216 CHAPTER XXIX. 



leaves, deeply cut with narrow segments, differ so 

 much from the earlier ones that you will hardly 

 recognise the plant when it has grown a little. I 

 admire also in this family a beautiful blue-flowered 

 species (Ipomaea Learn] which overruns some of the 

 gardens in Alassio. Let us add the cultivated 

 shrubby C. Cneorum with white flowers and silvery 

 leaves. Our British C. Septum, though eclipsed by 

 the bright colours of these Southern flowers is never- 

 theless " very decorative," as they say in French ; 

 especially when you see it wreathing the dry stem of 

 an Arundo, and supplying just that variety of outline 

 and of colour which is wanting to these giant reeds. 

 The common Ipomcea, were it not an annual, would be 

 preferred to all other climbers of its family ; but it is 

 troublesome in a garden, for it may fail where you 

 wish it to grow, and sowing itself elsewhere may 

 completely smother some valuable shrub. 



Cerinthe (why called c< Honey- wort ? ") is the 

 most beautiful of the Borages ; this flower is confined 

 to two or three localities near Nice. A proxime 

 accessit may be awarded to the deep blue Lithosperm 

 (L. purpwreo-cceruleum), a plant easily confounded 

 with the equally common Alkanet. It grows wild in 

 England below the overhanging cliffs near Mary 

 .Church, Devonshire, and in a few other spots. 



Lungwort (Pulmonaria), with its red and blue 

 flowers and spotted leaf, will reward any one who 

 takes the trouble to place it in a shady corner of his 

 garden. Latin authors call the Myrtle " bicolor " : 

 why so ? There are plants such as Pulmonaria., 

 Melampyre, and Latania, to which the epithet were 

 more appropriate. 



