112 MY SHRUBS 



japonica pendula. The foliage and form are beautiful, but, though 

 it has prospered here for ten years, I have never seen the creamy 

 panicles of flowers. S, microphylla is evergreen, and has orange- 

 coloured flowers of large size. This New Zealand laburnum needs 

 a wall. " Kowhai^^ they call it there, and I have raised a good 

 batch from seed that a friend despatched to me. But the plant 

 is of slow growth. S, viciifolia^ now in cultivation, has blue 

 flowers, and makes a good shrub in the open. 



Upon the huge subject of shrubby Spirceas I say nothing. It 

 is a noble and a beautiful race, but they grow so large that, with a 

 few quite unimportant exceptions, they are not here. My space 

 is too precious and my half shade too full of plants I like better. 

 Not a whisper against them ; I know not one that is not beautiful 

 in prosperity ; but they are not fairly represented here, and so 

 enough. 



Sparmannia africana is a notable shrub for the greenhouse 

 border. This South African only needs a temperature to open 

 its bunches of pure white flowers with their tassels of purple- 

 tipped filaments. The evergreen, pubescent foliage is also a 

 feature of this familiar pot plant. It flowers in a small size, but 

 is much more splendid when it reaches adult dimensions. 



Sphacele Lindleyi is an uncommon evergreen of brisk, up- 

 right habit from Chili. This sage-like shrub bears lavender blue, 

 bell-shaped flowers, and may be accounted quite hardy. There are 

 character and originality about Sphacele^ and it should win many 

 friends. 



Stachyuriis prcecox is the Japanese variety of this excellent 

 plant, the other being Himalayan. Stachyurus flowers with spikes 

 of lemon-coloured inflorescence in March, somewhat after the 



