July 10.—To continue our stroll in the aerodrome area, We explored many plantations of trees, after leaving the man with the septic knee, and found much of interest to nature. lovers. The plantations were obviously planted nurseries at one time but they have not received much attention for many years, There were Junipers by the thousand. This evergreen Is hot favourite of ours by matter of fact we have removed hundreds from gardens and planted the broad-leaved Laurel im their place. The Juniper is nol unattractive its young singe, but it grows very legal and collects all the cust in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, the Laurel isa much better screen shrub and, as the leaves are large, they are washed every time rain falls. At Christmas time, Juniper branches are in demand for house decoration; it Is not a pleasure to handle them however for the prickly needle-shaped leaves have a nasty habit of entering our fingers and they cause a rash to appear on some persons. The (ree combines well with other shrubs and we are compelled to use it for this purpose. The berries are very useful also for we are told that "they inn part the peculiar flavour to Gin". We are not sure whether that before-tifin favourite has a peculiar flavour oF not. Oil of Juniper is obtained from one of the species. We observed 2 group of Ailanthus glandulose in full Dower, The tower Is not particularly attractive but it 4g effective in mass. The Tree of Heaven, this tree is commonly called, is very stately' and it is often seen planted atong avenues. It hax two major faults: (1) The flowers emit a most disagreeable dour, and as they are produced in large branched terminal clusters, the smell can be strong. (2) The pollen "ix said" to cause catarrhal troubles the planting of male flowering trees in positions close to houses occupied. by persons Fubjeet to colds is not advisable. There is, of course, the simple remedy: remove all flower Duds as soon as they appear.—W.t..
July 12—Quite close to the Ailanthus referred to in these notes on July 10, we saw beautiful Albizzia, or Mimosa, as it ix called The tree was rowing in a group screen-Ing @ number of houses, and from a distance of about 500 yards the flowers appeared to be a moh deeper red. than usual: closer investiga Mien revealed that it was the usual type. The mass of bloom must have been the cause of the reddish effect: it ix seldom that we sce a tree x0 covered with flowers, There were a few croup, wees were numerous "and Sterculia pletanifolia in flower in the same
suitable condition for. the pea-shooter anus. these 8 good crop of berries in a Chinese Elms were there also as well as Afetia, [Broussonetia and Liquidamber trees. We admired '8 specimen Gleditsia near by. as near perfect as It is possible to see this tree: it was literally covered with seed pods hanging Hike huge beans from the branches, these made the tee Took very attractive. We also noticed a plantation of Chinese oaks and Dalbergia, this must have formed part of the nurseries referred {0 previously, We strolled into a fairly dense clump of bamboo: a grave mound was hidden away inside and we were rewarded for our trouble by nding some very interesting ferns and dozens fof species of wild plants; some of the ferns were very decorative and worthy of a place gin our gardens. There was also plenty of Liriope' minor. or Chinese grass, as the gardener calls it: this is a usefal plant for planting in those places our gardens where other things. will "not grow. We saw two rusty hand grenades of the palate masher type lying ina ditch and these We left lying peacefully where we found them. There were a few brambles growing along the ditch and plenty of those wild flowers we like to see, We returned from our stroll more con-vineed than ever that our gardens could be made much more interesting by an occasional collecting trip along the country highways, pro. viding we keep a sharp lookout for stray' hand grenades when off the beaten track We.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.