JUNE 119 



them plenty of chalk they often died. All the large 

 Jackmani tribe (see nurserymen's catalogues) want 

 cutting back to the ground very early in the year, before 

 they begin to break in the spring ; but they are worth all 

 care and trouble. Many gardeners do not agree with me, 

 but I am very fond of specimen plants grown in holes 

 cut in grass, if they are planted with care, to group 

 with shrubs behind them, and so as not to present a 

 dotted-about appearance. In large gardens there are 

 places enough in shrubberies, by the side of water, or 

 elsewhere where these single specimens can grow 

 healthily. In really small gardens they take too much 

 room. In medium-sized gardens they become a feature 

 and an interest. Several plants, besides the Venetian 

 Sumach before mentioned, are such fine growers that 

 they are well worth an individual place to show them 

 off:- 



Polygonum cuspidatum and P. sacchalinense are very 

 effective, and grow splendidly in dry soils if the out- 

 side suckers are pulled out every spring ; they want no 

 other care. Bocconia cor da ta (Plume Poppy), a Japanese 

 plant, also wants no other treatment ; and in this way the 

 old shoots grow up finer and stronger each year. They are 

 herbaceous, like the Polygonums, and it is best not to cut 

 down their hollow stems till the spring. Leycesteria 

 formosa has a good growth ; its uncommon brown flowers 

 come late in the summer. (Kerria japonica, especially 

 the single one mentioned before ; the Privets, the golden 

 one and the Alexandrian are the best.) Tamarisks, so 

 seldom grown away from the sea, which are very pretty, 

 especially the one with tiny pink flowers that come out in 

 the spring (T. parviflora, I believe it is called) ; and many 

 hardy Bamboos can all be grown separately as specimen 

 plants; as also the two Eulalias, japonica and zebrina, 

 the tall Japanese grasses. The Arundo donax is the 



