86 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
An especial favourite of mine is Philesia buxijolia, and it is flowering 
rather nicely in a small way just now, but I find it a very slow grower, 
and do not get on with it as I would wish to. I saw it doing so much 
better at Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire. It is quite unique, and I believe 
it only has one other relative in this wide world which at all resembles 
it — viz. the Lapageria rosea, but the former is a dwarf shrub, whereas 
the latter is a tall climber, though the blooms are all but identical 
in form and colour. 
I will finish July with Grevillea sulphurea, a rather striking 
Australian plant, with queer yellow flowers, differently shaped from 
any I have ever come across. It does quite well here, and I had a red 
one also, Grevillea rosmarinifolia, but I fear I killed it by shifting it. 
August. 
This being a late year, it is the month for most of the Veronicas, 
Philadelphuses, and Spiraeas, though some of them were in bloom 
at the end of July. 
In a hard winter all Veronicas are not quite hardy here, but most 
of them are, and they make a fine and lasting show. I would not 
part with my great bushes of the sweet-smelling white Veronica 
salicifolia, and the blue Veronica Andersoni, or the deep-claret one 
(whose name I have lost), for anything, and knowing that is, I suppose, 
the reason for their trying to please me by seeding themselves in 
thousands ; but when salicifolia comes up like mustard and cress 
in my gravel walks, then I cry, Enough ! 
How I wonder that people stick to the one old original Phila- 
delphus (which it pleases them to call Syringa), and which one sees 
everywhere, while there are a dozen or twenty so very much more 
charming varieties (mostly raised by Lemoine of Nancy) which can be 
got nowadays at any good nursery. I know of no shrubs that perfume 
the whole air, even for a considerable distance, like some of these 
newer Philadelphus, and I fancy their exquisite perfume comes from 
their having been crossed with the small-flowered and lower-growing 
Philadelphus microphyllus. I have a lot of varieties ; Philadelphus 
' Virginal ' is grand, and some big double ones almost like Guelder 
Roses are most striking. 
Lemoine has also done such wonders of late years for the Lilacs, 
the Deutzias, and the Diervillas, which he has turned into something 
quite superior and quite different from the original kinds on which 
he started. But these are not my grandest August shrubs by any 
means, and I should perhaps have begun with the Buddleias, the 
Plagianthus, and the Desfontaineas. Buddleia magnifica, B. superba, 
and B. Veitchiana are quite a different lot from B. Colvillei or 
B. globosa, and most people say they should be pruned in close every 
year, but I have left some to grow into trees, just as they like, 
and where there is room I think they look magnificent. I have 
one big one just now which could fairly compete with my famous 
