170 MORE POT-POURRI 



celia campanularia. Commelina codestis does very well 

 in a dry back garden of a London house. Browallia 

 elata is a most useful annual, and there is a good picture 

 of it in Curtis' ' Botanical Magazine. 7 Catananche cceru- 

 lea is an old border perennial, and I have it. Linaria 

 reticulata is a pretty, small annual; so is L.aureo-pur- 

 purea and L. Mpartita. Omphalodes lucilice I have tried 

 to get, but failed, and mean to grow it from seed. 



January 8th. I have read once or twice in the news- 

 papers that butterflies have been seen from time to time 

 this mild winter, and now this morning I have caught 

 sight of one of these press butterflies, a beautiful 

 large yellow one, floating over the field as if it were 

 summer. 



To-day we have been sowing, in shallow ridges in our 

 most favoured border, two or three kinds of early Green 

 Peas. How this kind of thing draws the seasons to- 

 gether ! I dare say we have much that is disagreeable 

 before us ; still, when these Peas are ready, it will be 

 leafy June, and spring will be over. 



January 9th. The Iberis that ornaments French cot- 

 tage windows, and that I called ' Oibraltarica ' in the first 

 book, is not that at all, but I. sempervirens . I have one 

 in the greenhouse that was cut back all the summer and 

 potted up in October. It has been in flower three weeks 

 now, and will go on for a long time. In the spring I 

 shall cut it well back and plant it out in the reserve 

 garden. It grows easily from cuttings, and Mr. Thomp- 

 son, of Ipswich, keeps the seed. It is, of course, not a 

 choice plant, but it is an attractive and useful one for 

 those who have not much convenience for forcing on 

 winter-flowering things in December and January. Like 

 many of the commoner plants, I have never seen it 

 grown as a window plant in England, though it would 

 do well. 



