Box Thorn

Box Thorn (Lycium) - Rambling shrubs, the best known being L. chinense, a common climber on cottage walls. Though not a showy flowering shrub, few others are so rapid in growth, so graceful, and so indifferent to the nature of the soil. It is also suited for covering porches, pergolas, and arbours, and in late summer and autumn, when every long drooping branch is thickly hung with small orange-scarlet berries, it is pretty. The flowers are small, purple and white, and the unripe berries are of the same tints. The commonest kinds

are—L. chinense, from China; L. barbarum, from N. Asia; L. afrum, from N. Africa; L. Trewianum, and L. pallidum, from Colorado. They are of rapid growth, and therefore suitable for covering high walls, though all are deciduous.