WOODS, LOCHS, AND PASTURES 75 



Common Laurel. The Sweet Bay or Bay Laurel (Laurus 

 nobilis), from which the laurel wreaths were made by the 

 ancients, also succeeds well. Escallonia macrantha, intro- 

 duced by Messrs Veitch's collector William Lobb from Chili 

 in 1847, has proved a most desirable acquisition to the local 

 list of evergreens, growing into good-sized bushes and 

 forming large expansive hedges. It combines glossy foliage 

 with a profusion, in early spring, of rose-carmine flowers, 

 and a dense habit of growth. Kegarded on the mainland as 

 a tender shrub (and here, too, plants have been cut down 

 in severe winters), it is found growing in quantity only in 

 the south-western counties of England, where the flowers are 

 sold to visitors at watering-places. Propagation is readily 

 effected by layers. Aucuba japonica (the best evergreen for 

 smoky towns) in its variegated form, Laurustinus (Viburnum 

 Tinus), the Holm or Evergreen Oak (Quercus Ilex), and 

 Mahonia (Berberis Aquifolium) suit the climate. Kinds of 

 Euonymus with variegated leaves make pretty objects in 

 sheltered situations. Cotoneasters do well in exposed 

 positions. Veronica speci'osa, an attractive evergreen from 

 Van Diemen's Land, bearing numerous spikes of mauve- 

 coloured flowers in the depth of winter, and V. salicifolia, 

 now springing up in places spontaneously from seed, are other 

 desirable though old-fashioned subjects. Aralia (Fatsia) 

 japonica has proved hardy in the shrubbery, and its large, 

 glossy leaves make it a valuable evergreen shrub. In 1908 

 one specimen bloomed profusely, and remained in flower from 

 the end of autumn till the new year. Desfontainea spinosa y 

 another of W. Lobb's introductions from Chili (1850), 

 Chamcerops Fortunei, a Chinese Palm, and a species of 

 Yucca which flowered freely in 1907, and is now 12 feet 

 in height with a stem 1| foot in girth (3 feet from the 

 ground), have been growing out of doors for years. After 

 flowering, the head of the Yucca divided into three shoots. 

 Deciduous. The most showy of those introduced include 



