2i 4 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



slow heaving which gives the light a chance to 

 work marvels in its bosom vincas, Veronicas, 

 the tall blue Lobelia, and the pretty little brown 

 varieties of the same plant, plumbagoes, Brow- 

 alias, are all good blues, and good bloomers. 



"The blue 

 " That never shone in woman's eyes " 



glorifies the larkspurs into the best of garden 

 blues, quite another thing from the cold 

 flower of thirty years ago. They have been 

 hybridised and cultivated until the tall spires 

 of quivering blue flame are often six feet high. 

 Their great hardiness and duration of bloom 

 give them a most honourable place in the 

 world. Again I am indebted to Mrs Clarke's 

 penetration when she says, " they give one of 

 those invaluable inflections of colour which are 

 like the grace-notes in music." 



It must be accounted a virtue in two of the 

 most exquisite of blue autumnal flowers that 

 they resist all attempts at cultivation, and stead- 

 fastly hold to their inviolate freedom. There 

 have been a few successes in the long list of 

 efforts to conquer the fringed gentian and the 

 harebell, but they are not flowers which bloom 

 to order. They choose for themselves, these 





