56 MY SHRUBS 
But we poor struggling amateurs enjoy none of these privileges : 
not for us do obedient sails bring fine things from realms un- 
furrowed ; not for us do obedient nymphs our dulcet mandates 
hear ; we cannot sally forth, like Sir David Prain, flower-crowned 
and followed by a host of tripping horticultural fairies. Nobody 
fans our perspiring sub-tropicals in glass-built fanes. When 
girls go into my glass-built fane, they only fan themselves. It is 
true that another sort of nymph tripped into the Nation’s orchid 
houses not so long ago, and they neither propped the weak stem 
nor led the erring tendril ; but for the most part, and subject to 
those little trials from which no human institution in these thrilling 
times is free, Kew has the gardening world at her feet, and we 
creatures of an hour cannot fail to be jealous of her and envy her 
amazing privileges. I ought to go to Kew in a humble spirit, and 
haunt its glades and glass for six months before daring to write 
this little book about shrubs. But I shall not. These are my 
shrubs that I am talking about, and not one of them came from 
Kew. I believe I have got about two that Kew has not got. If 
it knew of these, Kew would send messengers with rich gifts in 
exchange ; and I should slight them and entreat them scornfully, 
and send them back to the Royal Gardens empty-handed. I 
have got my “ vegetable-pride ”’ too. 
Not that Hakea eriantha,from Australia, ministered to it; this 
good evergreen died at the first onset of November without a 
struggle. ‘To-day it was here, to-morrow it had vanished. I 
remember no frost, or other peril, though it is true it came with 
that familiar danger signal, ‘‘ a good plant for favoured gardens.” 
Yet others have survived with the same warning on their foreheads. 
I remember that Melaleuca perished out of hand, and sundry of its 
