XXXIV 

 AUCUBA 



Aucuba japonica . . . . " Variegated Laurel " 



COMMONEST of shrubsthe chief stand-by of 

 park shrubberies, the last resource of the 

 suburban gardener the so-called "Variegated 

 Laurel " is known throughout the length and breadth 

 of our land. It can stand shade as few other shrubs 

 can ; its shining leathery leaves turn off the soot and 

 grime of the town with surpassing ease, and it can 

 live by means of its strong fleshy roots where most 

 others of its kind would starve. Familiarity has un- 

 justly engendered somewhat of contempt for it in these 

 days, but it is, all the same, of very great interest ; it 

 is a shrub too with a " past." 



Just as William and Mary were taking up the re- 

 sponsibilities of sovereignty in the British Isles at the 

 end of the seventeenth century, a Westphalian botanist, 

 Engelbert Kaempfer, discovered this plant in Japan and 

 made an excellent drawing of it. But he went no 

 further, and almost a hundred years passed before the 

 renowned botanist, Thunberg, first brought it in 



1783 to Europe. The striking Japanese plant was 



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