AUGUST 



'53 



beautiful as the flower itself — three dark steel-blue 

 seeds set in the dying flower, which turns a rich brown. 

 Was ever anything more daintily beautiful to be seen ? 

 It can be grown up strings, as in the picture in the 

 ' English Flower Garden ' ; but I do not think that is as 

 pretty as rambling with its deUeate growth over some 

 light creeper, such as Jasmine or Eose, as I recommended 

 before. I did not see in the Highlands, rather to my 

 surprise, though I believe it is planted in some places, 

 the beautiful crimson-berried Elder, Samlmcus racemosa. 

 This was the one remarkable plant-feature I saw in 

 Norway last year. I was there too late to see the wild 

 flowers. It had not been imported very long, they told 

 us, and it adorned all the stations (there is only one short 

 railway in Norway), throwing out long branches covered 

 with bunches of crimson berries, which are shaped like 

 the black bunches on the Privet rather than like the flat 

 berries of the common Elder. At a distance the plant 

 looks, when covered vrith ripe berries, Kke a beautiful 

 Crimson Eambler. It is singularly effective, and I have 

 never seen it in England. I imagine this must be 

 because, if it grew and berried ever so well in damp 

 places, the birds would soon clear off aU the fruit. In 

 Norway there seem to be no small birds, for there the 

 berries hung for weeks and weeks, in crimson loveliness. 

 The shrub is about the height of Lilac bushes ; the berries 

 grow on the old wood, and the growth of the year is a 

 most brilliant green. It is a plant that more people 

 should try to grow in damp situations. 



"We were far North, up in Sutherlandshire, where the 

 great storm of two years ago laid bare miles and miles of 

 forest. I never saw a more curious sight — pathetic and 

 sad too, in a way. The poor trees, which had from their 

 youth up been accustomed to storms from the south and 

 west, had sent out long roots, and buried them deep under 



