Old Flower Favorites 187 



have some inexplicable, witching charm ; even young 

 children in arms will stretch out their little hands and 

 attempt to grasp the Dielytra, when showier blossoms 

 are passed unheeded. Many tiny playthings can be 

 formed of the blossoms : only deft fingers can shape 

 the delicate lyre in the " frame." One of its folk 

 names is " Lyre flower"; the two wings can be bent 

 back to form a gondola. 



We speak of modern flowers, meaning those which 

 have recently found their way to our gardens. Some 

 of these clash with the older occupants, but one has 

 promptly been given an honored place, and appears 

 so allied to the older flowers in form and spirit that 

 it seems to belong by their side the Anemone Ja- 

 ponica. Its purity and beauty make it one of the 

 delights of the autumn garden; our grandmothers 

 would have rejoiced in it, and have divided the 

 plants with each other till all had a row of it in the 

 garden borders. In its red form it was first pictured 

 in the Botanical Magazine^ in 1847, but it has been 

 commonly seen in our gardens for only twenty or 

 thirty years. 



These two flowers, the Dielytra spectabilis and 

 Anemone Japonica, are among the valuable gifts 

 which our gardens received through the visits 

 to China of that adventurous collector, Robert 

 Fortune. He went there first in 1 842, and for some 

 years constantly sent home fresh treasures. Among 

 the best-known garden flowers of his introducing 

 are the two named above, and Kerria Japonica, 

 Forsytbia viridissima, Weigela rosea, Gardenia For- 

 tuniana. Daphne Fortunei^ Berberis Fortunei, Jasminum 



