50 Dr W. Traill on the Oroiufh of the 



shrubs, although there are a few exceptional plants that do 

 not seem to be much affected by this, such as different 

 kinds of evergreen shrubby veronicas, and a few other 

 plants, such as the New Zealand manuka or Captain Cook's 

 tea-plant {Leptospermum scoparium), the Pernettya mucro- 

 oiata, and the Japan Euonymus, &c., which, favoured by the 

 mildness of the winters, thrive remarkably well, and to all 

 appearance the New Zealand flax lily is likely to prove 

 as well adapted to the climate of Orkney as any of them. 



About eight years ago, or rather more, I got some of the 

 seeds from a friend in New Zealand, which I raised in a hot 

 bed in St Andrews, and during the same season I planted 

 out several of them in the open air in my garden at North 

 Eonaldshay, Orkney, where they have remained ever since, 

 with no protection beyond the proximity of a low wall, 

 some having a southern exposure and others an eastern 

 aspect. These plants seem in no way affected by the 

 winter except that the tips of their leaves become some- 

 what frayed and ragged, but in the course of the following 

 summer they soon recover their beauty, and they have 

 gradually increased in size until the leaves on some plants 

 now measure from 5 to 6 feet, and in others from 6 to 7 

 feet long. 



I had also distributed duplicate plants among friends in 

 the neighbourhood, in whose gardens they appear quite 

 healthy. It was not until the first week of June this year 

 that my plants showed any signs of flowering, but I then 

 observed that (of the three largest plants) two were throw- 

 ing out each two flower-shoots ; the third and largest 

 plant, however, produced no fewer than five flower-stalks, 

 enveloped by long sheathing leaves that closely embraced 

 tho stems, which were at this time from 4 to 5 feet high ; 

 the upper part, which evidently contained the future 

 flower, being inflated, and tapering to a point at the apex, 

 not unlike the head of a spear. They increased in length 

 at the rate of about an inch a day ; the swollen mass of 

 spathes separating, and successively unfolding, revealing 

 numerous bunches of flower-buds, until, when the stem 

 reached the length of from 8 to 9 feet, there were twelve 

 or fourteen distinct clusters of flower-buds of a purplish- 

 brown colour, disposed alternately on each side of the stem. 



