SOME CORNISH GABDENS. 223 



A list of its treasures would be longer than that 

 which Leporello made of the ladies who were specially 

 admired by his master, and I will only mention, to 

 justify my quotation from the poet, that whereas the 

 aucubas which I had left at home were cut down to 

 the soil, and their blackened leaves resembled the 

 remnants of a fire, here they were golden pillars ten 

 feet high, and covered with scarlet berries ; and the 

 Enibotbrium coccineum, which, with its vivid crimson 

 flowers and glossy foliage, is one of the most beauti- 

 ful of all plants, and which, Paxton tells us in his 

 " Botanical Dictionary," attains a height of three 

 feet, was here a fine, tall garden shrub, with an 

 abundance of healthy buds. 



Taking a preliminary view of the conservatory 

 from the drawing-room, my gaze was riveted by 

 a gem of purest ray serene, which fascinated me as 

 a new star fascinates an astronomer, or a new 

 hunter an undergraduate. What could it be ? Nine 

 heads of beautiful bloom, the flowers white, of 

 exquisite purity, five inches across ! It was Rhodo- 

 dendron Aucklandi, and dear ever since has that 

 flower been to my memory, not only as a florist, but 

 as a teacher of humility. For now, whenever I meet 

 with one of those objectionable brethren, who think 

 they know everything and possess everything which 

 is to be learned or procured in floriculture, I make a 

 point of suggesting, " Of course you have Rhododen- 

 dron Aucklandi " (which, of course, they haven't) ; 

 and, whatever they say or show, I keep wishing they 

 could see " that plant," until they hate the whole 

 Rhododendron family, and are evidently thinking 



