io6 MY SHRUBS 



R. bracteata, Macartney's Rose, flowers in autumn, when roses 

 are growing scarce, while, to name two more from my Uttle group 

 of the species, there are R, nitida, a charming dwarf from North 

 America, decorative all the year round, and R. xanthina, from 

 Afghanistan — a distinctive yellow species with glaucous foliage. 

 Acquire these, and you will remember me in your wills. They 

 are really more interesting than gardeners* hybrids, and also more 

 beautiful. Our taste for the plump monsters from the rose border 

 is Mid- Victorian, and we must struggle back to the more refined 

 and distinguished species. I mark a laudable improvement in 

 the chrysanthemum already. The mop-headed giants are doomed, 

 and we begin to cultivate a flower of greater distinction and 

 intrinsic beauty. Compare a good group of single chrysanthemums 

 with a stage of prize-taking giants, and you will instantly perceive 

 which has the better excuse for existence. 



Ruhus is a fine family for a cool and shady garden. I have 

 but half a dozen, and also grow R, phcenicolastuSy the Japanese 

 wine-berry, because one highly placed of the household loves its 

 scarlet fruits. But best I like R. deliciosus, a beautiful shrubby 

 bramble from the Rocky Mountains, with large, pure, white flowers in 

 early spring. R. nutkanus, a North American, is a rapid grower with 

 very large white flowers ; R. odoratiis has red flowers, and R, spec- 

 tahile approaches magenta. R. australis is a strange New Zealander, 

 all thorns and no leaves — a wild tangled mass of ferocious vegeta- 

 tion like nothing else in my garden. They call it the " Wait-a-bit " 

 and the " Bush Lawyer " in its home — good names, both. This 

 has not opened its little, pale pink, fragrant blossom with me, nor 

 has another variety (with leaves) of the same species. R. arcticus 

 is a herbaceous mite and vanishes in winter ; while of other good 



