kingdom. R. grande or argenteum is equally fine, being Tree Ferns 
about eighteen feet in height and of a like diameter, and has 
borne four hundred of its great flower-trusses. At Trebah, the 
tender greenhouse Rhododendrons are grown as shrubs in the 
open, such varieties as R. fragrantissimum, Countess of Sefton, 
Lady Alice Fitzwilliam, and Gibsoni having formed bushes 
from five feet to seven feet in height. Probably the finest 
specimen of R. Griffithianum, better known as R. Aucklandi, 
in the kingdom is that at Killiow, which is fifteen feet in 
height and twenty-two feet through. The sight of this 
splendid plant in full bloom, smothered with pure white flowers 
five inches across, nine of these being often carried on a single 
truss, is a pleasing recollection, and one that well bears out an 
ardent horticulturist’s description of the plant as “the glory of 
the Himalayas and the queen of all flowering shrubs.” 
Cornish gardens, replete as they are with varied charms, 
provide no more beautiful picture than that afforded by their 
Tree Ferns, which are grown in almost every garden of note. 
At Bosahan, on the southern bank of Helford River, a few 
miles distant from Falmouth, a deep and narrow tree~ 
embowered coombe runs, winding downwards, from the higher 
ground to the water’s edge. On either side the tall brown 
stems stand crowned with coronals of lace-like spreading fronds 
that lend a tropical character to their environment. Here, in 
their sheltered and shadowy retreat, where no hint of man’s 
handiwork intrudes upon the eye, they might well have sprung 
from seed, so perfectly do they harmonise with their surround- 
ings. Some of the glorious ferns are twelve feet in height, with 
a frond-circumference of over fifty feet. 
The Bananas or Musas are also most picturesque in 
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