110 MY SHRUBS 
Schizophragma hydrangeoides—it has to be written—is a good 
shrub with trusses of flowers like white hydrangea, to which 
genus this monotype is related. A deciduous climber from Japan, 
it is handsome and hardy, and will hold to a rough wall or climb 
a tree-stem without support. 
The shrubby Senecio Grayit is a white-foliaged plant, but 
tender. Mine perished, and was not renewed. S. rotundifolia 
has just been introduced from New Zealand, and is said to be 
reasonably hardy. 
Serissa feetida, a swamp plant common through the East, well 
figured in the old “ Botanical Magazine” under the name of Lycium 
japonicum, has white axillary flowers and a neat habit. It grows 
with Japanese irises in a bog, and I put a big bell glass over it 
when unusual cold sets in. Kampfer regarded the smell of this 
plant as highly disgusting ; Professor Retzius disagreed with him ; 
Professor Thunberg sided with the immortal Kempfer ; and so 
will you. Professor Retzius must have had a cold in his head when 
he smelled Serissa. ‘The odour of this Japanese boxthorn is most 
afflicting. 
Shepherdia argentea is a deciduous North American, which in 
its home attains to the size of a small tree. The foliage is silver- 
bright and very beautiful; the scarlet fruit is edible; but the 
Shepherdia being dicecious I never shall taste it. The Americans 
call this plant the Beef-suet Tree, though the reason I cannot learn. 
Skimmia, from Skimmi, a Japanese word that means “ poisonous 
fruit,” is a neat evergreen shrub for a shady corner. My plants of 
S. japonica keep very dwarf, and their white flowers and scarlet 
fruits are regularly produced. S. Laureola, from Nepaul, has 
yellow flowers, and is a pretty citron-scented shrub four feet high. 
