88 MY GARDEN 



sweet time of summer twilights. This queen of 

 evening primroses has sugar-sweet sap 'and pure 

 silvery petals that turn pink before perishing a trans- 

 formation that also overtakes the dandelion - leaved 

 oenothera of Chili, which is a thing only less fine than 

 eximium. I have also that splendid yellow ceno- 

 thera, macrocarpa from the United States, and the 

 tiny pumila, least of the family so far as I know. The 

 common evening primrose is never quite absent it 

 seeds about in corners ; but I have lost rosea and 

 others. 



A clump of crinums crown this rocky corner and, 

 beside them, desmodium penduliflora springs without 

 support and drips every way in a lovely shower, like a 

 fountain of purple wine in October. Among minor 

 treasures in this corner are saxifraga retundifolia from 

 Ober Ammergau, linum monogynum from New Zea- 

 land, dierama from South Africa, and botrychium 

 lunaria, the moonwort, 1 which I dug up on ' Sir 

 William' Hill in the Derbyshire Peak. This un- 

 common fern is a tiny kinsman of osmunda. It 

 occurs in Devon, but I have not chanced to find 

 it here. 



Dierama, or sparaxis pulcherrima, defies me. I hear 

 that the best way with this plant is to keep him potted 

 in a cool house until he is full of strong and vigorous 

 growth, then turn him out. I shall try this prescrip- 

 tion upon him. That neat little white-berried shrub, 



1 The Moonwort. " Moonwort (they absurdly say) will open locks and 

 unshoe such horses as tread on it." Thus remarks the ridiculous, enter- 

 taining Culpeper. But he attributes properties to the plant quite as comical 

 as these. 



