MY SHRUBS 53 



plant. Gordonia lasianthus, the loblolly bay, my nurseryman 

 gently but firmly denies me, though I believe the superb thing 

 would do in half shade with camellia. It grows among the swamps 

 of South Carolina. G. pubescens, from North America, must be a 

 splendid shrub when prosperous, but I have never seen any of 

 the clan. G, anomala, with yellow flowers, would have to be 

 taken in during winter, for it is a sub- tropical Asian. 



Grabowskya glauca is another stranger to me. It is a Peruvian 

 evergreen, has rambling, climbing habits and blue flowers. This 

 I shall secure for the sake of its ridiculous name. Not that Mr. 

 Grabowsky was ridiculous, or a rambling climber. This excellent 

 apothecary flourished in early Victorian times, when nobody was 

 ridiculous. 



Grevillea sulks with me, and will not perform. "It is a most 

 pleasing circumstance," says Curtis, " when plants afford char- 

 acters by which they may with certainty be distinguished." That 

 depends upon the characters. For instance, you can with cer- 

 tainty distinguish my Grevillea thyrsoides from all others by the 

 fact that it refuses to blossom. Its red flowers ought to flash, 

 off and on, all the year round, but they never flash at all. G, 

 sulphurea died after flowering, and now I want that admirable wall 

 shrub, G. pendula, with white blossoms and a beautiful habit. I 

 do not find this desirable plant in dictionaries or catalogues, but 

 I can find it on a wall in one of our great West Country gardens 

 within a walk of me. There, too, grows the specimen of the 

 Guevina avellana I have already blessed. It is a tree forty feet 

 high, with glossy evergreen leaves and cherry-coloured fruits 

 in late autumn. Chili can hardly hold a more splendid specimen. 

 Certainly England does not. Guevina avellana is deliberately 



