330 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



or a conifer in any part of London. The fresh growth 

 of clean leaves every year, by which the plant absorbs 

 much of its nourishment, must necessarily be better 

 for it than dried-up, blackened leaves. Among flower- 

 ing shrubs, a great number grow sturdily in London. 

 Laburnums of all kinds, thorns in many varieties, flower 

 well ; lilacs grow and look fresh and green everywhere, 

 but cannot be depended on always to flower ; almonds, 

 snowy medlars, double cherries, weigelas or diervillas 

 succeed ; broom, Forsythias, acacia, syringa, many kinds 

 of prunus, ribes, rose acacia, Guelder rose, Japanese red 

 peach, Ke?Tia japonica^ Hibiscus Syriacus, or Althaea frutex^ 

 are all satisfactory, and many more could be mentioned. 

 Tucca gloriosa will stand any amount of smoke, and 

 Aralia spinosa does well in many parts; and among 

 evergreens, Arbutus Andrachne can be recommended. 

 Fruit-trees, pears, and apples are charming when in 

 bloom, and in a large space, or to cover a wall, figs 

 are valuable. 



Alpines grow astonishingly well, and though a con- 

 siderable percentage will die from the alternating damp 

 fogs and frost in the winter, many will really establish 

 themselves, and be quite at home, much nearer the 

 heart of London than Dulwich, where many have 

 been cultivated. "I know a bank whereon the wild 

 thyme grows " in London — not a green, mossy bank, 

 but rather a blackened rockery ; still the slope is 

 really covered with large patches of wild thyme, purple 

 with bloom in the summer, carefully marked by the 

 London County Council " Thymus seypyUum^^ for the 

 benefit of the inquiring. Several of the other thymes, 

 which form good carpets, will also grow. Antennaria 

 dioica, a British plant, forms a pretty silvery ground- 



