My Rock Garden 



corner by the river, but is very beautiful, and I have 

 sown Orobanche hederae among it, and every season in- 

 creasing numbers of its quaint brown flower-spikes push 

 through the tangle of Ivy stems. Here steps lead us 

 down again, and under the shade of the Oaks which 

 hang out from the meadow not much will grow, but 

 the Alexandrian Laurel, Danae Laurus (Ruscus racemosus 

 as we used to call it) and Epimediums manage to be 

 cheerful in spite of the canopy of oak boughs. The 

 former has never fruited here yet, though it has grown 

 well, and plenty of victors might be crowned with its 

 wreaths of neat, glistening laurels. " Happy Medium ! 

 what a funny name ! " said an American lady, and I am 

 sure you will not blame me from refraining from cor- 

 recting her, and so allowing her to collect the imagined 

 name as her latest-found curio. They are happy, too, on 

 this slope, and very beautiful when in flower and young 

 leaf, and as I have collected them rather assiduously and 

 seldom bought the same plant twice under the same name, 

 and never found leisure to work them out, you must 

 not take my names too seriously. E. pinnatum is so 

 large and distinct and brilliant in its tone of yellow, that 

 it is beyond dispute the finest of them. I can never 

 make up my mind which is the better plan to follow, 

 whether to cut down the leathery green leaves in winter, 

 and so see the shepherd's crooks of flower-spikes from 

 their first appearance and enjoy the yellow bouquet 

 until a sharp frost burns the tallest of them, or to leave 

 the handsome foliage on, and part it with one's hand 

 to see the flowers below, that thus protected are safe 

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