Musas appearance, and, in the autumn, the huge arching leaves of 

 and M. Ensete, with their soft colouring and noble form, convey a 

 Camellias ver 7 res tful effect; while in a Falmouth garden M.japonica has 

 fruited annually for some years, and in the same garden ripe 

 citrons may be picked from the open walls. For beauty of 

 form no plants can excel the graceful Bamboos, with arching 

 canes, sometimes nearly thirty feet in height, set with fluttering 

 leaflets, while the great Gunneras, with their huge leaves, often 

 almost ten feet across, drooping over a lake-margin, are impres- 

 sive in their grandeur. 



Camellias are as hardy as laurels, and their culture there- 

 fore reflects no credit on the climate of Cornwall, but, though 

 they will live in colder districts, their blossoms are usually spoilt 

 by the early spring frosts, and they therefore have little or no 

 decorative value. In Cornwall, however, the case is different, 

 and the flowers are rarely injured. In the grounds of Tre- 

 gothnan there must be over a thousand great bushes, bearing 

 red, pink, flesh-coloured, and white flowers. These are very 

 beautiful when in bloom, the flowers being carried in such 

 numbers that the branchlets droop under their weight, while, 

 when the earlier blossoms have shed their petals, the shrubs 

 stand in lakes of soft colour. At Tregothnan the stable wall, 

 eighty yards in length and twenty-five feet in height, is com- 

 pletely covered with Camellias. The queen of the family is 

 C. reticulata, generally grown against a wall, but occasionally 

 met with as a bush. This is a superb plant, the large, semi- 

 double, soft-rose blossoms, with their central cluster of golden 

 anthers, being very lovely. Blooms shown at the Cornwall 

 Daffodil and Spring Flower Society's show at Truro often 

 measure over seven inches across. 



