JUNE MAGIC 97 



jointly by the white Rose Trier and a pinky-mauve 

 Clematis of the Viticella type. Bees love the Alkanets 

 as they do its relatives, Borage and our native Buglos, 

 and there is always a pleasant drone and hum in its 

 neighbourhood. I do not know if it is a scientific fact 

 that bees best love blue flowers, but they seem to, giving 

 them preference even over white ones which are said to 

 be the most fragrant. 



Of course the pride of the late June garden is her 

 Delphiniums, and perhaps I may bring wrath upon my- 

 self when I say that I cannot but feel that these beauti- 

 ful flowers are in grave danger of being done to death by 

 the hybridists. A long way have they travelled since 

 Hood sang, "Light as a loop of Larkspur," and what 

 with doubling and crowding are in a fair way to be 

 called stout, though somehow their celestial colour 

 makes the unflattering epithet seem unfit and keeps one 

 in mind of their slim youth. Every season many new 

 varieties are put forth to dazzle the world and they make 

 superb blocks of colour in the garden, but I cling to 

 those which are less perfect from a florist's viewpoint. 

 The true Belladonna is an exquisite, graceful plant, 

 and many of its offspring reproduce this fine quality of 

 the parent and there is another sort, which we used to 

 get as formosum coelestinum, now doubtless looked 

 upon as a back number but which has the same willowy 

 grace and celestial colour. 



Persimmon, Lizzie van Veen, and Capri are lovely sky- 



