My Rock Garden 



Magnolia, we must stop and wonder at the rose-like 

 beauty of a large bush of Rubus deliciosus, that arches 

 out every which way as Huck Finn would say, and bears 

 its snow-white flowers all down the arching branches. It 

 is prettier thus than as one generally sees it crucified flat 

 on a wall, and as it is quite happy in a very draughty spot 

 here must be hardier than people think. One thing is 

 essential to success, and that is to cut out all old wood 

 after flowering, in order to give plenty of room for the 

 yellow-skinned new shoots to spring out into air and 

 light. Mandrakes and Crocuses share the next bank with 

 Oenothera speciosa, now just appearing with its red shoots, 

 and a queer little black Viola tricolor that starting from 

 this point has gone about the world a good deal lately 

 under the name of Bowies' Black. It is an old garden 

 form of V. tricolor, authorities say, and I got it from Dr. 

 Lowe, who told me it always bred true, and so it does if 

 kept to itself, and I rather think its own seedlings decline 

 to be influenced by foreign pollen, though I have made 

 no decisive tests, but I know that it readily influences 

 other Violas, and its dusky charms appear in Mulattoes, 

 Quadroons, and Octaroons all over the place. I am not 

 responsible for its new name, though I know of no old 

 one. (I see. that Kew calls it V. tricolor nigra now, but 

 it does not appear in the 1902 Hand-List.) Canon 

 Ellacombe saw it here, and having lost it at Bitton, carried 

 it back again, where it was seen, admired and coveted by 

 the stream of visitors that ever flows to view the perennial 

 display of good plants in that garden. They were told 

 that Bowles was throwing it away, and many a begging 

 27! 



