82 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



exclusion of many others. All travellers in the Syrian 

 deserts have specially noted this, and there can be no 

 doubt that the thorny thistly character of these plants 

 is a great protection to them against browsing animals, 

 for they mostly come into flower after the herbage is 

 dried up, and if not so protected would very soon be 

 destroyed. 



The drought seems also to be very acceptable to 

 another plant of a very different family, the Gypsophila 

 paniculata. I have grown it for many years ; and there 

 is no plant which is so suggestive of a mist hanging 

 over the plant. In this respect it is even superior to 

 the wig-tree (Rhus cotinus), for in that the feathery, 

 mist-like bunches are interspersed with the foliage, 

 but in the gypsophila the little foliage does not show, 

 and the whole plant is covered and surrounded with 

 the mist. The plant is quite hardy, and comes from 

 Austria and other parts of Central Europe. I first 

 saw it, or first appreciated its beauty, at a flower- 

 show held many years ago at a meeting of the Agri- 

 cultural Society at Oxford. It was used in the prize 

 bouquets, and it gave a lightness to them beyond any 

 grasses; and for that purpose I have grown it ever 

 since. The individual flowers are very small and in- 

 conspicuous, but they make a mass unlike any other 

 plant; and though the name gypsophila points to its 



