io My New Zealand Garden 



in the centre, they look full to overflowing. A 

 path surrounds each bed, which makes weeding 

 or replanting easy and clean work, and it is nice 

 to be able to inspect the plants to one's heart's 

 content without treading on earth. Mixed borders 

 surround this pet bit of garden, and a few of the 

 most flourishing inmates I will now recount. 



Beginning with the shrubs at the back, first 

 comes Pomaderris elliptica, or Kumarahou, as it is 

 called by the natives. It grows on poor soil to 

 the north of Auckland, and its flowers are old- 

 gold colour. Mrs. Featon has an excellent illustra- 

 tion of it in her volume of New Zealand plants, 

 where she truly remarks, ' No artist can do justice 

 to its beautiful finish.' Its blossoms are in cymes 

 composed of numerous delicate, tiny flowers, set 

 in myrtle green foliage, which shows them off to 

 perfection. Toxophilea spectabilis grows and flowers 

 well, but its foliage is generally of a purplish hue, 

 which is a drawback to its appearance, and I 

 think its flowers are too squatly arranged round 

 the stem for great beauty, but they look in char- 

 acter with its very thick leaves. Rhododendron 

 arboreum, although I believe the oldest, is surely 

 the best of the reds, for its blood-red blossoms are 

 quite free from any rose colour, that undesirable 

 tinge so often found in other reds. Exocorda 

 grandiflora is a very welcome shrub, because of its 

 indisputably pure white flower and its adaptability 



