18 1 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



find no one with sufficient faith to relieve me of my surplus stock. I am 

 trying Chamarops excelsa and Chamarops humilis, and they also appear 

 to be quite hardy. 



But though I have mentioned these five families of exotics as being 

 the main feature of my " Japan," there are endless other most interesting 

 things in it. There is a great mass of Aristotelia racemosa from 

 Australia, and the show plant of the place, my big Crinodendron, various 

 Magnolias and Desfontaineas, a European Olive, a Pauloivnia imperialis, 

 and nearly all known hardy New Zealand Veronicas. Climbing up a tall 

 Fir-tree is a Billardiera longi flora with its striking blue berries, mixed up 

 with the Clematis montana ; up other Fir-trees I am trying to grow 

 Lapageria and Wistaria, with little success as yet, but I have had very 

 few failures in " Japan." At the foot of most of my smaller shrubs in 

 " Japan " I have patches of low-growing treasures, chiefly bulbs ; Narcissus 

 Bulbocodium (the Hoop Petticoat), N. triandrus, and N. cyclamineus t 

 which are so fascinating ; all the American tall Erythroniums (Dog- 

 toothed Violets), Epigcea repens, a creeping gem which blooms in March, 

 patches of Tulip species, mostly from Central Asia, curious wild Anemones, 

 one of them a tiny yellow one * whose name has gone from me, &c. 



A part of "Japan " is steep, and this little brae I utilise for growing 

 hardy Cyclamen ; for a big bed of St. Brigid Anemones, which are a most 

 perfect success ; for those most lovely of flowers, the Californian 

 Calochorti ; and for Ixias and Cape bulbs. 



My two Drimys (both D. Winteri and D. aromatica) are most thriving 

 bushes, and so are the Benthamias, Abelias, Daphniphyllums, Metro- 

 sideros lucida, Eucryphias, &c. My Chilian Fire-bush {Embothrium 

 coccineum) is coming on grandly, and in another year I shall expect it to 

 show its fiery blossoms. I rather think that (like my new treasure, 

 Davidia involucrata) it is the only one of its kind in the North Highlands, 

 but last year I saw a fine specimen on the shores of Lough Eske, in the 

 highlands of Donegal, which flowers profusely. 



I made with great pains, this last winter, special places for Bamboos. 

 Should they be called Bambooseries, or what ? I first of all made these 

 enclosures proof against red-deer, roe-deer, and rabbits. Would that I 

 could make them proof against field mice and voles, who gnaw them clean 

 through, mistaking them, I suppose, for sugar-canes ! I expect great 

 things from these new " follies " — as fancy work of this kind was called 

 in the olden times. I have made the pits very deep, with alternate layers 

 of black peaty earth, manure, diecayed seaware, bone-dust and old lime 

 mortar. I have placed them in nooks in the wood, with the trees cut out 

 to allow the rays of the sun to strike straight on them. A year or two 

 will prove if I have done my work well, and I shall be much disappointed 

 if my Bamboos do not grow into giants. 



How time changes things ! In 1864 I was planting these bleak 

 shores with Firs, Sec, and every one else was shaking his head and pro- 

 phesying nothing would ever grow on the exposed promontory and in 

 the thin covering of sour peat upon wet rocks ; and for a good many 

 years it was a case of having to suffer the condolences of kind friends 

 that the wee plants were going back instead of forward. Indeed, in spite 

 * Probably A. ranunculoides. — Ei>. 



