92 My New Zealand Garden 



grows there to perfection; I saw them doing 

 fairly well in Dunedin also, but mine dwindled 

 away. Clianthus punicens (Parrot's Beak) is the 

 most gaudy-looking plant possible, here in its 

 native land. Its flame-coloured flowers hang in 

 masses, and it does well either as a standard or 

 on a trellis. It grows to about 5 feet high in good 

 situations. The New Zealand Laburnum (Sophora 

 tetraptera, Yellow Kowhai) is a splendid deep 

 yellow, with much larger flowers and calix than 

 the English Laburnum. The flowers usually 

 appear before the leaves, which is unfortunate, 

 as they are rather massive-looking flowers and 

 require their greenery to set them off. I have 

 seen one specimen with the foliage well out with 

 the flowers, which left nothing to be desired. 

 S. grandiflora is the best, and is, I believe, the 

 one that has flowers and foliage together. 



Acacia dealbata (Shittim Wood) is another bright 

 yellow tree, 20 feet high, and in early spring 

 smothered with flowers, and with its delicate 

 blue-green, feathery foliage, nothing can be prettier. 

 I should not have allowed it to trespass among 

 New Zealand trees, for it belongs more to tropical 

 countries, but better to be here than left out alto- 

 gether, so I let it remain. 



Cordyline indtvisa, the handsomest of all the 

 Cabbage-tree family, seems to pine for colder 

 regions on our mountains, where it belongs. In 



