13 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER, 
ting the piece of Platycerium and the ivy- 
covered wall. Upon closing the door we 
were satisfied that this little corner, the 
only representative of its kind in the gar- 
den, was worth a visit. 
Moving away now to the front entrance 
at the side of the house, the circular bed 
around which the carriages drive, contain- 
ed a good specimen of a Norfolk Island 
pine (Araucaria excelsa), some 30 ft. in 
height. The density of the lower growth 
of this tree came in for comment as being. 
unusual, and the doctor explained a method 
of nipping back the tips of the branches, 
which he had introduced himself, and 
which had the effect of creating great den- 
sity of foliage instead of the usual gaunt 
arms of straggling, dying branches. The 
thick body of closely growing numberless 
small branches covered with foliage gave 
the tree a much more symmetrical figure, 
with the added beauty of young fxesh greek 
shoots. Poe 
Attention now being drawn to the ioral 
adornment of the house and adjacent 
buildings, we note the gable end of the 
stabling at the rear covered with a mass of 
ivy, a pretty effect to hide a wall of this 
character in an unavoidably prominent 
position. Ivy covering to ai wall, however, 
is considered by many as a doubtful, even 
if pretty, policy. The columns of the spa- 
cious balcony round the house are decorat- 
eded with pillar roses—My Pet, Maiden’s 
Blush, Gloire de Dijon, Reine Marie Hen- 
riette (red), Banksias (white and yellow), 
and Reine Olga de Wurtemberg (a good 
dark vigorous climber). The bordering 
round the front verandah is set out with 
Disoma bushes, Sweet Peas, the retiring 
but pretty pleading Forget-me-Not, and 
the ever-engaging Lilies of the Valley. To 
complete the arrangements, a number of 
pot plants stand at the edge of the veran- 
dah and in against the wall of the house. 
The wall of the western side of the building 
not reached by the balcony is covered a 
dense mass of Ampel psis veitchii. Only 
three plants are required to cover thrs large 
area of walling, and being on the sunny 
side the tints of the autumn fall are a 
most delightful picture of blended color- 
ings. Some feet away from the house 1s 
the barre wall of the excavation, and this 
we may safely say is the only spot about 
the place that is not carrying a burden of 
some sort of beauty. True, it may be 
found difficult to grow flowers upon bare 
stones, but there are many climbers that 
would help to beautify this nakedness. 
So far in our description the matter has 
been all plain sailing and simple enough, 
but as one approaches the edge of the ter- 
race and from his vantage point overlooks 
the sloping garden many feet to the valley 
below, there comes a void of resourcefulnesg 
in descriptive power.. 
Everything—every object—is so uncom- 
mon; there is no begining and no ending 
to it—the multi-colored shades of greens, 
the variation of foliage, the varying habit 
of the growth of the trees alll massed to- 
thas. 
_ January | 1, i903. 
gether in a bewildering confusion, has a ° 
picturesqueness of its own, and yet to say” 
that the scene is picturesque would be a vio- 
lation of all canons of art in landscape gar- 
dening. It has no form nor comeliness in it 
such as the poets of Nature love to detcribe, 
and yet every tree of the hundreds ‘there - 
has a rare beauty of its own. 
No; it ~ 
must be admitted that the landscape ‘ar- 
tistic view is lacking until the eye reaches: 
‘far beyond the limiits of thé gardens ; 
hill beyond. * If this be laid’ as"d’ tault™ fie 
trees that have outgrown the artistic” set: 
ting of this view of the garden are muchj.too 
valuable for the woodman’s. axe, and ‘the 
artistic effect must always be a secondary 
consideration. Even from a monetary 
valuation the specimens there would tally 
up a sum against which art would have 
little chance of competing. As the doctor 
himself said, the vandalism of the art gar--* 
zexdener must be left to a successor who has’ 
not’ the samé regard for the trees as he™ 
But after all, what a wealth of * 
beauty is there when singling out the trees 
which carries the mind away again from 
the vegetation of the south to the histories 
of long ago, when the Arab, in. his regard 
‘for its majestic appearance, named -t Ked- 
‘ree, meaning power in our language. This 
particular species of the family, however, 
‘Tails from India.“ Wherever this specimen 
came from. he does the country of his adop- 
‘tion credit, with his 35° ft. of spreading 
see and height. \. 
« Near’ by. 1g another 
cimen of the Prats ‘Pissardi' (Grimson! a 
ne Testa ‘priie), a nd‘the variation of colors 
extenuation for it is more than’ample. ‘Thé?” 
