2 FLORA HYEMALIS 



Thus on the night of 7th-8th January the mercury 

 registered 23 of cold ; on the 9th it rose to 46 in the 

 shade. It has cost us our finest bush of Sophora 

 (Edwardsia) grandiflora, the winter jasmine shed its 

 golden veil, and the crimson flush of Rhododendron 

 Nobleanum was turned to ill-coloured ashes. Luckily, 

 this intrepid hybrid always keeps plenty of flower-buds 

 in reserve, for the return of mild conditions. As for 

 the wych (or is it witch ?) hazels, Hamamelis mollis 

 and arborea, no amount of cold which they may have 

 to face in the British Isles makes any effect on their 

 crowded sprays of blossom, except to prolong the display. 

 At Christinastide that fine bamboo, Thamnocalamus 

 Falconeri, was waving its bending wands twenty feet 

 high ; but its verdant plumes became limp and dis- 

 coloured, their grace all disfigured till midsummer 

 should clothe them afresh. This bamboo presents the 

 solitary exception known by me to the late Lord 

 Redesdale's test for hardihood, namely, that only those 

 species of the giant couch grasses that have a tessel- 

 lated leaf-structure can resist the rigours of our climate. 

 He pronounced all the species with striated leaf- 

 structure to be tender. Now the leaf of T. Falconeri is 

 striated, as may be seen when it is held up against the 

 light; yet it has weathered a dozen winters here, and 

 is, I think, the most graceful of all bamboos, and does 

 not spread in the outrageous fashion of some of its 

 kindred. Such would I gladly commit to limbo if I 

 could ; but they are ill to eradicate. Twenty years ago 

 we were seeking out choice, sheltered spots for them, 

 little suspecting their direfully rampant nature. Now, 



