120 MY GARDEN 



sibirica, which prospers along with it. L. azurea and 

 L. tricolor should be tried in pots ; but I have failed 

 with them out of doors. Melantheum Massonia, too, 

 which I learn is a pretty and singular Cape bulb, has 

 done no more than throw up a dozen strap-shaped 

 leaves of a dark colour. A passing slug nibbled one, 

 and Massonia appears to have died of simple fright. 

 Things that are going to lose their nerve about a 

 mere playful nip of this sort are no good to me. But 

 I am trying Massonia again. 



Marica Caerulea 1 won't succeed in the open, but it 

 is worthy of a pot. The plant makes huge foliage, like 

 Moraea Robinsoniana, and its flower and behaviour is 

 that of tigridia. A fairer thing I never saw. The 

 falls are spoon-shaped, very large, and of the lovely 

 blue of the Algerian iris. The cup is spattered with a 

 pale, pure brown, and the standards rise in three little 

 curls. The pollen is a strange green. Properly 

 grown, it flowers almost as freely as cypella. I must 

 get more of marica. M. lutea and M. brachypus 

 are both grand things, also M. Northiana. Caerulea 

 sends forth a flat flower-stem, and rises three feet to 

 five from pot level. 



Tricyrtis, the toad-lily, is hardy here, but flowers so 

 late that the rough weather of October often ruins it. 

 I have seen splendid pots of the various species in the 

 garden of a friend. Tricyrtis hirta nigra and T. hirta 

 grandiflora are both interesting. T. macropodum is 



1 Marica carulea. Amid the wonderful flower-pictures by the late Miss 

 North, to be seen at Kew, is a good portrait of this marica (No. 70) 

 under the title of " Palma de Santa Rita." 



