It takes a long time for plants to be thoroughly well known, and this we now illustrate is a striking example. It has been in cultivation for a century, but chiefly in the gardens of the curious, and it is only of late years since it has been "handled," as the trade term goes, by the much abused tree agent, that the great merits it possesses as a highly ornamental shrub of strong growth are appreciated. It flowers early in June, and a tree covered with its large clusters of pendent white flowers, cut as if by a scissors to a mass of fringe, is a sight once seen never forgotten, for there is none other that has such a marked peculiarity as this.

In August and September some of the trees are followed by fruit of an oblong shape, bluish purple, resembling grapes, and are truly ornamental. The tree belongs to the same natural family as the Ash, Oleaceae, and it is the peculiarity of this family, as in the Ash, for instance, to have some trees with wholly barren flowers. In this case, of course, berries do not follow. Its botanical name is Chionanthus Virginicus, and it is found wild as far north as Southern Pennsylvania, usually in damp shady places, but under culture it is not at all fastidious about soil or situation; and it is one of those easy going plants that few winters kill or hot summers injure, and, besides, transplants without making much objection.