284 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



winter, a special protection for the * nectar ' might be 

 required, and would be given by these little trumpets ; 

 but this is the merest guess. To one, however, who 

 wishes to puzzle out a difficult but not unpleasant 

 subject, I would recommend the study of the petals of 

 the Ranunculacece. It is a very large family, and is not 

 a difficult one; but throughout the family the petals 

 are curious, running as they do through the no-petals 

 of the clematis, the bright petals of the buttercups, and 

 the quaint petals of the columbines, larkspurs, and 

 monkshoods. I have one small piece in my garden, in 

 which I delight to puzzle my botanical friends. Close 

 together I have three plants growing, each of which 

 has its puzzle. There is the Galanthus scharloki, a poor 

 snowdrop, but very interesting to me, because, instead 

 of having a simple spathe, and one pure white flower, 

 as all snowdrops should have, it has a two-leaved 

 spathe, and sometimes two flowers, and a green 

 external spot, so coming near to a snowflake. Next to 

 it is Heuchera or Tolmicea Meiziesii, from North America, 

 a plant of no great beauty, but also interesting, because, 

 besides increasing by seeds or offsets as all the rest of 

 the family does, it produces young plants in abundance 

 on the top of each leaf. And next to that is Accena 

 pulchella y an excellent little trailer for covering banks. 

 The fruit of all the Accenas are burs ; but they all differ 



