114 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
pleasure in a very rough place. The common Lathyrus 
pratensis is a beautiful yellow pest; and then there is 
a rose-red Lathyrus, possibly derived from tuberosus, 
bought years ago from Mr. John Wood, that trails about 
over my bushes in late summer, a coverlet of salmon-rose 
sprays. ‘The smaller red tuberosus I have grown too, if 
it be still alive—that pretty little plant which is natura- 
lised round Fyfield in Essex. Pubescens I once had seed- 
lings of, but they very soon miffed off into a presumably 
happier world where the bad plants go to; and magel- 
lanicus, 1 fear, is only an annual, though it was glorious 
last year with its big sky-blue flowers. Surely it is the 
same as what I saw many years ago at Cannes, called 
Lathyrus azureus? I seem to remember the same huge, 
winged seed-pods. Orobus and Thermopsis are close 
cousins: Thermopsis with big orange or yellow flowers, 
Orobus with blue, yellow, rose or white. Orobus (or 
Lathyrus) vernus, our own native, is as beautiful as any 
—blue and pink and green, all on one plant; then there 
are varieties—white, salmon-and-white, double-white, and 
so on—all lovely. The nearest to this is niger, almost 
indistinguishable, but interesting as being native to one 
glen in Scotland. Then comes Orobus lathyroeides, and 
the yellow Juteus and the orange-tawny auwrantiacus. 
All these, and others too, are well worth having, and 
very easy to grow in any open ground. Unlike the rock- 
lovers and the general run of Southern Butterflies, Orobus 
and Lathyrus, though disliking stagnant moisture, are far 
more patient of ordinary open-border conditions than 
most of their kindred. T'hermopsis fabacea and Ther- 
mopsis rhombifolia are tall, stout Orobuses with green- 
yellow flowers —the one European, the other North 
American, and good for any place where they can have 
room. But of this group (unless you can get hold of Lathy- 
rus cyaneus) the best and finest are Orobus hirsutus, and 
