GOOD TREES AND SHRUBS 261 



habit. It is free in growth, with broad deep-green arching leaves ; an 

 excellent plant for winter bedding. Y . filamentosa, the North American 

 Silk Grass, is a beautiful species, nearly stemless, with long, narrow, rich 

 green leaves, conspicuous for the numerous thread-like appendages along 

 the margins. Of this there is a distinct and pretty form with cream- 

 coloured variegation ; but it is only when planted in a warm, rather dry 

 soil that the true leaf colour is revealed. Y. angustifolia is another 

 narrow-leaved sort of much beauty i 



Zenobias. Two kinds of Zenobias are found in gardens, viz. Z. 

 speciosa, and its variety pulverulenta. [Of the two the last-named is 

 decidedly the best, as it is quite as hardy as the type, and produces an 

 abundance of snow-white, drooping, bell-shaped flowers in axillary 

 clusters. It forms a much-branched shrub four feet high, and the under 

 sides of its leaves and stems are powdered with white. The flowers of 

 the type (speciosa}, formerly known as Andromeda cassinefolia, are 

 smaller, and produced a week or so after those of the variety referred to 

 above. Although peaty soil is usually considered necessary for these 

 charming Heathworts, one composed of loam and leaf-mould suits them 

 admirably, provided the drainage is good and lime is not present in the 

 soil. They are sub-evergreen. Seed ripens freely in this country, from 

 which plants may be raised in quantity. Sow in fine soil in shallow 

 pans or boxes, and, as the seed is very small, be careful not to bury 

 it too deeply. With the variety pulverulenta, cuttings or layers 

 answer best. 



Mistletoe. There is something strangely attractive about this 

 plant, something mysterious that arouses the imagination. It is attrac- 

 tive, and yet, at the same time, slightly repellent, for it has somewhat 

 of a vampire nature in that it sucks out and lives upon the life-blood of 

 some honest tree. Moreover, it is both ugly and pleasant to see, for it 

 hangs in rather ungainly bunches and masses, and yet is beautiful in 

 detail. In form it is so simply constructed that it gives one the im- 

 pression of being low in the scale of vegetable creation. It is built 

 almost as simply as a scant weed, but there is a rare and strange kind of 

 beauty in the individual twigs, and especially in the relation of colour 

 between the golden green leaf and the pearl white berry. The trees it 

 most frequents are Lime, Apple, Poplar, Thorn, and Mountain Ash. 

 The seed can be sown by fixing the berry either in an artificial slit, or a 

 crack in the bark of any likely tree, preferably on the under side of a 

 branch, and place a little strip of linen over for a time to prevent birds 

 eating the seed. Such sowings are often ineffectual, because the seed is 

 used before it is ripe. It is no use taking it from boughs and sowing about 

 Christmas time, for the seed is not ripe till quite two months later. 

 Mistletoe abounds in some English west country orchards, but is in still 

 greater profusion in those of Brittany. 



