40 My New Zealand Garden 



broken brick and crockery, and boarded drains. 

 The best of these amateur inventions was fencing- 

 wire, twisted like a huge corkscrew, and laid in 

 the drain in place of pipes, with a thick layer of 

 pine-needles over them, and then filled in again. 

 These, I am sure, have formed permanent little 

 tunnels, acting well ever since. On wet days 

 I often enjoy an umbrella trip to the main outlet 

 of all these inventions, and gloat over the volumes 

 of water pouring out. 



Of course, before the subsoil was vanquished 

 and buried to its present depth, beds had to be 

 dug at least 3 feet by 3 for the reception of any 

 tree or shrub, and into twenty of these beds I put 

 twenty Scarlet- flowering Gums (Eucalyptus ficif olio) 

 in a straight row down the drive. My bump of 

 order is to blame for this and many more rows, 

 and the poor things must feel like soldiers when 

 we inspect them. I gave one penny for each of 

 these seeds. They flowered in four years, and 

 every summer they are a sight to see. They are 

 covered with scarlet, or in some cases crimson, 

 inflorescence arranged in cymes or large round 

 flattish bunches, each flower composed of stamens 

 with delicate gray anthers, and it is difficult to 

 say which colour is the most beautiful. I believe 

 these trees would grow 40 or 50 feet high, but 

 mine are topped to about 15 feet to avoid damage 



