PLANTS FOR POOR SOILS 181 



Heaths tliat one would not know they had ever been 

 touched, and I could wish for nothing better, both as 

 a groundwork to what has been planted and as a 

 growth that harmonises with all that is near. Before 

 the present wood grew up — it is all self-sown — the 

 ground was covered with an old plantation of Scotch 

 Fir. This was cut when full-grown, but one or two 

 trees that had misshapen or double stems were left. 

 One of these stands near the Cistus ground, and 

 though its thin old top has been badly battered by 

 storms of wind and snow, yet from several points of 

 view the old tree has nuich pictorial value. 



There can be little doubt that for the poor soils 

 of our southern counties there are no better shrubs 

 than the hardier of the Cistuses. Of those that are 

 hardy south of London the most easy to grow is 

 C. laurifoHus. It soon becomes a large bush ; in 

 sheltered places seven feet high and as much through. 

 It will thrive in almost pure sand if deeply worked. 

 Throughout the month of June it bears a daily suc- 

 cession of its two-inch-wide white flowers ; it greets the 

 kindly south-west wind with a lavish outpouring of 

 its delicious fragrance, not only in summer but in the 

 very depth of winter ; and as it grows old, and here 

 and there a branch breaks and dies, it has, like 

 Lavender and Rosemary and Juniper and many 

 another good thing, an old age which is neither untidy 

 nor unsightly but is dignified and pictorial. 



Cistus ladaniferus, the Gum Cistus, is an even 



