Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



But it began to be whispered that the Aucubas in 

 this country in lacking their complementary partner 

 lacked also their chief glory, a crown of brilliant big 

 red berries which, in Japan, made a most brave show 

 against the yellow-spotted leaves ; so about 1860 the 

 leading plant collector of the day Robert Fortune 

 set sail for Japan with the chief object of procuring a 

 male Aucuba no easy task. " On my arrival in Japan," 

 he wrote subsequently, " I lost no time in looking out 

 for the male of this interesting species. I found it at 

 last in the garden of Dr. Hall, of Yokohama." It was 

 the only one he came across, and it was sent home in 

 an air-tight Wardian glass case and placed in the 

 nursery of a Mr. Standish at Bagshot. " I look forward 

 with much interest," wrote Fortune, " to the effects of 

 this introduction. Let my readers picture to themselves 

 all the Aucubas which decorate our windows and gardens 

 covered during the winter and spring months with a 

 profusion of crimson berries. Such a result, and it is 

 not an improbable one, would of itself be worth a 

 journey all the way from England to Japan." 



The precious plant flourished and produced male 

 flowers bearing the coveted pollen dust, which was 

 promptly used for the fertilisation of female shrubs, 

 and as a result, in 1864, there was exhibited for the 

 first time in England a female Aucuba loaded with 



coral-coloured fruit. It created an immense sensation 



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