MY SHRUBS 



41 



reasons concealed. It is a great flowerer, and might, perhaps, with 

 advantage have been pruned back hard in autumn. 



Drimys Winteri, from drimys, sharp or acrid, furnished a 

 famous febrifuge before quinine cut it out ; now I think the latter 

 drug has taken the place of Winter*s bark, but speak as a layman. 

 Drimys is a beautiful evergreen, and its loose milk-white clusters of 

 flowers make a very handsome shrub of it in spring. Here I grow 

 it on a wall — needlessly, for it stands well in the open, and is more 

 beautiful so displayed. D. aromaticay from Tasmania, is also in 

 cultivation, but is not so effective. 



Edgeworthia chrysanthay a kinsman of the Daphnes ^ is a decidu- 

 ous native of China, which crowns its naked twigs in February 

 with rosettes of little, sweet-scented yellow flowers. This is a 

 good thing, but rather delicate with me. I think it likes a warm 

 border and light soil. 



Ehretia serrata, though an East Indian, makes no difliculty on 

 a south wall. This deciduous shrub has not yet produced its 

 white honey-scented flowers, though now of considerable size. 



ElcsagnicSy the oleaster, or wild olive, comprises some notable 

 additions to our gardens. There are, indeed, a dozen good 

 varieties, of which I succeed with E. macrophyllay a large shrub, 

 the under surface of whose leaves are like frosted silver. The 

 white flowers, generously produced during autumn, cluster in the 

 axils of the leaves. E. glabra aurea has a fine golden variegation, 

 and soon makes a beautiful specimen ; while E, multiflora is a 

 handsome, deciduous species from Japan, which fruits abundantly 

 in a fine summer with golden-brown berries, dry and tart. E. 

 argenteay the Missouri silver tree, is another choice shrub from the 

 New World. E. umbellatay too, from China and the temperate 



