My New Zealand Garden 93 



hot summers mine threatens to die, but perks 

 up again in the winter. Its soft blue-green leaves, 

 1 1 yards long and 6 inches wide, with a broad 

 brown stripe down the middle, surely places it at 

 the head of all bold foliage plants. The flowers 

 are also very ornamental and grand, hanging down 

 in bluish racimes nearly a yard long. My plant is 

 about 9 feet high, but I hear of them 20 feet, and 

 very much more robust, in their proper habitat. 



A curious and well-meaning Bush tree is Pisonia 

 Brunoniana. The outside of its seed-pods are 

 covered with a fatally sticky kind of bird-lime, 

 which is very attractive to insects, but woe to 

 that bird who tries to secure one, for surely he 

 will remain there for ever ! As many as twenty 

 tightly-fixed small birds have been seen on one 

 tree, and, fortunately, sparrows are among the 

 enticed. 



