110 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



makes a very pretty object in autumn ; but it is capri- 

 cious, and will not fruit everywhere ; it does not fruit 

 here well. The most beautiful variety is that in which 

 the fruits have no seed inside {B. asperma), the fruits 

 being both larger and more brilliant in colour than the 

 more common sort. There are many other foreign 

 species (about fifty in all), chiefly from China and the 

 Himalayas, and a few are found in America. But of 

 all the Berberids there is none, I think, to compare 

 with Nandina domestica. As a decorative shrub it is 

 very highly valued in China and Japan, and is there 

 called the sacred bamboo, but, though it has been 

 grown in England for nearly a hundred years, and is 

 quite hardy, it is very seldom seen. Its great beauty 

 is in the foliage, the leaves being very various both in 

 colour and shape, and very graceful; the flowers are 

 pretty and remain long upon the bush, and are fol- 

 lowed by curious and handsome fruit, which, however, 

 is seldom produced in England. It can be trained to a 

 wall, or grown as a bush, and however grown is always 

 attractive. 



Among the fruits of October I must not omit the 

 fruit of the pseony (P. corallimt). I grow many 

 paeonies, but I do not know of any that produce the 

 handsome seed-vessels that this so-called British pseony 

 produces. It is certainly not a British plant, and is 



