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303 
accomplished. It was discovered that some of the hardier 
palms would do well and appear almost at home among the 
familiar English trees. 
Parts of Cornwall are so mild that many plants will thrive 
there which are considered as green-house nurslings in other 
parts of England. That county was the pioneer in sub¬ 
tropical gardening, and some gardens that would astonish 
gardeners from less-favoured districts were established before 
such things were thought of elsewhere. It was perhaps the 
sight of one of these early attempts to acclimatize a palm that 
inspired Mrs. Hemans to write the following lines : 1 
“ But fair the exiled palm-tree grew 
Midst foliage of no kindred hue ; 
Through the laburnum’s dropping gold 
Rose the light shaft of Orient mould, 
And Europe’s violets faintly sweet 
Purpled the moss-beds at its feet. 
“ Strange looked it there ! the willow streamed 
Where silvery waters near it gleamed ; 
The lime-bough lured the honey-bee 
To murmur by the desert tree. 
And showers of snowy roses made 
A lustre in its fan-like shade.” 
Mrs. Hemans. 
Pengerrick, Menabilly, Heligan, Tregothnan, Carclew, and 
Bosahan are among the finest of these Cornish gardens. At the 
latter place the planting of tree-ferns was only begun about 
1884, but their size and luxuriance is surprising. Camellias grow 
into trees, 2 and Sikkim Rhododendrons flower in the open air, 
while Lapagerias will grow like ivy on sheltered walls. In these 
gardens, Rhododendrons, Thomsoni, Hodgsoni, campylocarpum, 
argenteuniy Aucklandii, and other tender species and varieties, 
are covered with bloom every spring. And besides these, many 
interesting plants thrive well there which are usually kept in 
green-houses in England, Choisya ternata, Embothrium coccineum, 
1 These lines were probably inspired by a subtropical garden in South- 
West Ireland, but the poem goes on to describe the feelings of an Indian 
on seeing the palm, which recalls a similar incident in l’Abbe Delille’s 
poem, Les Jar dines. 
2 Also in Hampshire, Dorset (especially at Abbotsbury), and some 
other Southern and Western Counties. 
