MY SHRUBS 49 



The conifers are a great fascination to me, and, for another and a 

 better world, I have already designed a pinetum, that shall be 

 the delight of those gardening spirits that will accept my invitation 

 to gather there. I can see something in the style of Vallambroso, 

 with pines leaping, like mighty columns of silver, to their crowns 

 of darkness against the everlasting blue. But the nomenclature 

 shall all be changed, and my pines named afresh by horticultural 

 seraphim. Captain Fitzroy, R.N., was a great and good man ; 

 but in that pinetum above the stars, things will not, I hope, be 

 called after even the most distinguished members of the Services. 

 Take Fluggea, so named after the excellent Flugge, a cryptogamic 

 botanist. Now, is it fair to call an innocent, green-flowered 

 East Indian, with white berries, " Fluggea " ? Emphatically no. 

 Moreover, one is unconsciously influenced by names, and that 

 psychological fact should have been remembered by Linnaeus and 

 other heroes who handled this delicate matter. Fluggea is simply 

 handicapped out of the race like many other good and more 

 important people. 



Fontanesia has been grown and cast out. It is rather a mean 

 thing from China, in the privet style, and resembles somewhat a 

 small-leaved phillyrea ; but it lacks the fragrance of that more 

 worthy shrub. 



Fothergilla Gardeni has tufts of sweet-scented, sessile flowers in 

 May, and makes a handsome bush after passage of years. This is 

 an American and kinsman of Hamamelis. There is a finer species 

 now in cultivation which I have not seen. 



Fremontia calijornica stands high among great shrubs ; but this 

 glorious golden mallow is not easy, and one seldom sees it pros- 

 perous in England. The flowers are almost of an orange hue, and 



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