COLOR HARMONIES 



Reine Blanche, in large numbers, was near by, itg 

 translucent petals shining in the sun beyond its 

 more dehcately colored neighbors. 



I beheve I have before expatiated in these 

 pages on the great beauty of Crocus purpurea, 

 var. grandiflora, carpeting large spaces of bare 

 ground beneath shrubbery, principally used in 

 connection with great sheets of Scilla Sihirica, 

 which blooms so very little later than the crocus 

 as to make the two practically simultaneous. 

 These, in order to get a telling effect, should be 

 planted by the thousands, and this, I beg to as- 

 sure the reader, is a less serious financial observa- 

 tion than it sounds ! \ 



Hepatica that year bloomed with 7m reticu- 

 lata. As an experiment I arranged the following 

 spring some groups of this smart little iris, with 

 hepatica plants threading their way among the 

 grasslike leaves of the iris, and near by a few 

 hundreds of Muscari azureum. The cool, delicate 

 pinks of the hepatica were in most lovely accord 

 with the rich violet of the iris, yet affording a 

 striking contrast in form and a full octave apart 

 in depth and height of tone. Is there a valid 

 objection to thus using imported and native 

 plants side by side.'^ I know Ruskin would have 

 79 



