MY SHRUBS 3 
good things are, of course, indifferent and tolerate it, while some 
fruit bearers, such as Diospyros Kaki and Eriobotrya, and perhaps 
Feijoa, appreciate lime ; but, for the most part, my plants can do 
exceedingly well without, and I have, little by little, carted the 
local soil away from my garden and substituted beds of leaf and 
sand and peat. The native loam is so full of lime, and so largely 
composed of coarse red clay, that I feel happier without it, and 
escape many discomforts. My beds are always sweet and clean. 
There is no mud, and mud is a thing that neither self-respecting 
plant nor gardener appreciates. It is the same with shade. 
Certain flowering shrubs do their duty in shade, and many insist 
on half-shade ; but no shrub tolerates stuffiness, or deprivation 
from rain and light. I like plenty of shadow cast from south or 
west, but overhead shade is much to be avoided. Speaking 
generally, the Chilians are all peat and shade-lovers, and all ex- 
ceedingly thirsty. You can hardly over-water them in the summer, 
and they are quite content to bid farewell to the sun at noon. 
They thrive on the east side of my house, but they are protected 
from the east by a high wall and some yews and hollies. Many 
Australians are hard to please, and must be watched in winter ; 
while high level New Zealanders for the most part face our 
weather bravely enough. The Chatham Island plants are also 
not hardy even in the West, but the comparative smallness of their 
habitat and their propinquity to the sea mean that they would 
naturally be more tender than those from New Zealand’s moun- 
tains. Does Corynocarpus levigata stand in the open anywhere 
in England, for instance? Perhaps in Cornwall—certainly no- 
where else. My little piece lives out of doors from May till 
October ; then it sneaks into a cold house. Doryanthes excelsa 
