A YEAR IN A GARDEN ON N.-W. COAST OF ROSS-SHIRE. 83 
I need perhaps hardly mention R. cinnabar inum, and its sister R. 
Roylei, as they are well known, but they are both extra charming, 
and the latter is in shape and also in colour quite apart from other 
Rhododendrons, its blooms being of a weird buff and orange colour. 
I think one is apt perhaps to tire a little of those perfectly sym- 
metrical cones of bloom, such as are thought perfection in the hybrids 
from a florist's point of view ; and, if so, I possess a Rhododendron 
of a very different style, gifted to me by M. de Vilmorin, of Paris — 
viz. the new and as yet uncommon species from China, R. charto- 
phyllum. It is snow-white, and has this peculiarity, and, I think, 
great merit about it, that the delicate pale-green young growths push 
up through the centres of the loose bunches of inflorescence, and this 
takes away all stiffness, and makes the trusses of bloom, from a little 
distance, look as if they were a most tasteful combination of green 
and white. I do not know any other Rhododendron with this quite 
peculiar and charming habit, and it is such a good doer here. 
I will only mention one more plant — viz. the double Azalea 
narcissiflora. Why it has been given this ridiculous name I cannot 
imagine, as no part of it resembles a Narcissus in the slightest degree ; 
but it is most telling, brilliant, and floriferous, in colour bright mauvy 
pink. 
Against a south wall I have a Clianthus in full flower just now 
(I think it is better known as the lobster-claw plant). Habrothamnus 
elegans and Teucrium fruticans have also done well against the same 
wall, with slight protection, and are flowering profusely. 
June. 
I rather meant to have started with the Crinodendrons and 
Embothriums, but feel impelled, first of all, to say something about 
a favourite tree of mine, the New Zealand Aristotelia racemosa. I have 
had it many years — 'indeed, I now quite forget how, or from whom, 
I got it originally ; but it has always thriven here, and yesterday 
(the 1st of June), when admiring it from a little distance, it appeared 
to my old eyes as if it had a pink tinge all over it, and, lo and behold, 
when I reached it, it was a mass of inflorescence. Though the in- 
dividual flowers were rather insignificant, they interested me immensely, 
as it never showed a sign of flowering before. This Aristotelia has 
every appearance of being deciduous, whereas it keeps on its large 
soft pale -green leaves throughout hardest frosts and snows, and it 
would be quite worth having a group of it near a home to cheat one 
into the belief in winter that it was June instead of January. I hear 
its wood is much used in New Zealand for making gunpowder. 
My Crinodendron Hookerianum (or, to give it its correct name, 
Tricuspidaria lanceolata) I need not describe minutely, as I have 
done so more than once before. It is a grand shrub, and I am 
flattered by having been told that my big one is the finest in the 
British Isles ; this is, however, I fancy, a fable, as I feel sure there 
