JULY 181 



extraordinary beauty of Hibiscus Syriacus (also called 

 Althaea frutex), let him wander down Cheyne Walk 

 some September evening. Needless to mention the 

 number of the house ; afar off he will see a cascade of 

 lovely blossom a shrub some seven feet high, bearing 

 on every twig large flowers, white, with a claret satin 

 on every petal. This is only one variety of this choice 

 mallow- wort, which revels in all the sunbake it can 

 get; you can have it, if such be your pleasure, with 

 delicate lavender flowers, or pure white, or rose- 

 coloured. 



In the same neighbourhood, to wit, within the lately 

 renovated Apothecaries' Physic Garden in Chelsea, may 

 be seen a magnificent specimen of the Wistaria sinensis, 

 showing how nobly this magnificent climber will thrive, 

 even in the climate of London. Yet of all the myriad 

 house fronts within the radius of a mile of this spot, I 

 can only point to one, besides my own, upon which a 

 Wistaria has been planted. 



The last wall plant that I shall mention as suitable 

 for London is, strange to say, a conifer. Strange, 

 because one might attempt to grow pineapples in Franz 

 Josef Land or mangoes in Labrador as hopefully as any 

 of the fir tribe in London, except the Salisburia. It is 

 a deciduous pine with leaves like a gigantic maidenhair 

 fern. It wants the protection of a wall in London, for 

 the upper branches die back poisoned when grown as 

 a standard witness the specimen which stretches over 

 the wall of the Apothecaries' Garden, or another, equally 

 tall, beside the main street of malodorous Brentford. 



