it is very uncertain in producing its fruits. _S. glauca_, from the West United States, produces large, flat clusters of blue-white berries, and there is a striking white-fruited variety of _S. nigra_ called _leucocarpa_.

THE SNOWBERRY (_Symphoricarpus racemosus_) should always have a place in the garden for the sake of its clusters of large pure white berries, which remain long on the plants.

VIBURNUM.--There are several very handsome fruiting species in this genus, no finer, however, than the native _V. Opulus_, or Guelder Rose, with red fruits, and its variety _fructu-luteo_ with yellow ones. In the other native species, _V. Lantana_, they are at first red, ultimately black. Several of the Viburnums are noteworthy for the blue or blue-black fruits; of these are _dentatum_, _molle_, _cassinoides_, and _nudum_. Those of the evergreen _V. Tinus_ are also dark blue, but, as with the other blue-fruited species, they are not frequently borne in profusion in the average climate of Britain.

VITIS HETEROPHYLLA and its variety _humulifolia_, bear singularly beautiful clusters of pale china-blue berries. To induce them to fruit freely, however, the plants require a warm, sunny wall, and rather restricted root-room.