MY SHRUBS 43 
is red, bell-shaped and drooping. It is hardy, and will prosper ina 
shady peat bed. Other varieties of the species in cultivation can be 
secured, and E. japonica has white bells and fine autumn colour. 
Entelea arborescens, from New Zealand, blossoms in a small 
state, and my plant hung out a fine show of flowers and set its 
prickly seeds afterwards, though not above two feet high. It is 
a pretty thing with white-stalked cymes of bloom, but doubtfully 
hardy. Mine flourished in half shade last summer, but it is at 
this moment wintering comfortably in a cold house—to reappear 
in May. 
Epacris, another very fine New Zealander, will not succeed out 
of doors though, with protection and thought, it might be pre- 
vailed upon to do so. In a pot it is a difficult customer, and few 
succeed for long with this beautiful dwarf. I scorn hybrids as a 
rule, but some of the hybrids of epacris are most distinguished. 
Ephedra distachya looks like a hippuris or “ horse-tail,’”’ and, 
indeed, that is the meaning of its name. I had a good piece of 
this South European, but death, for reasons I could not discover, 
overtook it in a sunny spot, and, though it reached two feet, and 
was comely and happy to the eye, it set no fruit. When the scarlet 
berries are ripe, Ephedra must be a showy object, and I am trying 
it again. 
Epigea repens is a gem that I have loved and lost. This fair, 
pink-flowered, fragrant treasure throve and bloomed in a very 
dark corner, but I think it was too dry, for the worst of these gloomy 
corners often is that they lack moisture. But of dwarfs there are 
few more exquisite than this little ground laurel from the Northern 
States—and few more difficult. 
Of Erica I can show nothing novel save E. urceolata, a rare 