‘in this tree is worth “remarking, * "When ih 
frst put forth the ‘tender foliage is of a ~ 
“pinkish purple, changing the royal color 
apart from their effects upon the scene as ' 
a whole. ‘Turn away to 
THE WESTERN VIEW 
from the esplanade shown in. the picture, 
‘is the ‘pity. 
to a hte of red, and finally shading off to a 
deep ‘dark’ ‘purple, retaining ‘this unusual — 
tint of leaves till late in the autumn, un- 
affected by the sun. It is not generally 
known that the fruit of this tree makes a 
delicious jelly or jam. There, too, is one 
of the“charming. family of Myrtles, about 
which so little seems to be known, and more 
This is a tall specimen of 
the New South Wales Eugenia myrtifolia, 
a handsome grower, and for its neighbor 
the Queensland Bunya Bunya (Auracaria 
Bidwilli), well furnished up to 40 ft. high. 
The striking feature of this view is that 
' 40 ft. of silver fir tree (Abies Nordman- 
and we will call some of these beauties of © 
the forest by name. 
Standing in the fore-” 
ground are fine specimens of “Retinospéra ; 
obtusa aurea, a handsome golden Japanese ~ 
conifer (6 ft.) ; Retinospera obtusa nana (4 - 
ft.), dense and compact; and the 
New ~ 
South Wales Waratah (Telopea’ Speciosis-” 
sima); and a few shrubs giving a dense ~ 
green setting to the floral burden of, Rho- 
dodendron blooms, rich, profuse, ‘and’ gay. 
Me 
Sloping up the hill the prevailing’ foliage’ 
is of the conifers,‘ and such a lovely 
variety of form. 
the eye at first glance at a height of 20 ft. 
is a Cryptomeria elegans gracilis. ~ 
That fine tree catching’ ja yrel- shape. 
-notéd; and the splendid‘long “light green 
.This © 
charming Japanese conifer of dense growth 
and great beauty, now a rich green, will 
change its hue to a lovely bronze in the 
autumn. These ever-changing colorings 
are the added charms to the always grace- 
ful growth of the conifers. There is an- 
other, some 40 ft. high, Cupressus torulosa, 
a fine pyramidal tree, with numerous short, 
slender, horizontal or deflected branches. to 
near the ground and drooping. branchlets. 
This native of the Himalayas. is perhaps 
the handsomest of all the cypresses. 
at that Golden Lambert (Cupressus hori- 
zontalis aurea), another 40 ft. of loveliness, . 
with its tall, handsome spreading growth. 
Its lovely golden tints grouped with the 
deep rich bronze of Prunus Pissardi. and 
the neighboring setting of green gives an - 
engaging little picture of coloring. Now, 
if the eye requires a little rest from these 
stately geometrical forms of beauty from 
the mountains of far away, just turn aside 
a little to the tropical aspect hard by, and 
find relief in the waying Cordylines, ‘and 
note the Club Palm, or cabbage tree, from 
New Zealand, with its tall growing palm- 
like foliage. And the Cedrus Deodora, 
Look . 
niana), one of the spruces. It is one of the 
handsomest of the silvér firs, and certainly 
the hardiest. © 
Its conical’ shape is finely 
symmiétri¢al. The underside’ of the foliage 
is of arich silvery color and the upper side 
_a deep green, while the young shoots are 
. quite smooth, ”glossy, and of a light green 
tint. °Thére is another of the cedars, the 
Virginian (Juniperus Virginiana), a very 
showy glaucous colored conifer, dense and 
compact. Then, to vary the foliage again, 
is.a New Zealand laurel (Corynocarpus 
laevigata), a ‘beautiful ‘ evergreen leaf of 
A Romneya- Coulteri is 
broad” léaves: Spreading out are recognised 
sas the™ Doryanthés ‘excelsa “(Queensland 
Lily). We have* lingered as long as time 
will permit” over this view, but in turning 
away the eye does not escape a specimen 
of Pittosporum eugenioides variegatum, 
which is one of the showiest of all the 
variegated foliage trees and shrubs. Its 
effect when planted for contrast of color 
with other evergreens is very pleasing, and 
it never burns during the heat of summer. 
’ Some critics may now wonder why we 
are specialising so many details in this 
garden. The explanation comes readily 
enough in the fact that the garden is a 
liberal education to any one interested in 
ornamental trees that are rarely seen in 
private gardens, and never better grown. 
On this account we offer no apology to the ~ 
readers of ‘The Australian Gardener,” and’ 
are pleased to state that the remainder fotes 
this article has’yet an abundance of rare - 
beauty to describe. In fact, there is” 
nothirig common or unworthy of note in — 
the whole place. Our only regret is that © 
space forbids a more complete description. 
(To be continued.) 
