MY SHRUBS 119 



Ida Whortle, I collected in the Peak, and there is no daintier little 

 gem where prosperous. It flourished for a few years, then passed 

 away. V, leucobotrys, from Bengal, must be a grand shrub for the 

 stove, with white flowers and white berries curiously marked with 

 black, but I know it not. V. corymbosum — rose pink flowers and 

 blue-black berries — is a choice North American species, which 

 makes a very big bush. 



Veronica is not a favourite genus with me, though many of the 

 shrubby species make excellent hardy plants, and some of the new 

 hybrids, of salmon and scarlet and purple, are handsome enough. 

 V, Hulkeanaj from New Zealand, is a very beautiful but tender plant 

 that must be protected if frost is about. This shrub has exquisite 

 sprays of lilac flowers. V. lycopodioides is another New Zealander, 

 with the appearance of an erect clubmoss, hardy and handsome on 

 a well-drained rockery. Mine puts forth its neat white flowers every 

 June, and is prosperous enough. V. Tr aver si — again from New 

 Zealand — makes a splendid bush, and V, Andersoni variegata is a 

 beautiful foliage plant, a garden hybrid, hardy in the West. V.glauco 

 ccerulea is a pretty, decumbent species with blue flowers, while for 

 a wall the variety V. salicifolia, with long racemes of cold white 

 blossoms, makes a fine shrub in July. This New Zealander is very 

 desirable. The Speedwell family is vast, but I lack space, or a mind, 

 to more than these. 



With the hosts of the Viburnum I am forced to a severe dis- 

 crimination also. New Viburnums are pouring in from China, but 

 few fairly beat the old ones. I cleave to V. dilatatum^ from Japan, 

 an excellent shrub ; F. Carlesii, a lovely and hardy species from 

 Korea, pink in the bud with pure white clusters of fragrant flowers, 

 and V. Rhytidophyllum — what a rollicking name ! The felted ever- 



