THE GARDEN-ROOM 49 



grape hyacinths glory in peat. Of these botryoides, 

 white and blue, go beautifully together; azureum is 

 first and fairest to my mind ; moschatus is sweetest. 

 The yellow moschatus was called Tibcadi of old, 

 and fine roots fetched a guinea apiece in Holland. 

 You can get one for eightpence now. The race 

 received its name from the Turks. They first called 

 it "muscari," because its scent resembled a sort of 

 musk pastille with which they perfumed their abodes. 

 Comosus, the tasselled hyacinth, is not beautiful but 

 interesting. I picked him wild in France with 

 botryoides. Parkinson says that "the whole stalk 

 with the flowers upon it doth somewhat resemble a 

 long Purse tassell, and thereupon divers Gentlewomen 

 have so named it." That was a happy thought of the 

 divers gentlewomen ; but their descendants have no 

 tassels to their purses to-day. Monstrosum is a variety 

 the familiar and delightful feathered hyacinth. 

 This comes last, with a frizzle of pleasant amethystine 

 flowers in late May. Conicum, called ' Heavenly 

 blue/ is another much praised by those who know it. 

 With these hyacinths thrive camassia, gladiolus, 

 and a few lilies. Apocynum, or dog's bane, did very 

 well also, but I have eradicated 1 this fly-catcher as 

 a thing not worth growing. In any case, Devonshire 

 dogs don't care a button for him. The experiments 

 upon these beds embrace a sickly gerbera Jamesoni, 

 an orange tree or two, and camellias. The Trans- 

 vaal daisy merely lingers, and, as an invalid, is not 



1 Quite a mistake. Plant apocynum in peat : give him a year's start, and 

 dynamite won't eradicate him. 



D 



