H The Scented Qarden $£ 



windowe, which smelled more strongly after they had 

 been together a few howers, with such a ponticke and 

 unacquainted savour, that they awaked me from sleepe, 

 so that I could not take any rest till I had cast them out 

 of my chamber.' The scent of the purple lilac he de- 

 scribed as i an exceeding sweet savour and scent but not so 

 strong as the former : the flowers are of an exceeding 

 faire blewe colour, compacted of many small flowers, in 

 the forme of a bunche of grapes.' 



Phillyrea angustifolia (a native of N. Africa and S. 

 Europe) has been grown in our gardens for well over 300 

 years. Of it Gerard says, ' These plants doe grow in Syria 

 neere the city Ascalon, and were found by our industrious 

 Pena in the mountains neere Narbone and Montpelier 

 in France ; the which I planted in the garden at Barne 

 Elmes neere London, belonging to the right Honour- 

 able the Earle of Essex : I have them growing in my 

 garden likewise.' A new treasure for lovers of sweet 

 scents is Qsmarea Burkwoodii, a bigeneric hybrid, the 

 result of crossing Osmanthus Delavayii with the pollen of 

 Phillyrea decora. The flowers are exquisitely scented, 

 and this lovely new evergreen is very hardy. 



The old Portugal laurel (Prunus lusitanica) is one 

 of our finest evergreen hardy shrubs, but one 

 usually sees it so mutilated and clipped that it is a 

 depressing spectacle. When its fine, smooth, noble 

 limbs are allowed to grow freely, it is one of the 

 grandest shrubs. A specimen about 20 to 30 feet high, 

 with its lustrous foliage and its profusion of slender 

 racemes of scented flowers in June, is one of the most 

 striking spec- tacles in the garden. It is finer even than 

 Laurus nobilis, another shrub which is also usually 



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