My New Zealand Garden 47 



hang down almost like a weeping willow, so I tie 

 the branches of one tree along the trellis, to save 

 breakage by wind. It evidently looks down at a 

 trellis support with scorn, so I ventured to chop 

 off its head, which was soon replaced by a dozen 

 more shoots. Cuttings strike and seeds grow, 

 and it has proved itself willing and obliging to 

 all treatment, so I think it fairly entitles itself to 

 be called ' Dux ' of the garden. It derives its 

 name, I read, from en (in) and bothrium (little pit), 

 referring to the anthers. I hear Jacaranda mimosi- 

 folia calling out, ' I am Dux !' Well, if Jacaranda 

 is jealous, we must make a plural, so I will try 

 and describe all the ' Duxes.' This appellation 

 must refer to them as being more endearing than 

 the correct plural, and the reader must pick and 

 choose. I confess I have a very warm corner in 

 my heart for the Jacaranda. It is related to the 

 Tecoma, to which one can trace the family likeness 

 both in the shape of the flowers and the arrange- 

 ment of them. Nothing can surpass the beauty 

 of its clusters of soft, blue flowers, each one as 

 large as a thimble. These, set in mimosa-like 

 foliage on a tree 30 feet high, as they grow in the 

 rather warmer climate of Auckland, are a sight that 

 no flower-lover should miss. They can only just 

 stand the frosts here, and require wrapping up in 

 winter while small. I seem to have lost my white 

 one. Perhaps it was one that was moved, and 



