shade of the green and purple one sees on a pigeon's lustrous Autumn, 

 breast, till the yellow and red from the heart of the bush turn Shrubs for 

 it to clear flame just shot at the points of the shoots with Colour 

 amethystine purple. Invaluable, indeed, is such a shrub, 

 vigorous, hardy, and keeping its foliage long after its hand- 

 some companion, S. opulifolla aurea y has shed its golden leaves. 

 A group of these Spiraeas, with the Guelder Rose, Rbus Cotinus, 

 Exocborda grandtflora, a snowy Mespilus, and just one or 

 two moderate-sized plants of Cornus sanguinea for the deepest 

 note, would produce an exquisite harmony of tender and rich 

 tones through all the months of flower and leafage. 



Among Japanese Maples we get endless and beautiful 

 colour effects, from brilliant green through reds of various tones 

 to deepest crimson-purple. But these precious gifts among the 

 many that Japan has bestowed upon the Western world, must 

 not be thrust pell-mell into a shrubbery bed, but planted out 

 on the lawn, and for choice on some brow of the lawn, where 

 their beauties can be seen from all sides. Nothing is more 

 attractive than a well-selected group of the many varieties of 

 Acer palmatum, placed in such a manner that while sufficient 

 space is left to allow us to move between them and examine 

 the singular delicacy of their many forms and colours, they shall 

 be near enough to blend one with the other when seen from a 

 little distance. But strangely enough, though all plants and 

 trees from the land of our gallant little allies seem perfectly 

 in place in the English landscape, the American Maples are 

 apt to look crude among our British foliage and under our 

 quiet skies. Crude enough they are in their own land in all 

 conscience ; yet in that light atmosphere, under that implacable 

 sky, they seem part and parcel of the whole. But when they 



