86 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



revelation it is, when, as an old Irishman said 

 to me while he watered the horses, " The hills 

 are just fainted with flowers." 



Several other flowering shrubs from Cali- 

 fornia might well be found more frequently 

 in our gardens. One old favourite, Calycanthus 

 Floridus, the Allspice of our childhood, is now 

 associated in my mind, not only with the Study 

 garden at the Rectory, but with a hairbreadth 

 escape from death in 1874. For, as we rode 

 by a perilous path along the face of the 

 cliff, high above the Merced River, roaring 

 and raging in flood among beds of Azalea 

 and starry white Dogwood, my good little 

 horse acted the part of Balaam's ass ; and, as 

 I tried to force him on, reared and turned 

 right round on his hind legs to escape, not an 

 angel, but a huge boulder, which rolled down 

 from the mountain through the Allspice bushes 

 and must inevitably have swept horse and rider 

 into the river far below. But why is not the 

 grand Fremontia Californica grown everywhere ? 

 Hardy it certainly is, and finely ornamental, 

 with its leathery bright yellow flowers. 



