260 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



mon lanceolatus. This bears every spring at the 

 ends of its drooping branches cylindrical clusters 

 of crimson flowers with bristling stamens which 

 standing out all around the branch so exactly re- 

 semble a bottle-brush that bottle-brush the plant is 

 called. The seed-vessels on this odd shrub resem- 

 ble gray shoe-buttons and persist for years in an 

 elongated band completely encircling the branch, 

 each band separated from the other by a year's 

 growth of stem. More common than either of these 

 are three or four species of the genus Pittosporum, 

 universally mispronounced by nurserymen who ac- 

 cent the penult while correct usage favors the ante- 

 penult. One species Pittosporum tobira is from 

 China, and the others are Australasian. As all are 

 evergreen with leaves more or less simulating laurel, 

 the Australians call them hedge-laurel, Queensland 

 laurel, Brisbane laurel, etc. They are badly in need 

 of some common name in California, as an alternate 

 to the cacophonous botanical one. Perhaps hedge- 

 laurel would be worth adopting, as at least two spe- 

 cies P. eugenioides and undulatum have been 

 planted in California for hedges. Some of the spe- 

 cies grow to the proportions of a tree, and their 

 lively, handsome foliage, fragrant flowers and 

 drought-resistant character put them among the 



