AUGUST 223 



coloured blooms in May and June, and Cinnabarinum, 

 which bears orange and red tubular flowers in May and 

 June. All these are worth growing for their foliage alone ; 

 but to produce this in perfection they must be liberally 

 mulched in alternate seasons with some rich compost. 

 Nothing is more acceptable to their constitution than 

 brewer's draff. 



Among the later and worthier additions to our shrub- 

 lands are the Australasian daisy-bushes, named Olearia. 

 One of these, 0. Haastii, has become common, and is 

 notable as one of the very few evergreens which relish, 

 or at least resist, the abominable climate of London ; but 

 some of the best are known only to the elect. One of 

 the grandest is 0. macrodonta, a shrub of considerable 

 stature fifteen feet or so with evergreen leaves on the 

 plan of a holly, and liberal with flower-trusses of a charm- 

 ing pearly tint. 



No shrub responds more generously than the daisy- 

 bushes to attention in pruning. The flowering sprays 

 should be removed immediately the blossom is past. If 

 seed is allowed to be formed, the crop is so enormous 

 that it exhausts the plant, so that it can only produce 

 a free display in alternate seasons. Olearia Haastii 

 often seeds itself to death ; but if the old flowering shoots 

 are removed, plenty of young wood comes up to replace 

 them. 



These daisy-bushes belong to that vast natural order, 

 the Composites, whereof the daisy may stand as the 

 type. A vast order, indeed, exceeding every other in 

 multitude, for it numbers some eight hundred genera 

 and more than ten thousand distinct species, testifying 

 by its success in every part of the world to the merits 



