OF SHRUBS, MOSTLY EVERGREEN 29 
are, in my limy soil—limy in spite of all the most elaborate 
diggings and delvings and drainings (for lime is no less 
difficult to exorcise than love)—only two exceptions to the 
general rule of sickliness among my Azaleas. Bog-haunt- 
ing viscosa have I tried, fragrant with white flowers in 
late summer; fiery orange calendulacea, tawny sinensis, 
rosy apple-blossomed Vaseyi, profuse magenta-flowered 
amoena. And all, all are modified failures here, in the 
course of a year or two. One exception is the living fire 
of Azalea mollis, most blazing and diverse of all flame- 
flowers. And the other, by a strange unexpected freak, is 
the delicate Azalea indica itself. Now Azalea indica is the 
ordinary greenhouse Azalea; and, when I imported a 
quantity from Japan, I laughed at myself for daring to 
plant them out in the open immediately. Not one of 
them in five years has ever suffered from cold or drought 
or lime or damp; rarely have any of them failed to pro- 
duce abundance of bloom. And this though they are 
planted in merely ordinary garden soil, permeated with 
lime, and though quite unsheltered and unprotected. 
Some are under a wall, it is true, but the rest, among 
which are some of the most brilliant, stand out in the 
open, dead level, heavy-soiled plain of the bog-garden. 
And this once more encourages me to proclaim my gospel. 
Half-hardy plants, imported from cold districts, prove 
often to be as hardy as the most robust of natives. From 
the icebound plain of Tokio all importations of delicate 
species are, a fortiori, perfectly willing and able to resist 
the utmost rigours of our far less rigorous winters. I 
even have hopes that I may prove this of Nelumbium 
speciosum. Lam importing the Holy Lotus from its most 
northerly limit of distribution, in the trust that thus its 
tubers may be victorious over our pale climate. 
In point of fact, I cherish a dream that all gardeners are 
far too little venturesome about attempting paradoxical 
