PLANTING FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER EFFECT. 



181 



Eidalia japonic a zebrina and E. japonica graciliima fol. striatis, or 

 more correctly, Miscanthus, are both good all the year round. They grow 

 about 3 feet high and are highly ornamental water-grasses. The first 

 has yellow blotches or transverse bars on the leaves ; the second has a 

 longitudinal stripe of cream- colour on both edges and on the centre of every 

 leaf. The flowers are reddish-brown plumes, something like those of 

 Phragmites, and in warmer countries, where they appear more freely, add 

 greatly to the beauty. 



Cyperus longus is a perennial Sedge, rare in its wild state as a native, 

 though it grows freely in the Channel Islands. It has a stiff three-cornered 

 or triquetrous stem, and rises to 4 feet or more, carrying graceful brown 

 flowers at the top of the plant, borne umbel-fashion on radiating leafy 

 bracts. 



Now my long tale has really drawn to its end, and some may think, 

 who know the subjects which I have treated, that I have exaggerated 

 and laid on the colours too thick, that such words as " brilliant orange " 

 or " vivid scarlet " are out of place in describing live woods. To them 

 I would reply as Turner did to the man who objected that he never saw 

 such colours in real sunsets as appeared in the artist's picture of them — 

 " Don't you wish you could ? " 



In deed and truth it is the old story of "eyes and no eyes." Given 

 bright sunlight, without which no colours can be fully seen, there they 

 are if we will only observe them, and the more we look the more we see. 

 It is the perfect harmony of Nature's work which hides her brilliant hues 

 from the careless, though to the patient watcher she reveals fresh beauties 

 both of form and colour every day. Those who know Lord Tennyson's 

 works know that he was not only a great poet, but a keen and accurate 

 observer of England's flora. They will find recalled the coal-blackness 

 of the Ash buds, and the sanguine vivid spot of colour in the heart of the 

 Horse-chestnut bloom — things which many a countryman has lived and 

 died without noticing. 



How many thousands have seen the common Hazel in spring, and 

 could not tell you whether it had any flower at all ! still less would they 

 know that the female bloom, though too small for the Florists' Exhibition 

 board, is surpassed by no ruby in brilliance. 



I must apologise for the unscientific character of this lecture, having 

 regard to the audience to which it is addressed ; but I make little claim 

 to botanical knowledge, and all that I can urge in its favour is that 

 whatever I have written is the result of some twenty-five years of practical 

 persistent personal experience as an arboriculturist. 



If I should ever have the privilege of speaking to you again, I should 

 like to read a paper on rare trees and shrubs growing at Aldenham, 

 because I think it is not generally realised how large is the number of 

 choice and interesting plants which can flourish without protection in the 

 open air, not only in Scilly or Cornwall, but in our not specially clement 

 climate of Mid-Herts, and in the London clay basin. 



