Naturalization of Plants. 211 



The Mimosa paradoxa is also a powerful shrub ; sowing its 

 own seeds annually, and possessing a profusion of flowers, which 

 renders it one of the greatest ornaments of the shrubbery ; 

 while it is here remarkable, as proving one of the general facts 

 already stated, that, in no instance, could this plant be induced to 

 produce its seeds in the greenhouse. That all the shrubby natives 

 of New South Wales known to us will probably prove hardy, 

 here at least, and improve accordingly in vigour, there is no reason 

 to doubt. Many other Mimosas, formerly treated as tender, are 

 equally found hardy, and equally to improve under exclusion. I 

 may add an Argophyllum to this number ; together with three 

 Sophoras, the tetraptera being common with ourselves ; the 

 double as well as the single Nerium oleander, growing to almost 

 a tree in the shrubbery, a number of Proteas, the Jasminum 

 azoricum and odoratum, the common olive, producing fruit, 

 with some other species of Olea, the Cistus, in many species, 

 which with us are confined to the greenhouse, the Clethra arborea, 

 the Daphne odorata, and others, of various degrees of reputed 

 tenderness, which might swell this part of the list to too great a 

 length. But I may still add the Bignonia capreolata and Pandora, 

 on account of their vigour and beauty, two Punicas, the Hibber- 

 tia volubilis, and a Metrosideros, of which I have here missed the 

 specific name, the Colutea coccinea, sowing itself annually, the 

 Celtis micrantha, and the common Heliotrope ; chiefly, because 

 they include, with some of the former, examples of the great 

 accession of strength which the confined plants gain by being 

 turned loose to nature, and partly because of some of them thus 

 producing seeds with freedom, even from the very same plant, 

 when they had refused to do so in confinement. The Heliotrope 

 now not only sows its own seeds in the open ground, but produces 

 plants of uncommon strength and luxuriance ; but whether this 

 is a process of naturalization or not, is a question which, after the 

 doubt already recorded, I feel no inclination to ask. 



If I have passed over some of the shrubby plants that I might 

 have noticed, such as the Gnidia pinifolia, odorata, simplex, and 

 many others, it is of no moment, as the list is long enough for 



