City Squares, &c. 45 



family, which is allied to the Gooseberry, and native 

 of South America. 



One or more varieties of the Olive group, to which 

 Osmanthus is akin, may likewise be expected to suit 

 our town gardens, and are handsome evergreens. 



Shaphiokpis ovata, or Japonica, with thick, ovate, 

 leathery leaf, and small bunches of white, sweetish 

 flower, is another native of Japan which thrives in 

 our towns. 



There are several kinds of Pittosporum, natives of 

 Australia, Madeira, Japan, Cape of Good Hope, &c. 

 The New Zealanders call their plants Karo ; one 

 variety, crassifotium, is not an uncommon small tree 

 in the Northern Island, and is recommended for 

 extensive planting in the different islands, from its 

 hardihood, and power to resist and bear sea winds. 

 See Flares des Serres for April, 1875, p. 13. Bot. 

 Mag., Tab. 5978, A. D. 1872. It is said to require 

 protection of a wall in eastern England, but it seems 

 pretty hardy in different places near Dublin, and has 

 been out for about two years in Merrion-square. It 

 grows from four to ten feet high, dense and ramous, 

 with erect branches, #nd leaves clothed underneath 

 with white or buff. The flowers are generally in 

 nodding umbels, small, dark, chocolate purple, and 

 it seeds freely. 



P. tobira is the species hitherto best known in Ire- 

 land, in many parts of which it grows out of doors. 

 For twenty years it has been an ornamental shrub in 

 Merrion-square, flowering freely every year about 



