sides the Roses, such trees and shrubs as the
Thorns, Crabs, and Cotoneasters. Among the Thorns (Crataegus) 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.

CRATAEGUS.--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