Aucuba 



among gardeners, and a host of amateurs were on fire 

 to produce similar results. Everyone wanted male 

 Aucubas, and fancy prices were offered for them ; they 

 frequently changed hands at over a guinea a leaf, and 

 their propagation was hastened by every artifice known 

 to the florist. The following year, at the great Guildhall 

 Flower Show, Mr. Bull gave a famous exhibition of 

 Aucubas covered with scarlet berries, and we are told 

 "the excitement of horticulturists was intense/' "The 

 commonest of all known garden trees was thus re- 

 introduced to public notice as an altogether new, inter- 

 esting and remarkable subject; and thousands who 

 never before reflected upon the laws which govern 

 reproduction in the vegetable kingdom .... were 

 led to inquire into the first principles of vegetable 

 physiology."* 



The original male shrub which Fortune brought 

 home is still alive and vigorous, growing in the private 

 part of the Botanical Garden in Regent's Park, and 

 standing side by side with a female shrub. 



Nowadays when berries are desired it is simply 

 necessary to plant an occasional male shrub in the 

 vicinity of the ordinary form, and insects bridge the 

 gulf between them. 



The flowers of either kind of shrub are small and 

 arranged as pairs in spikes, which spikes arise within 



* Hibbert 

 Q 245 



