LYCIUM.

LYCIUM BARBARUM.—­Box Thorn, or Tea Tree.  North Asia, 1696.  A pretty lax, trailing shrub, with long, slender, flexible twigs, small linear-lanceolate leaves, and rather sparsely-produced lilac or violet flowers.  Planted against a wall, or beside a stout-growing, open-habited shrub, where the peculiarly lithe branches can find support, this plant does best.  Probably nowhere is the Box Thorn so much at home as in seaside places, it then attaining to sometimes 12 feet in height, and bearing freely its showy flowers during summer, and the bright scarlet or orange berries in winter.

L. EUROPAEUM.—­European Box Thorn.  South Europe, 1730.  This is a spiny, rambling shrub, that may often be seen clambering over some cottage porch, or used as a fence or wall plant in many parts of England.  It often grows nearly 20 feet long, and is then a plant of great beauty, with linear-spathulate leaves of the freshest green, and pretty little pink or reddish flowers.  For quickly covering steep, dry banks and mounds where few other plants could exist this European Box Thorn is invaluable.  Either species will grow in very poor, dry soil, and is readily propagated by means of cuttings.

LYONIA.

LYONIA PANICULATA (syns L. ligustrina, Andromeda globulifera, A. pilifera, and Menziesia globularis).—­North America, 1806.  This species grows about a yard high, with clustered, ovate leaves, and pretty, pinky, drooping flowers.

MACLURA.

MACLURA AURANTIACA.—­Osage Orange, or Bow-wood.  North America, 1818.  This is a wide-spreading tree with deciduous foliage, and armed with spines along the branches.  The leaves are three inches long, ovate and pointed, and of a bright shining green.  Flowers rather inconspicuous, being green with a light tinge of yellow, and succeeded by fruit bearing a resemblance when ripe to the Seville orange.  It is hardy, and grows freely in rather sandy or gravelly soil.

MAGNOLIA.

MAGNOLIA ACUMINATA.—­Cucumber Tree.  North America, 1736.  This is a large and handsome species, of often as much as 50 feet in height, and with a head that is bushy in proportion.  The leaves are 6 inches long, ovate and pointed, and of a refreshing shade of green.  Flowers greenish-yellow, sweetly scented, and produced abundantly all over the tree.  They are succeeded by small, roughish fruit, resembling an infant cucumber, but they usually fall off before becoming ripe.

M. CAMPBELII.—­Sikkim, 1868.  This is a magnificent Indian species, but, unfortunately, it is not hardy except in the favoured English and Irish localities.  The leaves are large, and silky on the undersides, while the flowers are crimson and white, and equally as large as those of the better-known M. grandiflora.