NINETEENTH CENTURY 303 



accomplished. It was discovered that some of the hardier 

 palms would do well and appear almost at home among the 

 familiar English trees. 



Parts of Cornwall are so mild that many plants will thrive 

 there which are considered as green-house nurslings in other 

 parts of England. That county was the pioneer in sub- 

 tropical gardening, and some gardens that would astonish 

 gardeners from less-favoured districts were established before 

 such things were thought of elsewhere. It was perhaps the 

 sight of one of these early attempts to acclimatize a palm that 

 inspired Mrs. Hemans to write the following lines : x 



" But fair the exiled palm-tree grew 

 Midst foliage of no kindred hue ; 

 Through the laburnum's dropping gold 

 Rose the light shaft of Orient mould, 

 And Europe's violets faintly sweet 

 Purpled the moss-beds at its feet. 



" Strange looked it there 1 the willow streamed 

 Where silvery waters near it gleamed ; 

 The lime-bough lured the honey-bee 

 To murmur by the desert tree, 

 And showers of snowy roses made 

 A lustre in its fan-like shade." 



Mrs. Hemans. 



Pengerrick, Menabilly, Heligan, Tregothnan, Carclew, and 

 Bosahan are among the finest of these Cornish gardens. At the 

 latter place the planting of tree-ferns was only begun about 

 1884, but their size and luxuriance is surprising. Camellias grow 

 into trees, 2 and Sikkim Rhododendrons flower in the open air, 

 while Lapagerias will grow like ivy on sheltered walls. In these 

 gardens, Rhododendrons, Thomsoni, Hodgsoni, camfylocarpum, 

 argenteum, Aucklandii, and other tender species and varieties, 

 are covered with bloom every spring. And besides these, many 

 interesting plants thrive well there which are usually kept in 

 green-houses in England, Choisya ternata, Embothrium coccineum, 



1 These lines were probably inspired by a subtropical garden in South- 

 West Ireland, but the poem goes on to describe the feelings of an Indian 

 on seeing the palm, which recalls a similar incident in l'Abbe Delille's 

 poem, Les Jardines. 



2 Also in Hampshire, Dorset (especially at Abbotsbury), and some 

 other Southern and Western Counties. 



