76 MY SHRUBS 
and sweetest flowers that blow. M. macrophylla, of .which I 
possess a young plant, is a gigantic deciduous species with huge 
foliage and blossoms ten inches across. But M. Delavayi, another 
grand plant, for which I thank a valued friend, promises to make 
a swifter growth than the last-named. It is a superb Chinese 
evergreen with large white flowers, still too rare in cultivation. 
The young leaves of a fine specimen are most beautiful. 
Curtis writes of the magnolia that there is “a magnificence 
about the plants of this genus which renders them unsuitable 
subjects of representation in a work the size of ours,” and if 
you substitute “‘ garden ”’ for work, the words unfortunately hold 
true for most of us. But you should obtain half a dozen from 
the immense variety to be secured, or if that is too many, and 
you prefer to represent magnolia by a single species, then set 
M. grandiflora against the south face of your house, or M. conspicua 
where it will have room to stretch and grow. M. conspicua alba 
superba is the variety to choose. To Pierre Magnol, Prefect of 
the Botanic Garden of Montpellier, nearly two hundred years 
ago, belongs the name of this notable and fragrant family. I set 
them near to rhododendron in my regard. 
Malpighia belongs to the greenhouse and stove. I tried the 
fruits of M. glabra, the Barbados cherry, when visiting that 
coral island in the past, and liked them little. Mandevilla suave- 
olens, from Buenos Ayres, is a splendid deciduous climber, with. 
flowers like a white jasmine, but three times as large and scarcely 
less fragrant. The fruit is most curious—twin, round pods above 
a foot long and joined together at the point. 
Manettia coccinea really will not do out of doors here. It is a 
gem from French Guinea, and I have seen it flourishing superbly 
