316 EXOTIOS IN CORNWALL. 



than is bestowed upon the commonest of our indigenous shrubs. 

 Myrtles and Passion-flowers abound in and around Falmouth, 

 heavily festooning the fronts of natty cottages ; and wonder- 

 fully healthy plants of Geanothus azureus, Aralia Sieholdii, and 

 Yuccas may be turned up in the most unexpected places in any 

 afternoon's walk. 



Nor can the objection that the plants are mostly killed ofi 

 during severe winters, and are then replaced by others to give 

 the county a cheap popularity, be allowed to pass unchallenged. 

 At Carclew, Eosehill, Penjerrick, Enys, Tremough, Burncoose, 

 and many other estates, plant after plant may be seen which 

 have been in their present positions from twenty to thirty years. 



The gain to the county by this wide-spread introduction of 

 plants from warmer lands is three-fold. It cannot be accounted 

 a little matter that, as a result of this extensive rifling of other 

 lands for plants to embellish our own, the face of our county has 

 been improved as by a magician's wand. " Man shall not live by 

 bread alone," is a maxim the force of which Time has not been 

 able to blunt. By contemplating the beauties around him, man 

 learns to cultivate the beautiful in his own soul. So, by 

 expending their wealth in the direction indicated, our gentry 

 have been doing a work which must command the approbation 

 of all time. 



Prom a purely scientific standpoint also the acclimatisation 

 of a sub-tropical vegetation is not without its reward. If 

 Mahomet cannot go to the mountain, the mountain must come to 

 Mahomet. From a state of comparative poverty in varieties of 

 plant-life, many of our estates have been brought to one of 

 marvellous opulence, and have thus been transformed into 

 valuable training places for such horticulturists and botanists 

 as cannot see the plants growing in their native wilds. 



It must be confessed, however, that there is a more utili- 

 tarian standpoint from which the case must be considered. The 

 gradual decadance within recent years of many of our staple 

 industries has driven us to tap new sources of wealth. The old 

 toast, " Fish, tin, and copper," will scarcely be understood by 

 the generations to come. In its stead they may be called upon 

 to respond to " Health, wealth, and wisdom." For with each 



