My Garden in Spring 



men, and it soon wedded with V. Munbyana and produced 

 several seedlings of hybrid origin. One of these caught 

 the critical eye of Mr. George Paul, and I gave it into his 

 hands, and he has sent it forth as strong young plants, and 

 named it Mrs. Bowles in memory of my mother. I still 

 keep a little colony of it here, as it flowers for just as won- 

 derfully long a period as Munbyana, and is a good purple 

 blue. The variety known as V. gracilis Purple Robe is much 

 like it, but neither so blue a shade nor quite so good a shape, 

 I think. 



Erodiums are much to the fore among the rocks here. 

 E. amanum has begun its long flowering season, and looks 

 very pretty now with its silvery grey leaves and white 

 blossoms. It is a dioecious species, and the pistil-bearing 

 form is pure white, while the pollen-bearing male has pink 

 anthers and a few rosy lines in the throat and so is the 

 prettier flower, but one needs both to get seed and the 

 self-sown seedlings that I like to see it produce. Next to 

 it is a planting of young plants of E. chrysanthum, one of 

 the rarest and loveliest of this family. It closely resembles 

 the last species, but its leaves are more silky and more 

 finely cut, and its flowers are a most beautiful sulphur that 

 looks rather unusual on such silver foliage. In chrysan- 

 thum the sexes are as rigidly divided as in some Lutheran 

 churches, and here again the male or pollen plant has pink 

 anthers which greatly add to his beauty. I believe that the 

 hybrid between these two, E. lindavicum Sundermann, is 

 not uncommon in gardens where chrysanthum and amanum 

 are grown near one another, but it is not to be desired, being 

 intermediate in colour of flower, a dull yellowish-white, and 

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