52 My New Zealand Garden 



more young ones coming on, but they are not 

 plentiful enough to talk of in that frivolous way. 

 The New Zealand Bush is gradually but surely 

 disappearing, and young plants with it. There 

 is one comfort, however, that those who take small 

 plants now, and ultimately turn them out into 

 their gardens, will so perpetuate them for their 

 posterity that in three hundred years, if all goes 

 well, they will enjoy some fine specimens. One 

 has been in this garden for thirty years. Where 

 they happen to be growing about 20 or 30 feet 

 apart in the Bush, and their fronds reach each 

 other and form great evergreen arches, suggestive 

 of architectural designs, they are a sight to behold. 

 It is hard to decide whether these Palms or Ferns 

 are the most beautiful. The Palms are, I think, 

 the more imposing, owing to their bold, giant 

 dimensions, although, when one is near a Tree-fern, 

 with its great spread of lace-like fronds, I think 

 most people are swayed in its favour ; but I rather 

 cling to the Palm as being more unique. Without 

 doubt they are a pair of Bush ' duxes.' 



Were I not so well established on conquered 

 subsoil, I should have enjoyed making a home in 

 the Bush. Fancy the bliss of ready-made Tree- 

 ferns and Nikau Palms to do what you liked with ; 

 and fancy Tropaeolums and Passion-flowers on 

 them. A Van volximi Passion-flower or two might 

 cover a Nikau, hanging its long-stalked blooms 



