THE QIANT REEDS 
123 
in our time until about thirty years ago, when I 
raised some thousands of seedlings from various 
crosses. The best of those named were N. 
cinnabarina {curvifolia major x J/exiiosa),Q.\2LrgG- 
trussed brilliant cinnabar-scarlet ; N. atro-san- 
guinea [Flantii x Jiexuosd) , the best of the dark 
crimson hybrids ; N. Manselli^ with very broad 
green leaves and lilac-rose flowers ; N. e/egans 
[fexuosa x rosea), which is the same as A^. ex- 
cellens for which N. Bowdeni was at first mis- 
taken ; and N. O'Brienii [pudica x Plantii), 
whose flowers vary from carmine to pale slate- 
blue, the variation having set up a number of 
synonyms. Herr Max Leitchlin, Sir Chas. 
W. Strickland, and others, have worked in the 
same field, and especially Mr. H. J. Elwes of 
Colesborne, Cheltenham, who has raised many 
new varieties which have received awards at 
the Royal Horticultural Society. Mr. Elwes 
aims at a late-flowering strain which shall pro- 
duce flowers and leaves together, and has already 
done much in this direction. 
JAMES O'BRIEN. 
Harrow-on-the-Hill. 
The City Evergreen, — One of the most 
pathetic things in a great city is an ever- 
green shrub which, planted within a black 
iron railing just outside some fashionable 
drawing-room window, seeks to wear out its 
wretched life in that prison. Just above it, 
perhaps, in a square decorated box are Hya- 
cinths in spring or white Begonias in summer; 
and every morning some fair jewelled hand, 
or perhaps the white, pure finger of a child, is 
stretched out shyly to give them the little 
water that keeps up their artificial life. No 
face bends over them, no one heeds that poor 
shrub. With dry, sapless roots, tainted and 
blackened leaves, it looks wearily at the sun, 
until, as in a kind of leprosy, leaves drop and 
wither, and fall down ; then the wrinkled 
little branches become dry sticks ; and one 
day it is seen that only a blackened skeleton 
remains. It has pined for its forest life, for 
winds and rains, for the soft burden of the 
snow, for the pleasant but hurried visit of the 
blackbird or thrush, perhaps for the soft nest 
where the young of both are laid. It is an 
exile in this wilderness of brick. It eats out 
its heart and — dies. — Sheehan, 
THE GIANT REEDS [Artmdo). 
What the Bamboo is to the tropics and 
the far East, the Great Reed is to the 
region of the Mediterranean, giving 
good effect in the landscape and valued 
for its many uses. The stout canes serve 
the peasant of south- 
ern Europe in a var- 
iety of ways. Woven 
in trellis they enclose 
his little garden-plot 
and carry his Vines 
and Gourds, his Beans 
and Tomatoes ; from 
them he constructs 
his summer " abri " 
thatched with Palm- 
leaves, with them he 
beats his little Olive- 
grove 
,and 
upon 
them 
he spreads his Figs to 
dry for winter ; they 
give him his fishing- 
rod, the handles for 
his lighter tools, and 
even his tobacco - 
pipe, and to the good- 
wife her homely dis- 
taff. Their clustered 
growths shield his 
littleholdingfromthe 
biting mistral J while 
from the split wood 
of their ripened stems are woven the 
baskets which carry his early flowers to 
the markets of the north. His goats and 
his mule crop the first tender shoots, 
and in the heat of summer the whisper 
of the breeze in their swaying thickets 
refreshes the spirit like the sound of the 
rushing waters that come down from 
The Giant Reed 
{A r undo Donax) 
