CHAPTER XII 



1 



^ACSONIA VAN-VOLXEMII grows within ten miles of 

 me on a wall in a garden beside the estuary of Dart. 

 But this most beautiful passion-flower from New Grenada, 

 though a rampant thing under glass, cannot be counted upon out 

 of doors even in the West Country. Mine used to flourish in a 

 vinery, and hang out its pure, deep rosy blossoms with the utmost 

 generosity ; but against a snug south wall it soon passed away. 

 There are few more beautiful climbing shrubs than this. 



The Tamarix has many fine forms, and no garden reasonably 

 near the sea should lack a specimen or two. If you have room for 

 a drift of them, then so much the better for your garden's beauty. 

 The old T. gallica is only beaten by one species in my opinion, but 

 the rosy pink panicles of T. odessana, a splendid Russian, are better. 

 These deciduous shrubs yield to none in grace and charm. They 

 enjoy full sunshine and chime harmoniously with other things. 

 Combined with Ceonothus, for example, they are a joy. T. chinensis, 

 from Canton, should be here, but I do not find it offered to me by 

 nurserymen. 



Taxodium distichum, in its youthful state, makes a neat little 

 deciduous conifer. To see this most beautiful tree in full splendour 

 one must doubtless go to the United States ; but it would be hard 

 to imagine more striking specimens than those in the public gardens 

 at Milan. There they stand with their feet in water, their high tops 

 a glory of young feathery green when the Spring comes. 



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