MY SHRUBS 95 
in North African gardens ; but it would need much care with us 
save in a cold house. 
Polygonum baldshuanicum is now generally grown, but not 
always with success. It likes plenty of cool root room and its 
head in the sun. The best I know lives in a pear tree. 
Pomaderris apetala is an Australian evergreen with trusses of 
small yellowish flowers resembling Ceanothus. 'The foliage of 
this Victorian Hazel is effective, but no great interest attaches 
to the plant. A hard winter garnered mine, and it was never 
renewed. 
To Protea, that glorious genus of wonderful African shrubs 
and trees, we merely do obeisance and pass on. A cold house in 
winter and a warm corner out of doors in summer is all they need ; 
but I find none in cultivation in the West. P. lepidocarpon, from 
the Cape, might be hardy here; but I know not where that 
wondrous shrub is to be found in England. 
In Prunus I am poor; but possess P. Mume, a Japanese, and 
among the first to flower. The shrub makes a good specimen, 
and its snowy blossom appears at the end of February in a reason- 
able winter, before the blackthorn. P. triloba, too, I have, and 
big pieces of P. Pissardi ; but it never sets its dark purple fruits 
with me. From Persia comes this old favourite, and Gauntlett 
reports a new and exquisite variety with bright double rose flowers. 
One merely apologises to this great genus, pleads lack of space, 
and passes on. 
Psidium, the Guava, is of course out of the question, but 
Punica Granatum, the Pomegranate, makes a fine show and opens 
its wax-like scarlet blossoms generously through a hot summer. I 
have not known it to fruit—indeed the single-flowered variety is 
