Their Fruit
THE charm of many landscape plantings during fall and early winter months is due almost entirely to the interesting effects produced by the fruit of various trees, shrubs, and vines. Too little attention is given to the landscape value of plants because of their fruiting characteristics. It is the general impression that plants for landscape value have completed their greatest purpose when they have produced their foliage and flowers. As a matter of fact, instances may be common within the recollection of everyone where some interesting touch of colour in the landscape has been noticed and on further study has been found due entirely to the colour effect coming from a mass of hanging fruit.
To those people who occupy their permanent homes only during the fall and winter months, and whose greatest enjoyment from their landscape plantings should be produced by the fruiting effects, this is an important problem. It is admitted that many of our plants, such as the horse-chestnut, tree of heaven, honey locust, and hackberry, produce fruit which because of its littering habit is objectionable. These plants, however, are very few. The list of plants which produce fruit valuable because of certain characteristics such as interesting form and size, colour effects, and the ability to retain the fruit during the later winter months, includes many of our trees, shrubs, and vines that are valuable for their flowering effects also. This question is such an important one that each of the groups should be taken up in an individual discussion. The value of plants for their fruits which attract our many bird friends presents such an interesting study that this has been taken up as a distinct part of this chapter.
Among plants useful on the more refined lawn areas, where the detailed development of landscape plants is one of the most interesting features, there are a number of plants, such as the burning bush, cucumber tree, and the oriental plane, representative of the group pro-