NOVEMBER 245 



as many feet high, with abundant foliage, but in vain 

 have I watched these dozen years past for a single 

 truss of the rosy, orange bells that entitle this plant 

 to a place in the first rank of decorative climbers. 

 Why is it so seldom grown in south-country gardens ? 

 When I first met with it in flower on Sir George 

 Darwin's pretty house at Cambridge, I lost no time in 

 planting it three hundred miles further north, with the 

 result aforesaid. 



Another disappointing plant in the north is the 

 Chinese Xanihoceras, for which no English name has 

 been devised since its introduction some thirty years 

 ago. I paid ten shillings apiece for three plants when 

 it was a novelty thirty years ago ; they have grown as 

 vigorously as could be wished, but all the return they 

 have made consists of plentiful feathery foliage like 

 that of a refined mountain ash, and a few sparse heads 

 of white flowers with a splash of claret at the base of 

 each petal. Yet I have seen a photograph of this 

 shrub in the south of England sheeted with blossom. 



On the other hand, there are certain sun-loving 

 plants which surprise one by the facility with which 

 they adapt themselves to conditions of air and soil very 

 different from those of the land of their birth. Last 

 winter (1907-8) was the most trying that we have had 

 since the terror of 1894-95, not so much on account of 

 seasonable cold, but because of the unseasonable frost 

 at Eastertide, when many species were far advanced 

 in growth. Strange to say, the different kinds of 

 cistus escaped practically unhurt, and have flowered 

 abundantly throughout the summer. There is a great 



