Cordyline

A genus of about a dozen evergreen trees or shrubs with erect cylindrical stems, long narrow leaves more or less crowded at the top and small flowers produced very numerously in large panicles. The corolla (perianth) has six lobes; stamens six; fruit a globose berry containing black seeds. The species grown out-of-doors in Britain are natives of New Zealand and Norfolk Island; they are only hardy in the mildest counties. Besides the two species described below, which are the most commonly grown, C. banksii Hook. f., a shrub 10 to 20 ft high with leaves 3 to 6 ft long, and C. baueri Hook. f., of similar stature but with broader, shorter leaves (11⁄2 to 2 ft by 2 to 21⁄2 in.) and thinly arranged white flowers, are grown at Tresco Abbey in Scilly. The former is from New Zealand, the latter from Norfolk Island.