Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



generally possible, for they have not the hardiest of 

 constitutions ; but even in less favoured climates, as 

 individuals they form desirable members of the warmer 

 nooks in many a garden. 



The Escallonias are a group of South American 

 shrubs, and their name calls to mind those now almost 

 forgotten days of the end of the eighteenth and be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth centuries, when the practically 

 unknown flora of South America was engaging the 

 attention of a devoted band of botanists Spanish, 

 French and English. The Spanish traveller, Escallon, 

 whose namesake they are, was perhaps one of the least 

 important of these botanists, and he is now only remem- 

 bered as a pupil and companion of a really notable 

 man, Don Jos6 Mutis, Astronomer Royal of Santa Fe 

 de Bogota, who was director of a special botanical 

 expedition to New Granada (now called Colombia), 

 and who added greatly to the sum total of botanical 

 science. Indeed, M. Humbolt, the French scientist, 

 refers (1808) to him as " ce grand botanist dont les 

 bontds nous imposent une reconnaissance e'ternelle" It 

 is said that Escallon was the first to find a specimen 

 of an Escallonia, and therefore Don Mutis named the 

 shrub after him ; but the fact is that, in the general 

 investigation then going on, the same plants were 

 recorded as " finds " in different parts by different 



botanists. Thus, Escallonia floribunda was certainly 



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