IN CALIFORNIA 105 



appears to be as tough and durable as any of the 

 more common ones so familiar to us, yet at maturity 

 reaches a total height of but six feet, and this only 

 after a great many years. 



A GENERAL LIST 



Many people include among the ferns the several 

 species of asparagus, and one of them, Asparagus 

 plumosus, known as the asparagus fern, requires 

 similar treatment. A. scandens deflexus, a rare and 

 but little known species, is the most beautiful of all. 

 It is of compact trailing habit like Asparagus Spren- 

 geri, but with very fine, dense, pale green foliage. 

 Asparagus Sprengeri, the most enduring of all, is a 

 gross feeder and is perennially thirsty. It may be 

 grown either in pots or hanging baskets, and will 

 stand either full sun or partial shade. 



The aralias, with the exception of A. papyrifera, 

 are adapted for house or conservatory culture. They 

 are very pretty decorative plants and do remarkably 

 well indoors. A. Sieboldii and A. Sieboldii variegata 

 are very tropical looking small shrubs with very 

 large, deeply lobed glossy palmate leaves, those of 

 the latter broadly marked with creamy white. 



Aucuba Japonica, the gold dust plant, is a very 

 handsome shrub and one of the best of the colored- 

 leaved foliage plants. With large glossy leaves, 

 spotted with golden-yellow, followed by bright scar- 

 let berries in the fall, it is a fine decorative house 

 plant and well adapted to pot or tub culture. 



For hardiness, beauty and general utility as a 

 decorative specimen Aspidistra lurida may well be 

 regarded as one of the best. It will thrive for 

 months in a room where little light reaches it and 

 does equally well as a shady porch plant or in a gar- 

 den fernery. 



