13 APRIL 1929, Page 14

THE PICK OF THE GARDEN. •

It is a pretty habit at Kew Gardens to post upon the gates a weekly list of the flowers or bushes that are especially worth a visit. The authorities might perhaps add trees to the list, for, like flowers, they have their golden hours (and many are most attractive in winter). In one garden which is both lovely and original the finest sight at the moment is not a flower but a tree. It is a willow—Salix xi/Mina pendula—and the only tree, except one unusually early chestnut, in full leaf. The delicacy of tint is paralleled by the delicacy of pattern. The long shoots curve out and then fall in long straight lines, like the conventional representation of a summer shower in a Japanese print.

W. BEACH Tnom.as.