198 PITTOSPORUM PLAG^ANTHUS 



broadly oblong, creamy white, becoming yellowish with age. Fruit a 

 pear-shaped capsule. 



Native of Japan and China ; first introduced to Kew in 1804. This 

 shrub is not strictly hardy, and at Kew requires wall protection. In the 

 south-western counties and at Castlewellan in Co. Down it succeeds 

 admirably unprotected, being there a densely furnished, healthy-looking 

 evergreen. In the gardens of the south of France, Italy, Dalmatia, etc., 

 it is one of the commonest of evergreens, producing its flowers from April 

 onwards. The largest examples I have seen are on the Isle of Lacroma, 

 near Ragusa, in Dalmatia, picturesque, spreading bushes, 20 to 25 ft. high. 

 The flowers have a scent like orange blossom. 



P. UNDULATUM, Ventenat. 



An evergreen tree, 30 to 40 ft. high in this country ; leaves large, 

 laurel-like; 3 to 6 ins. long, I to 2 ins. wide, tapering towards both ends ; 

 smooth, dark lustrous green above, pale beneath, quite entire, but wavy 

 at the margins. Flowers in a terminal cluster of umbels 2 to 3 ins. diameter ; 

 each blossom creamy white, \ to f in. across. 



Native of Australia, whence it was introduced in 1/89. It is, of course, 

 only hardy in the mildest counties ; and probably the finest specimen in 

 the British Isles is at Rossdohan, Co. Kerry, in the garden of Mr Herd. 

 It flowers from May to July, and the blossoms are pleasantly fragrant. 

 The leaves are bright and handsome, the undulations of the margin not 

 more marked than in some other species. 



PLAGIANTHUS. MALVACEAE. 



A small genus of Australasian trees and shrubs, remarkable for their 

 tough, fibrous bark. The flowers are mostly unisexual, but not in 

 P. Lyallii, for which reason that species is sometimes removed to GAYA. 

 They are all more or less tender in this country, but quick-growing and 

 easily increased by layers or cuttings. They like a good loamy soil. 



P. BETULINUS, A. Cunningham. 



A deciduous tree, from 30 to 40 ft. high in New Zealand, with a trunk 

 sometimes 3 ft. in diameter. In the milder parts of the British Isles it 

 thrives very well, and there is a tree over 50 ft. high in the Earl of Ilchester's 

 garden at Abbotsbury, in Dorset. In a young state its growth is remarkably 

 elegant, consisting of a mass of slender, tortuous, interlacing branches, 

 thinly furnished with foliage. At this stage the leaves are \ to i\ ins. 

 long, narrowly or broadly ovate, deeply and irregularly toothed and 

 lobed ; they are borne on slender, downy stalks, nearly or quite as 

 long as the blade. As the trees approach the adult state, the growth 

 becomes less straggling, the leaves increase in size until they are 3 ins. 

 long, and become less deeply lobed. Flowers produced very numerously 

 on racemes at the end of the shoot and in the leaf-axils near, the whole 

 forming a panicle as much as 9 ins. long ; individually the flowers are 

 unisexual ; the male flowers yellowish white, the females greenish. 



Native of the South Island of New Zealand ; introduced about 1870. 

 Besides the Abbotsbury tree tjiere are fine ones in Ireland (at Castlewellan) 

 and in other places. It is not hardy at Kew, and sometimes suffers in cold 

 winters against a wall. There is a nice specimen at Warley Place, 12 ft. high. 



