362 MORE POT-POURRI 



Hydrangea quercifolia, H. macrocephala, H. hortensis,. 

 and H. chinensis. 



Variegated Maple is grown a good deal at Florence 

 and, when skilfully used and much pruned, it can be 

 made a considerable feature in any large garden mixed 

 with dark evergreens, such as Hollies, Privets, Irish 

 Yews, etc., as it has almost the whiteness of flowers at a 

 distance. Cassia australis struck me as being a hand- 

 some greenhouse evergreen. 



The garden was full of sunk tubs for watering, with 

 pieces of stone and small plants round the edge. Convol- 

 vulus mauritanicus is a plant to grow at home in consider- 

 able abundance ; it comes easily from seed, and was lovely 

 in this garden in half -shade under shrubs. Mine has lived 

 out now three winters, its roots protected by a small shrub. 

 It is also very pretty grown in baskets in the greenhouse. 



I was disappointed at seeing no Lilies growing in 

 gardens in Florence, though plenty of the Lilium 

 candidum were sold in the market. How excellent is 

 Mr. Stephen Phillips's line on a Lily garden : ' A tragic 

 odour like emotion rose.' That is a complete description 

 in words of the scent of some flowers, such as I had long 

 sought for, but, I think, never found before. 



Apparently nothing in my first book really offended 

 the reviewers, and perhaps even the public, so much as 

 my non-appreciation of Virginia Creeper and Ampelopsis 

 veitchii. The remarks of one critic are typical of many 

 others : ' Very gently and respectfully we would say " Avoid 

 the dictatorial attitude," and we would point our mean- 

 ing by an ancient horticultural saying of the Midlands : 

 " Different people have different opinions some like 

 apples, and some like inions." Mrs. Earle, it seems to us, 

 might well consider that occasionally others may, without 

 being guilty of sin against art, admire that which revolts 

 her sense of the beautiful. Frankly, her denunciation of 



