SHRUB GARDENING ON THE WEST COAST OF ROSS-SHIRE. 183 



So much for the " Fantasie." I now pass on to notice two enclosures 

 which I call " America " and " Sikkim." They lie near one another, so I 

 will place myself at the gate of the former and describe what I can see 

 from the one standpoint. At the back, a big Eucalyptus coccifera, clad 

 down to the ground with its charming foliage, and glimpses of other 

 Eucalypti such as E. pauciflora, E. cordata, E. Gwinii, and E. urnigera 

 (showing up against a background of rare Conifers outside the enclosure), 

 each and all of these Australian Gum trees in perfect health, without an 

 injured leaf ; a Podocarpus Totara (one of New Zealand's best timber 

 trees) and a big Abutilon vitifolium ; my pet bush of Bhododendron 

 Nobleanum, covered with its crimson trusses of bloom every January and 

 February ; an oval bed rilled with Van Houtte's best single and double 

 Ghent and Mollis Azaleas, with a specimen of the Bamboo, Phyllostachys 

 viridi-glaucescens, in its centre ; magnificent plants of the giant Erica 

 arborea and E. codonodes ; opposite the Azalea bed, huge bushes of the 

 so-called New Zealand Holly (Olearia macrodouta), a still bigger bush of 

 Buddleia globosa, and a smaller one of its cousin Buddleia Golvilei, both 

 semi-evergreen ; clumps of Bambusa Metake that made shoots fully ten 

 feet high last autumn, and most tellingly picturesque they are with a 

 sprinkling of rare and curious Rhododendrons from Sikkim and Bhotan 

 (one or two of them not yet named), some with the undersides of their leaves 

 dusted with gold and others again with silver ; beautiful New Zealand 

 Tree Groundsels (Scnecio Buchanani and S. Grayi), the New Zealand Ti 

 Tree (Leptospermum scoparium), and the ground covered with the white 

 Irish Heath (Menziesia polifolia alba) and the American Foam-flower 

 (Tiarella cordifolia) running wild all over the place, with lots of Erica 

 herbacea carnea already in January showing pink through it. 



And now lastly comes my enclosure called " Japan," which, like its 

 namesake in the East, though young, is very prosperous and go-ahead ; for 

 though it is only three or four years since it was reclaimed from a wild 

 state of nature, it has made rapid strides, and is now a most civilised little 

 spot. It is just a glade in the plantation, close to the salt water's edge, 

 and one is struck at once by its very foreign look, chiefly owing to its Cordy- 

 lines, Palms, Bamboos, Eucalypti, and New Zealand Flaxes. Why does 

 not every one start growing Phormiums and Bamboos, when they are 

 quite as easy to grow as my pet aversions, the Laurels and the Privets ? 

 Anything handsomer than giant clumps of either of these I cannot 

 imagine. I have the former in great variety. The plain green original 

 tall species from the New Zealand swamps, the silver-striped, two varieties 

 of gold-striped and banded, the purple Phormium and two dwarf ones 

 which I am told grow on hard ground in their native land. One of them, 

 Phormium Colensoi, is a perfect gem, which every one should have ; 

 nothing injures it, as its shorter leaves never get bent or broken over like 

 those of its big sisters. 



Of Palms I think I can speak with some authority, having grown 

 them out of doors for thirty years, and I have never known one of them 

 in the slightest degree injured by wind or weather. I started with a little 

 bag of seed of what was said to be Chamcerops Fortune* from Japan. 

 The seedlings came up like mustard and cress, and I could have stocked 

 half Scotland with them ; but though I guaranteed them hardy, I could 



