xxxvi INTRODUCTION 



Larkspur is its blue colour. In no other genus of 

 easily-grown garden plants is there such a range of 

 blues combined with such purity; and the hybridists 

 have already shown us what a race of Larkspurs might 

 be produced if only they would give all their efforts 

 to combining purity of colour with beauty of form. 

 Unfortunately, it is very easy to obtain double Lark- 

 spurs in which the form of the flowers is spoilt; and 

 also to obtain Larkspurs tinged or freaked with mauve 

 or plum colour. Now mauve is a good enough colour 

 in its way; but we have plenty of mauve flowers. 

 Also the combination of mauve with blue may have 

 a sort of curious discordant beauty; but it is a beauty 

 that one soon tires of; whereas pure blue, deep or 

 pale, is a rare colour in our gardens and one that 

 could never weary any one. No garden flower in 

 existence is more beautiful than the Belladonna Lark- 

 spur with its flowers of a silvery pale blue and no 

 less perfect in form than in colour. But the Bella- 

 donna is smaller and more weakly in constitution 

 than the great hybrid Larkspurs. Already some of 

 these almost rival it in colour, and they might in time 

 surpass it. Already, too, there are some hybrids of 

 a deeper blue almost as fierce as the colour of the 

 Gentians, and these might be common soon, if the 

 florists would set to work to produce only pure blue 

 Larkspurs. But they have now produced so many 

 with mixed colours that it becomes more difficult 

 every year to raise pure blue Larkspurs from seed. 

 The taint of mauve is deep in their blood, and it would 



