EVERGREENS. 115 



culture would be very useful to many; especially 

 as they are now in numerous establishments in all 

 parts of the kingdom, and as we are frequently desired 

 to furnish instructions for their cultivation with the 

 plants we send out. 



By whatever standard of floral beauty we judge of 

 them they rank very high. Every quality which can 

 possibly render plants attractive is combined in them. 

 Beauty of form, richness and diversity of colour and 

 fragrance, are possessed by them individually or col- 

 lectively, and in foliage, too, they are equally diversified. 

 Falconeri, a tree thirty feet high, has leaves twelve or 

 eighteen inches long by six inches wide. Argenteum, 

 growing to a similar height, has leaves equal in size, 

 and with large compact globular heads of pure white 

 flowers. Then there is Hodgsoni, with noble foliage 

 and aspect, having large compact ovate heads of pale 

 purple flowers, beautifully and symmetrically arranged. 

 Others widely contrast with these. Setosum, a small 

 and elegant shrub, with flowers resembling a Uliodora, 

 but with evergreen box-like foliage ; and Glaucum, a 

 small shrub, two feet high, with leaves two or three 

 inches long, and loose heads of pale pinkish-purple 

 flowers, will serve as examples. And between these 

 extremes there is great diversity in the character of 

 the several species in height, foliage, and flower. The 

 colours of the latter vary from pure white, or with the 

 faintest tint of rose-colour in Maddeni, Dalhousice, and 

 Edgewortliii, to the richest and deepest crimson in 

 Thomsoni and fulgens. The latter is especially 

 attractive, from the intensity of colour and polished 



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