THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 25 



cftcece. This noHe palm has been the subject of a little passage of boianical history 

 that has caused considerable diversion, and therefrom it takes its name of the 

 *'thief-pahn." It is very distinct from all other palms in our stoves, having enor- 

 mous leaves borne on stems beset with formidable spines. When young, the leaves 

 are of a fine cinnamon colour, afterwards changing to a beautiful deep green. There 

 are not more than half a dozen examples in Europe at prespnt, and one of the finest 

 of these is at the Victoria Nursery of Mr. B. S. Williams, Ilolloway. 



BERRY-BEAEING SHRUBS. 



Abridgment of a Taper read before the Central Horticultural Society, Dec. 12, 

 1865, by Shielet Hibbeed. 



SHE subject of this paper is suited to the season, for some of the most im- 

 portant berry-bearing shrubs are now in their full splendour, and are 

 chiefly esteemed for their berries, which contribute so mucli to the beauty 



. of our gardens at this the dullest time of the whole year, and are so 



eminently useful for decorative purposes within doors in connection with the festive 

 season. 



What are the berry-bearing shrubs in perfection noio ? The reply demands .a 

 short list of hollies, skimmias, cotoneasters, ivies, and aucubas, yet in these we have 

 materials for effecting a complete reform in the decoration of our villa gardens, and 

 a reform, too, at a season when it is most needed, in the dull months of October, 

 November, and December, when ordinarily the beds and borders are empty and bare, 

 and the garden, lately so gay with colour, presents a dreary aspect similar to that of 

 a haunted house, or perhaps worse, for in liaunted houses we see nothing to alarm 

 us, but in our villa gardens we see so much dirt, deformity, and inappropriateness, 

 that we ought to be alarmed if we are not. When I proposed this subject for the 

 Society's course, I had in my mind to make remarks here on the kind of reform 

 •which I think is needed in villa gardens, and which can scarcely be effected without 

 a plentiful use of berry-bearing slirubs. The aspects of the gardens at this moment 

 furnish all the art;uments needful for demonstrating the necessity of reform. We 

 have been growing more and more extravagant in the display of flowers for several 

 years past, and the bedding system reigns supreme. Shall I say one word against 

 the imitation of great places in small gardens, and the restriction of the abilities of 

 amateurs to the cultivation of a few subjects which are useful only during a portion 

 of the year ? Indeed I would, but the chairman would very properly call me to 

 question, and I should learn that I had come here to speak of berry-bearing shrubs, 

 and not of villa gardening in general, and the bedding system in p.irticular. _ So I 

 content myself with asking you to contrast the gorgeous display of July with the 

 poverty of December. Behold, in the first instance, the splendours in which fashion 

 delights ; behold, in the second, the squalor and dirt which fashion allows. The 

 serious part of the case is that these extremes are connected — they are the two sides 

 of the subject. Villa gardening is like a game of see-saw — when one end of the 

 plank is up, the other end must be down ; if you employ all the ground at your 

 disposal for bedding plants during summer, it is impossible the same ground should 

 be occupied with ornamental subjects during winter, except at great cost and some 

 risk ; because if furnished with evergreen trees, the system of decorating in winter 

 would necessitate the lifting of the trees in autumn, and again in spring, a routine 

 •which you know can only be partially carried out, and th'dt, too, with very young 

 and consequently small plants. Now I propose by the help of berry-bearing shrubs 

 and such other subjects as may be found suitable, to remedy all this by means of 

 the plunging system. This system has been pursued in my own garden during 

 several consecutive years, and my beds and borders are at the present moment nearly 

 as gay, and considerably richer, than when occupied with bedding plants in June. 

 One of the first steps towards carrying out the plunging system is the cultivation 

 of evergreen trees in pots ; and when these are plunged in groups where formerly 

 flowers were grown, variegated ivies and berry -bearing shrubs should be liberally 

 employed to light them up, so that during the melancholy winter season the garden 

 may still have some attractions to those who like out-door exercise at all seasons, and 

 have a less depressive aspect— in fact a cheerful and inviting aspect — as seen from 



