180 AN ISLAND PARADISE 



is sometimes seen in large conservatories, but under 

 such conditions it never displays the wealth of shining, 

 myrtle green foliage and spires of white, fragrant flowers 

 which it puts forth here. 



One other flower, and one only, let me recall a 

 charming form of the amaryllis which Linnseus, as 

 appropriately as poetically, christened bdla donna. 

 The common variety is better than most things, and 

 can be grown successfully in sunny corners as far north 

 as Inverness-shire ; but it flowers so late in the autumn 

 that, except in sun-baked districts, it is apt to be 

 marred by a foretaste of winter. But the Tresco 

 variety comes into flower full six weeks earlier than 

 the type; in mid- August there were sheaves of its 

 sweet, rose-coloured blossoms growing in admirable 

 contrast to the equally free-flowering agapanthus 

 the blue love-lily of Hottentot brides. 



Methought that on a gem of an island like Tresco, 

 a very fairyland of horticulture, one would as likely 

 have found a rhinoceros as a rabbit. What an 

 opportunity might be had to naturalise all kinds of 

 exotic growth the Kerguelen Island cabbage on the 

 rocky knolls, the giant forget-me-not of the Chatham 

 Islands on the beach, innumerable South African bulbs 

 and heaths on the plains of granite sand. Alas ! Out- 

 side the very garden walls everything is gnawed down 

 by rabbits. Were I but lord of Tresco it would be an 

 evil but a short day for these detestable rodents. 



