THE WELL-CONSIDERED GARDEN 



bud; to the left of the campanulas, leaves of Iris 

 'pallida Dalmatica, so tall that their presence is 

 immediately felt; a little before, but still to the 

 left of the pink spikes and the iris, perhaps a 

 dozen tall silvery velvet stems of Stachys lanata, 

 whose tiny flowers give but a hint of their pale 

 lavender as yet, and are lost in the whiteness of 

 the young leaflets, and — and this is the thing 

 which really creates the picture — three or four 

 spreading branches, a foot from the ground and 

 directly below the campanulas, of Statice incana 

 Silver Cloud, tiny points of white showing that 

 the whole dense spray will soon be full of flowers. 

 Below and among the campanulas (which I 

 keep in bloom a very long time by a careful daily 

 taking off of every shrivelling bloom) stand sal- 

 mon-pink balsams, these to replace with their two- 

 foot masses of flowers the campanulas when the 

 latter's day is over and to rise above the gray- 

 white leaves of the stachys when its blooming 

 time is also past. This stachys is a lovely ad- 

 junct to the garden. The texture of its leaves is 

 a matter of surprise to every one who touches 

 them. Most people would call stachys "woolly," 

 but I do not like this word — (is it because I live 

 in the West ?) — and why apply an unpoetic 

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