8o THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



fastuosum, little known and less grown. It may be called a 

 shrub by courtesy, since it is not herbaceous. This remark- 

 able bushy Bugloss was figured in a coloured plate in one of 

 the earlier volumes of The Garden. Falling in love with its 

 portrait, I obtained seed and raised it, and in due time reaped 

 a rich reward for my pains in its magnificent heads, some 8 in. 

 or 9 in. long, of deep gentian -blue flowers. A very similar 

 species, E. callithyrsum, is equally handsome, and only a 

 trifle paler in hue. They come from the Canary Islands, and 

 are by no means hard to grow. The foliage, as in all 

 Echiums, is rough and shaggy, and the bush grows large and 

 spreading, but any one who has seen its uncommon beauty 

 would consider it worthy of some trouble to grow well. 

 Whether as a fine specimen in a lo-in. pot, or planted out in 

 a wide border, few things are more striking in their way than 

 these two species of half-hardy Bugloss for the decoration in 

 April and May of the unheated greenhouse. 



