206 WOOD AND GARDEN 



border; then we make one job of covering the whole 

 with fir-boughs for protection ia winter. On the wall 

 are Piptanthus Tiejacdensis, Cistus cyprius, Hdwardsia grarir 

 diflora, and another Loquat, and in the border a num- 

 ber of Hydrangeas, Clerodendron fcetidum, Crinums, and 

 Nandina domesiica, the Chinese so-called sacred Bamboo. 

 It is not a Bamboo at all, but alUed to Berberis ; the 

 Chinese plant it for good luck near their houses. If 

 it is as lucky as it is pretty, it ought to do one good ! 

 I first made acquaintance with this beautiful plant in 

 Canon EUacombe's most interesting garden at Bitton, in 

 Gloucestershire, where it struck me as one of the most 

 beautiful growing things I had ever seen ; the beauty 

 being mostly in the form and colouring of the leaves. 

 It is not perhaps a plant for everybody, and barely 

 hardy ; it seems slow to get hold, and its fiiU beauty 

 only shows when it is well established, and throws up its 

 wonderfully-coloured leaves on tall bamboo-Uke stalks. 

 There is nothing much more difficult to do in out- 

 door gardening than to plant a mixed border well, and 

 to keep it in beauty throughout the summer. Every 

 year, as I gain more experience, and, I hope, more 

 power of critical judgment, I find myself tending 

 towards broader and simpler effects, both of grouping 

 and colour. I do not know whether it is by individual 

 preference, or in obedience to some colour-law that I can 

 instinctively feel but cannot pretend even to imderstand, 

 and much less to explain, but in practice I always find 

 more satisfaction and facility in treating the warm 



