70 MY SHRUBS 
Ligustrum also leaves me cold ; but L. aureum, the golden privet, 
resides in a corner, and is often picked for indoor decoration. 
Limoniastrum monopetela, from Sicily, attained to a good size, 
and its grey-green foliage and original habit made an interesting 
shrub of it. But it perished without showing a flower, and I 
have started it again under very favourable conditions. It is 
inclined to be tender, but probably succeeds well enough in the 
South of England. 
Liquidambar styraciflua, a hamamelis, whose species occur in 
the Levant, Japan and elsewhere, is famed for its fine autumn 
colouring. These trees grow slowly, and are shrubs for practical 
purposes. My variety—the sweet gum—is of North America, 
and has not shaken out its yellow catkins as yet. Neither has the 
autumn colour of the foliage been at all remarkable. L. for- 
mosana, from China, is now in cultivation. You can use the 
timber of this species for tea-chests, I find, should it fail to please 
you. 
Liriodendron is another tree, and will not give you its sweet- 
scented, tulip-like blossoms until it attains to something like 
adult size. The finest specimen of this famous American that 
I have ever seen was in a friend’s garden at Petersham, nigh 
Richmond-on-Thames. 
Lomatia ferruginea is a Chilian, and quite hardy in the West. 
Its fernlike, evergreen leaves and rusty stems make a good shrub 
of it, and reconcile me to some patience in the matter of its 
crimson flowers. It grows slowly in any soil, and appears to like 
full sun. Other varieties grow in Australia, but I do not know 
whether they are cultivated. The plant is allied to Embothrium, 
but a great deal easier to please. 
