196 CHAPTER XXVI. 



The Water Germander, Teucrium Scordium, has 

 been found at Nice, at Mentone and near Grasse. 

 The flowers are pink, and the plant has a smell of 

 garlic ; a peculiarity shared by the Alliaria, a common 

 British Crucifer. This plant is mentioned by Pliny. 



Photinia is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 

 having a thick glossy oblong leaf like that of the 

 common Laurel Cherry (Cerasus lauro cerasus). 

 There is no plant on the Riviera which attracts more 

 attention than the Photinia. Every one wants to know 

 what that shrub is whose leaves as they fade turn to 

 such a brilliant red, lighting up every garden and 

 shrubbery, just as the Sumach (Rhus cotinus] illumi- 

 nates the hill-sides. Great corymbs of white flowers 

 are produced, but those alone would hardly suffice to 

 make the plant conspicuous in these gardens of the 

 Mediterranean coast where flowers are so abundant. 

 Strange as it may seem, this laurel-leaved evergreen 

 can be grafted on the Hawthorn (Cratceyus), so closely 

 are they allied. 



As common as the Photinia, or even commoner, 

 is a small tree, the Myoporum, which does not at 

 first sight appear to deserve a place among peculiar 

 plants. It is a very ordinary-looking tree, with a few 

 small speckled flowers ; but pick a leaf and hold it 

 to the light, it seems to be pierced with innumerable 

 little holes. These are immersed glands. You see 

 a few of them in the leaf of Hypericum, and a great 

 number in the rind of an orange. On the bracts of 

 Hop (Humulus) the glands are sessile, not hidden 

 below the surface ; and in many plants they are raised 

 on a stalk, as in the calyx of Lythrum. 



The structure of the ovary of Myoporum is 



