122 MY GARDEN 



fails to gladden July with its dainty shower of twin 

 scarlet blossoms. This is one of my greatest successes, 

 and wins general admiration. Of anthericums other 

 than the familiar lilies of St. Bruno and St. Bernard, 

 I recommend A. algeriense a very beautiful variety 

 with dark green foliage and golden anthers ; while 

 A. lineare, with variegated foliage, makes a neat pot 

 plant if you cut off the worthless bloom-spikes. This 

 pleasant thing comes from the Cape, and you may 

 find it sometimes under the lordly name of phalangium 

 argenteo-lineare. Aristea Eckloni another of the 

 endless Cape irids is scarcely hardy. It lives out of 

 doors, but looks consumptive and emaciated. In a 

 cool house, however, it makes a brave show, and 

 furnishes a lovely blue blossom. Arthropodium 

 cirrhatum, a pretty New Zealand lily, also does in a 

 pot, but I think it would hardly prosper out of doors. 

 Its bloom is a dainty shower of little white flowers 

 on a long stem. 



Arums are interesting, and A. italica makes magni- 

 ficent scarlet corals in winter, though the great green 

 spathe and yellow club have no special charm. 

 Cornutum and crinatum are both wonderful ; but I 

 cannot do anything with them except get foliage in 

 the open air. Dracunculus is as hardy as any dragon, 

 and his purple towers annually above the marbled 

 stem. Concerning this weird monster says Parkinson, 

 "The chief use whereunto Dragons are applyed, is, 

 that according to an old received custome and 

 tradition (and not the judgement of any learned 

 Author) the distilled water is given with Mithradatum 



