1 82 CORDYLINE AU STRAUS [CH. 



peculiar to themselves. Hybrid Perpetual Roses are said 

 to have three distinct types of perfume, and there are at 

 least as many in the Teas. One lovely Rose, Baroness 

 Rothschild, has no perfume. 



In the greenhouse the sweetest leaf is that of the 

 pineapple-scented Salvia, and the Diosma, when rubbed, 

 has a surprisingly welcome smell. 



CHAPTER XIV 



CORDYLINE AUSTRALIS 



IT is strange in how few gardens one finds a trace 

 of the most attractive and graceful of ornamental 

 plants, the Cordyline Australis. The reason probably 

 is, that as it is known to be so nearly related to the 

 aristocratic family of the Draccenas (which as a rule, are 

 greenhouse and stove plants) it is not supposed to favour 

 the more plebeian atmosphere of a lawn or herbaceous 

 border. Even so great an authority as Mr Robinson, 

 in "The English Flower Garden," has strangely fallen 

 in with the popular notion, when he tells us that it is 

 only in the mildest parts of England and Ireland that 

 Cordyline can be grown in the open air. This may 

 account for the curious fact that it is rarely seen in the 

 London parks, where rare and beautiful plants find in 

 such variety a welcome home. In almost every part of 

 Ireland it may be grown as readily as the evergreen 



