48 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



with this finest of the Columbines. Before I leave 

 the Columbine, let me mention a mistake in one 

 of Jean Ingelow's very prettiest poems, which her 

 literary critics seem never to have detected. She 

 says 



" O Columbine, open your folded wrapper, 

 , . Where two twin turtle-doves dwell." 



But she is confusing the Columbine with the 

 Monk's Hood. The doves of the Columbine 

 cluster round the centre like the doves of Pliny's 

 vase. The doves of the Monk's Hood are only 

 seen as you remove the "wrapper," and then 

 the old idea was that they are drawing a " Venus' 

 chariot." 



The accidental grouping of plants on a mixed 

 border is often very happy. A week or two back 

 I found growing out of a tuft of Forget-me-not 

 a plant of the Black Fritillary. The blue eyes 

 of the Forget-me-not seemed to be looking up 

 into the hanging bells of the Fritillary, and were 

 a pleasant contrast to the red-brown of its petals. 

 Gerarde's name for the Fritillary was the " Turkic 

 or Ginnie-hen Flower," and the name of the Fri- 

 tillary was itself derived from the fritillus or dice- 

 box, which the common Fritillary was supposed 

 to resemble in its markings. 



