TeLsy ey oH 207 
and indeed all others, are but a back or foreground for the Cypress, 
the ‘Ilex, and the Pine. No other variety need be coveted; they suit 
the climate and the scenery, which is unique. 
“In the Botanic garden, and many others, I have seen Banksian 
Roses and other varieties that have clambered up to the very top of the 
tallest Cypress, and sent from its bronze-like foliage racemes of flowers 
of such ‘a length that I am afraid to speak of them without exact 
measurements, are loaded with hundreds of blossoms, and are ex- 
ceedingly beautiful. The attempts at lawn are ridiculous compared 
with that feature of our pleasure-grounds. One soon, however, learns 
to like the Grass, so beautiful are its blossoms, and so marvellous the 
variety. This Grass is valuable for provender ; one constantly sees 
the process of cutting going on, and the withering Grass gives up its 
delicious perfume. ‘here are but few stoves in the Botanic Garden, and 
they are mere winter shelters for the few rare plants they possess. A 
Brazilian plant, Bougainvillea spectabilis is in full ‘flower, and 
exceeded’everything of the sort I ever saw. Like the Wistaria, the 
flowers come before the green leaves. The corolla is so delicate that it 
is quite’transparent, and of that tint called mawve; and by the dictum 
of Napoleon's Empress, the ‘only colour favoured by the caprice of 
fashion. The mandate has been a great success in the annals of 
fashionable frivolity ; throughout all Europe the rage has been mauve, 
and a bride in Florence, ‘spite of all rule and custom im favour of the 
impressive white, insisted on having a morsel of mauve. The Iris is 
indigenous to Italy. In one garden, more dressed than is usual, oval 
beds margined with the dark blue Iris, were filled up with a variety 
of plants, and some entirely with Roses. The Chinese Rose produces 
larger flowers, and grows to a larger bush, than in England. I know 
not whyit should not be as conspicuous im our own country as here; it 
is always fresh and beautiful. We cut and cripple it, instead of letting 
it'get old and lofty. * * We certamly use shears and pruning- 
knives freely, yet all we do in that way is‘as nothing compared to the 
Vine-dresser’s labour. The Elms to which the stems of the Vines are 
attached, and from which they stretch on lines totally regardless of 
uniformity or beauty, are cut to the quick, or mere twigs only left to keep 
life'in the old trees until next year’s shoots. The spring this year is 
very late; onthe Ist of May there was scarcely a shoot on the Vines, and 
not one leaf on the stunted lopped Elms, which look just as large Apple 
and Pear trees do when cut back for grafting, and are seen under that 
ugly process for the first year. To see miles of country covered with such 
maimed trees, with Vines like ropes uniting them, is almost painful, 
from the monotonous deformity. JI saw the country under such 
aspect, and have seen it when garlanded by the fragrant Vines, in 
June—no contrast ‘can be more decided; and when the time 
arrives for the purple clusters of Grapes and the blood-red coloured 
leaves—or those of citron or crimson hue—I know what the scene 
will be. Olive trees disappointed me by their sombre leaden 
tint before the gloomy weather had passed over—playing in the 
beams of this glorious sun the leaves appear to me silvery. The Fig 
trees are very striking, from their immense size and picturesque roots. 
