EXOTICS IN COENWALL. 333 



A treatise on Cornwall, in which no mention was made of 

 the saints and superstitions of the county, would be no greater 

 a failure than a paper purporting to deal with the exotics of 

 Cornwall in which no word of praise was found for 



PORTHGWIDDEN. 

 When Q-oethe penned those pregnant words in The Sorrows 

 of Werter, where, speaking of a certain estate, he said "first sight 

 must convince us that native taste has superseded professional 

 skill, and that not a mere gardener, but a man of feeling, has 

 been the chief cultivator," he must have had in view some such 

 place as Porthgwidden and precisely another such passionate 

 lover of flowers as the late Canon Phillpotts. When Canon 

 Phillpotts died, Cornwall lost its greatest authority on horticul- 

 ture; but of him it can be truly said ' 'he being dead yet speak eth." 

 To tell in full what he did towards making Porthgwidden the 

 Mecca of West country horticulturists and scientists, with what 

 tenderness he cared for the children of his own planting, and his 

 anxiety that every estate in Cornwall should become " a thing 

 of beauty " and " a joy for ever," would be to write a book as 

 interesting as any work of fiction. To be correctly appraised, 

 Porthgwidden must be seen, and, by the owner's consent, its 

 woodland paths and everglades explored ; for, valuable as a list 

 of some of its rarer plants may be, it cannot convey with any 

 faithfulness an impression of scenes which 



" Seem 

 The vain productions of a feverish dream." 



Abelia floribunda. 



Acacia affinis. 



Adiantum C.-V. cornubiense. 



Berberidopsis corallina. 



Ceanothus Q-loire de Versailles. 



Cestrum elegans. 



Chamserops excelsa, 20 feet high. 



Choisya ternata. 



Clianthus puniceus. 



CoUetia cruciata. 



Desfontainea spinosa. 



Dracaenas, in variety. 



