88 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
are most floriferous, and their bloom is so lovely. I think I described 
it once before as being a little like sprays of the white dog-rose, with 
this difference, that there is a faint greenish tinge at the base of the 
petals ; in fact, the centre of the flower is very pale green, which 
shows up more forcibly the lovely and prominent anthers which, 
instead of being yellow as in the dog-rose, are crimson. The Eucryphia 
has two other merits over our native dog-rose — viz. that its foliage 
is evergreen and that as a cut flower it lasts extra well in water. Some 
people liken it to a white St. John's Wort. 
September is sometimes a good time here for the Cistuses, though 
usually August is their best time. They only do fairly well with me, 
and I grow Cistus purpureus, crimson with deep-red blotches ; C. 
ladaniferus, white with the dark-chocolate blotch ; and C. crispus, 
bright pink all over ; but they do better, I think, for instance, on 
the coast of Norfolk on chalk, and with a hotter sun, and there they" 
can almost compete with Rhododendrons in the size of their bushes. 
I believe if I planted them on lime rubbish in the hottest exposure 
I could find, instead of in my peaty stuff (which suits most things so 
well), and planted them also where there are no trees to shade them, 
they would do better. 
My Romneyas (Californian poppies) have done really grandly 
this year. They did not thrive quite so well against a hot terrace 
wall in my kitchen-garden, but in one of my shrubberies they have 
been a real success, though not equal to some I saw at Craignish in 
Argyll, and I mean to try the new Romneya trichocalyx, which is 
said to be a still better doer. My Mitrarias were late this year, and 
did not flower as much as usual, though even a few of their vivid 
scarlet blossoms, in shape like a bishop's mitre, are always a joy to 
look at. I am told in some famous garden in the Mull of Galloway 
they grow hedges of Mitraria, but I have not yet reached that pitch 
of perfection, and meanwhile have to content myself with a hedge 
of Phygelius capensis, which, I think, *is rather uncommon, and of 
which I am not a little proud, and I can thoroughly recommend it 
for the West Coast as a hedge plant. It is now full of its long crimson 
spikes, reminding one almost of stiff, stick-up Pentstemons, and will 
carry on all through October and November. It does not seem very 
well known in Scotland ; why, I cannot think. The first time I 
saw it was covering the gable of a house on the Lago Maggiore, and 
I little thought then I could grow it equally well here ! 
I grow the tall St. John's Wort, Hypericum Hookerianum, in 
clumps among my shrubs, and with the help of the Spanish broom 
they give a golden glitter in September to places which might otherwise 
be getting rather colourless. 
And now I will finish up September with a short description of 
what I consider to be a beautiful subject for a shrubbery, though 
more like an herbaceous plant than a shrub. Its name is Coriaria 
terminalis, and like many other Sikkim plants it thrives here. Its 
beauty consists in its fruit, and not in its flowers. Let those who 
