136 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



pistil, and at the base of the flower a rudimentary fruit. In the 

 maize or Indian corn, the male flowers constitute the elegant feathery 

 spun-glass-like plume with which the plant is crowned ; and the 

 female flowers are found in the axils of the leaves, lower down, where 

 ultimately the " cobs" of corn are formed. LinuKUS classes plants 

 of this last kind as Moncecia, or "one-housed." A third kind of 

 plant has the male flowers on one plant, and the female flowers on 

 another. Examples of this occur in the Pampas grass, the male of 

 which is the most robust in habit, and produces chafly plumes of 

 flowers, in which stamens are found ; the female being more light 

 and graceful, and consistino^ of pistils only, and rudimentary ovules, 

 which, if the pistils are fertilized by pollen from the male, ultimately 

 become grains of true corn, or '• Pampas grass-seed." Plants of 

 this kind Linnaeus classes under the term Dicecia, or "two-housed." 

 It is to this last class in the Linnaean arrangement that the aucuba 

 belongs ; the male flowers are ordinarily produced on separate plants 

 from the females, as is the case with the English yew and the com- 

 mon fig. 



The first importation of the aucuba, in 17S3, consisted of female 

 plants only. Por many years after this form of the plant had been 

 acquired, Japan was closed against European commerce, and to 

 obtain the male plant was impossible. Meantime, the gardeners of 

 Europe propagated from the original stock ; and the gardens of the 

 world, we might almost say — at all events, the gardens of Europe 

 and America — have been stocked almost to repletion with females, 

 while the male remained as yet unknown. But a few years since, 

 Japan was again opened to the ships, the merchants, and the tra- 

 vellers of Europe ; and amongst the many enterprising men who 

 seized the opportunity ibr botanical exploration was the veteran 

 Kobert Fortune, who had already enriched our gardens with many 

 precious plants from China and Shanghae. To Portune we are 

 indebted for the introduction of the male aucuba, which was first 

 grown by Mr. Standish, of Ascot, and by him in due time distri- 

 buted at a price which made a good return for the costs incurred in 

 obtaining it, but none too much, considering its intrinsic value, and 

 the important consequences to which its difi'usion will be certain to 

 lead. 



Simultaneously, or nearly so, with Mr. Portune's acquisition of 

 the male form of Aucuba Japonica, an Indian species, A. Himalaicay 

 was introduced. This appears to be quite hardy, but is at present 

 scarce, and has not, so far as we are aware, been fully tested as to 

 its ability to endure the rigours of this climate. But these were not 

 all the acquisitions of the kind of which we became apprised about 

 the year 1860, An extensive series of varieties of A. Japonica were 

 ushered into notice, and amongst them the f/ree«-leaved, or normal 

 form of our old established " spotted laurel," that is to say, the same 

 plant in the uniform deep green hue of its original condition ; or, as 

 we may say, the common aucuba before it became variegated. This 

 was at first called Aucuba Japonica fcBinina vera, that is, the true 

 female aucuba ; but the name by which it is now known is A. J.f. 

 viridisj the "green-leaved" female aucuba. The several varieties 



