170 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, 

 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 

 That in the various bustle of resort 

 Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 



Comus. 



The lesser Periwinkle, Finca Minor, is the most 

 proper for the flower borders, and the variety of 

 this species with double flowers is exceedingly orna- 

 mental, as their fine blue colour is so desirable a 

 mixture to the yellows and reds of other plants. 

 There are some varieties of this plant with a white 

 flower, but the most common is the pale blue and 

 bluish purple. There is also a variety with varie- 

 gated foliage. All these plants love rather a moist 

 soil, and a south-east aspect, where they are shel- 

 tered from the afternoon sun. 



The lesser Periwinkle, with a white flower, was 

 first discovered by Mr. Woolgar, of Lewes, in 

 Sussex, who found it at Chiltington, four miles from 

 Lewes. 



The trailing stalks of these plants take root very 

 freely, by which means they are easily propagated, 

 as it is a rare circumstance for them to produce 

 seed ; for like many other plants which run much 

 at the root, they seldom produce their follicles. 

 Mr. Curtis and Dr. Smith inform us that they 

 have never seen them, and although we have 

 minutely examined tlic large beds of them which 

 we frequently meet with in the plantations of the 



