SPEING. 49 



first, or else some fatality attends my own attempts to 

 rear it, but certainly it dies out here, and the only plant I 

 succeeded in establishing was perseveringly pulled up, day 

 after day, by a tame raven, whenever it came into full 

 flower. Perhaps the colour of the blossom attracted him 

 at first ; it is a dull flesh-coloured red : then, when re- 

 planted, its fading look might make him think there was 

 a worm at the root ; but though I shifted it to another 

 part of the garden, he found it out, and fairly persecuted 

 my pretty plant to death, leaving me to 



" Grieve to find 

 That love for Httle things, by Fate 

 Is renderd vain as love for great." 



One of our triggest little spring plants is the Cheiranthm 

 alpina, sometimes called the small wallflower. It is very 

 easily propagated, for if a plant of it is torn in pieces, 

 every bit will strike root. It grows in neat, conapact bushes, 

 flowers profusely, and both it and its orange -coloured 

 cousin, Cheiranthus JlarshaUii, continue long in flower, 

 and have a faint sweet perfume. They are capital bed- 

 ding-out plants, as well as useful additions to the colours 

 of a mixed border. 



The subject of colours in a flower garden is now so 

 deeply studied, and become so much a matter of scientific 

 arrangement, that I dare not add a word on a subject I 

 know so little about; but even in the lowliest plots, great 

 additional pleasure may be derived from a harmonious 

 arrangement of the colours, and much additional interest 

 in planning the best method of getting those flowers 



