OF SHRUBS AND THEIR PLACING 19 



fragrance. Of course it was Chimonanthus frag^-ans — a 

 great bush of it, clothed all over with those dull pale, 

 waxy flowers, of which one is enough to fill a whole big 

 house with bliss. But though I have great bushes now 

 at home — bushes that shoot and thrive and ramp — yet 

 I have not yet had even that one flower annually for 

 which I would almost compound. Not only, by the wav, 

 are the blossoms of Chimonanthus thus scented, but if 

 ever any one has noticed the curious musty sweetness that 

 hangs characteristically about everything imported from 

 Japan, and has wondered what the cause may be, let me 

 advise him to pick off" and pulverise some dry, dead twig 

 oi the Chimonanthus. Immediately, and with no money 

 spent on train or steamer, he will find himself standing 

 in the avenue that leads up to the temple of K'annon 

 Bodhisat' at Asak'sa, in the full roaring tide of Japanese 

 life. So poignant, so instant is the call of a fragrance. 



Another Japanese shrub of high rank for the rock- 

 garden (for the Calycanthus - cousins of Chimonanthus 

 awake no zeal in me, nor will I linger over half-hardy 

 Serissafoetida, whose pretty little blue stars do most un- 

 utterably stink) is the heavenly Bamboo, Nandina domes- 

 tica, which unites the delicate leafage of an immense 

 Vancouveria or Spiraea with loose, lovely showers of white 

 or scarlet berries, which Europeans in the East use at 

 Christmas as a substitute for Holly. Nandina is a very 

 holy plant in the East; it is always planted by every 

 verandah, at the place where the bowl stands on its 

 stoop for the washing of hands. And in England, 

 with me, despite sad prophecies, I have found Nandina 

 perfectly easy and perfectly hardy. It loses much of 

 its leafage in winter (hence I class it here as deciduous), 

 but never fails to continue thriving robustly. Of course 

 it does not fruit, and never will fruit, but the beauty of 

 the ' fronds ' is so conspicuous as to set it in the front 



