so pure, so spirit-blue, surely came down straight from Summer. 

 Paradise ! Blue 



Once, very early one grey April morning, I looked up as Flowers 

 I passed by a garden limestone rockery, and saw suddenly 

 arise right from the very heart of a large plant of Libert'ta 

 formosa, a bright blue starry flower ! Never before had I or 

 any of the gardeners beheld any such flower anywhere in the 

 garden. As if by magic the fairy vision was born, and none 

 could tell its name, nor how it came there. Afterwards, we 

 discovered the name, but not the mystery of its coming. For 

 many days those studded stars of blue lived on, the joy of our 

 eyes. Stiff with vigorous health and animation, the starry spike 

 of flower stood, till in due time it seeded. Then it lost itself 

 for ever, down among the thick, mothering leaves of Libertia. 



As usual in the Beautiful Garden, it was more by chance 

 than design that a border shone with blue alone, at the south 

 end of it. Here a certain Sal via from Teneriffe made great 

 show. Small as is the flower itself, the whole plant covered all 

 over blue, outrivals in its colour even Salvia patens, in so great 

 profusion does he carry his innumerable sprays of little intensely 

 brilliant blooms. There, grew also a little pale blue Daisy, 

 yellow-centred ; a flower that no one ever could pass without 

 stooping down to look more closely, so subtle is the charm of it. 

 It owns a tiresome name, Kaulfussia amtlloidcs. And then 

 close by, another treasure, Broivallia speciosa major, is another 

 fascinating blue. Foremost among garden unattainables surely 

 are good simple English names ! 



A group of bronze-leaved and as yet flowerless plants I 

 know for Lobelia cardlnalis. In their season they will flash 

 out into fiery scarlet. In an angle of the walls, here made 



