LITTLE GARDENS 



useful bedding plant, inasmuch as It blooms gen- 

 erously and In a surprising number of hues. 

 Doubtless its lack of odor and a certain harsh- 

 ness of texture and stiffness of carriage has to 

 do with its lack of popularity, but Its opulence of 

 hue would make amends for more defects, If it 

 had them. The flowers remain long, holding 

 their color somewhat like the everlastings, so 

 that they have an appearance of life after they 

 have really faded. It is almost Inconsistent, in 

 our notion, that an herb so thick of leaf and 

 petal should show such delicacy and even love- 

 liness of tint. This flower avoids the blue, hence 

 It accepts the red and yellow rays, and the variety 

 of these tints that It exhibits Is larger, I think, 

 than that of any other flower which Is equally 

 confined in its range of form. It has not the 

 limpid, brilliant white of the rose, the lily or the 

 camellia, but a white of opaque and grayish qual- 

 ity, yet It grades down from this high light to a 

 crimson, full and deep enough for the robe of an 

 emperor, through a range of pale yellow, lemon 

 yellow, gold yellow, orange, salmon, scarlet, pink- 

 red, and hints at a purple mixture in magenta, 

 solferino and a refined tone of lilac. These colors, 

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