2 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
of Arundinaria Simoni, the trembling grace of Phyllo- 
stachys Henonis or P. viridi-glaucescens, not to speak of 
many others, have added to our borders, our shrubberies, 
and more especially to our wild gardens, a wealth of 
beauty which a few years ago would have been deemed 
beyond the craziest dreams of the enthusiast. It needed 
the energy and enterprise of such collectors as Messrs. 
Veitch, the brothers Villa of Genoa, and above all 
M. Latour-Marliac of Temple-sur-Lot (a name which will 
always be associated with the hybridisation of Water-Lilies) 
to establish the fact that, even if we may not hope to 
see our Bamboos grow to the huge dimensions which they 
attain in their native countries, there are many the hardiness 
of which is proof against our severest winters. Surrounded 
as the present writer is by a great number of varieties of 
these famous Grasses, it is impossible for him to doubt 
their powers of resistance. They have stood through four 
winters and 26° of frost; they have resisted an even more 
deadly enemy than frost in the droughts of 1892, 1893, and 
1895. In the more congenial summer of 1894 they shot 
into life with a vigour which gave the best promise for a 
future when they shall have been thoroughly established. 
But, alas! the great Sun-God, who should have ripened the 
shoots, hid his face throughout the year, and when the grim 
winter of 1895 set in the culms had not the enduring power 
to resist its attacks. All the tallest shoots of Phyllostachys 
mitis perished, and many species were badly cut. Evidently, 
moreover, what took place above ground was only a repetition 
of the havoe which was going on underground. The rhizomes, 
which must have made rare growth during a wet summer and 
