PORTUGUESE GARDENS IS 



to keep the plants within bounds and in proportion 

 to the size of the garden. Here and there a leafless 

 Magnolia conspicua adorns the garden with its 

 cup-like blossoms in the early spring, and a few 

 other shrubs are permitted within the precincts of 

 the garden. Franciscea, with its shiny green leaves 

 and starry blossoms, shading from the palest grey 

 to deep lilac, according to the time each bloom has 

 been fully developed, should have been included 

 in the list of sweet-smelling plants, as it has an 

 almost overpoweringly strong scent. The bottle- 

 brush, Melaleuca, with its strange reddish blossoms, 

 showing how aptly it has been named, and the 

 pear- scented magnolia, with its insignificant little 

 brownish blossoms, are all favourite shrubs. 



Various bulbous plants seem to have made a 

 home under the shelter of their taller-growing 

 companions, and in February, freesias, which in 

 this land of flowers seed themselves, spring up 

 in every nook and cranny ; also the unconsidered 

 sparaxis, whose deep red and yellow striped flowers 

 are hardly worthy of a place. But the bright 

 orange tritonias and deep blue babianas are highly 

 prized, and in May the red amaryllis adorn most of 

 the gardens, in company with the rosy-white Crinum 

 powellei. The delicate Gladiolus colvillei, known 



