ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS AT CASTLEWELLAN. 425 



BHAMNUS CROCEA is a shrub from California having bright 

 shining leaves and scarlet berries. 



WIDDRING TON I A WHYTEI from the Kilimanjaro Mountains, in 

 Central Africa, is an upright-growing tree with foliage somewhat like a 

 Larch. It is of too recent introduction to say much about it yet. 



AMPHIBHAPIS ALBESCENS.— X low spreading bush about four 

 feet high with whitish purple flowers. The leaves have a strong, un- 

 pleasant perfume when touched. 



ANDROMEDA GASSINEFOLIA . — A dwarf shrub from Northern 

 Europe, one of the most lovely of all flowering plants that I know. It 

 bears trusses of white flowers, exactly like Lily of the Valley, in May and 

 June. It is deciduous. 



PICEA PUNGENS KOSTEBL — This is, I think, the best of the 

 Piceas. Its foliage, of silvery blue colour, is more glaucous than any of 

 the others I have seen. 



We grow thirty-nine varieties of Bamboos altogether, but they have 

 been so admirably described by my friend Mr. Mitford in " The Bamboo 

 Garden " that any one who is interested in them has only to consult that 

 work to find all the information that can be required. I cannot help 

 saying, however, that the introduction of the Bamboo in quantity of late 

 years, for which we are largely indebted to him, has been the very 

 greatest addition to the beauty of our gardens that has occurred in my 

 time. 



HIMALAYAN RHODODENDRONS are most valuable when 

 planted out, because they flower so much earlier than the hybrids. The 

 finest of all is undoubtedly 



R. NUTTALLII. — It is a very straggling grower and a shy flowerer, 

 but for size, shape, and colour there is nothing to compare with its great 

 yellow and white bells. I was told when in India that the reason it is 

 so scarce is that it is not safe to go into the country it grows in for a 

 European, and the authorities do not like to order natives to take the risk 

 of doing so. It is a native of Bhotan. 



R. FULGENS and R. BALI BATUMI are the best for brilliant scarlet 

 and crimson colour : they flower in April. 



R. NIVEUM, a bright mauve in colour, is also fine. It flowers at 

 the same time. But perhaps the most useful of all is R. Thomsonii. It is 

 twelve to fifteen feet high here, and the same in diameter. One plant had 

 335 trusses on it, with from five to eight flowers in a truss. Nothing can 

 be finer than the bell shape of the flowers and their deep crimson colour. 

 R. Auckland ii, R. argenteum, R. campylocarpum, and R. campanulatum 

 are good also. All these have been grown out of doors for the last twenty 

 years, and have not suffered the least from frost. I have never been able 

 to understand why some people write so violently against the practice of 

 grafting Rhododendrons. I can only say that for many years we have 

 grafted from 800 to 1,000 every year; that we have them now from 

 six inches to fifteen feet high ; and that we find no fault with them what- 

 ever. There is only one thing to remember, and that is to keep the place 

 where the scion is inserted below the surface of the soil, so that the stock 



