AUGUST 101 



what a fine lesson-book it was to a rather soHtary 

 child; and when I came to plant my own shrub 

 clump I thought I would put rather near together 

 some of the old favourites, so here again we come 

 back to Leycesteria, put rather in a place of honour, 

 and near it Buttercup bush and Andromeda and Mag- 

 nolias and old garden Roses. 



I had no space for a shrub wilderness, but have 

 made a large clump for just the things I like best, 

 whether new friends or old. It is a long, low bank, 

 five or six paces wide, highest in the middle, where 

 the rather taller things are planted. These are mostly 

 Junipers and Magnolias ; of the Magnohas, the kinds 

 are Soulangeana, conspicua, purpurea, and stellata. One 

 end of the clump is all of peat earth ; here are Andro- 

 medas, Skimmeas, and on the cooler side the broad- 

 leaved Gale, whose crushed leaves have almost the 

 sweetness of Myrtle. One long side of the clump 

 faces south-west, the better to suit the things that 

 love the sun. At the farther end is a thrifty bush of 

 Styrax japonica, which flowers well in hot summers, 

 but another bush under a south wall flowers better. 

 It must be a lovely shrub in the south of Europe and 

 perhaps in Cornwall ; here the year's growth is always 

 cut at the tip, but it flowers well on the older wood, 

 and its hanging clusters of white bloom are lovely. 

 At its foot, on the sunny side, are low bushy plants of 

 Cishis florentinus. I am told that this specific name 

 is not right ; but the plant so commonly goes by it 



