OF SHRUBS AND THEIR PLACING 17 



and, even at their fullest, are many shades darker and 

 more brilliant than the pale blooms of canina. To my 

 mind Rosa v'lllosa, in point of colour, is nearer to alpina 

 than to the Dog-rose ; there are many shrubs, many 

 roses in our gardens, of less merit and beauty than this 

 neglected native. There is also an attractive Albino 

 form of villosa, but this cannot really challenge the 

 beauty of the type. 



Passing now from the roses, no gardener fortunate 

 enough to possess a cliff of his own, will ignore the 

 great Wistaria of the East. With memories of Wistaria 

 muUyuga my heart is full. In the Garden of Asia 

 stands recorded the beauty of the wild plant as I saw it 

 among the thousand islets of Matsushima, trailing down 

 those violet garlands over each fretted fantastic cliff of 

 sandstone, blending its cool grey softness with the golden 

 flare of Azalea mollis, while the still green water, 

 swelling lazily against the rocks, sent back in shifting 

 catches of colour the image of that riotous loveliness. 

 Or Wistaria multijuga again, at Kameido — arcades 

 and trellises of it everywhere, built out on long par- 

 titioned galleries over the waters of the temple lake, 

 while the worshippers, having each engaged his partition 

 for the day, sit at peace beneath the four-foot plumes 

 of pale purple, and adore the misty loveliness of the 

 canopy overhead. Do you want four- foot plumes of 

 Wistaria multijuga in England.'' Then give it all the 

 sun you can and all the richest food. It is far from 

 being a difficult plant to deal with, much less a hopeless 

 one ; and remember always that the ordinary Wistaria 

 sinensis, even at her best, is but a poor pallid widow 

 compared with the bridal opulence of Wistaria multi- 

 juga. 



Now that my heart is back in far Japan, it becomes 

 impossible for me any longer to keep silence on the other 



B 



