The Buddleias 



This Buddleia is remarkable for its foliage as well 

 as for its ball blossoms. At the outset the spring 

 buds are of surpassing size and beauty and are 

 very characteristic, for each of the branches ends in a 

 long white tip, whose silveriness is in striking contrast 

 to the dark greenness of pairs of outstanding leaves 

 below. This tip is built up of pairs of erect, finely taper- 

 ing white leaves, the outer pair, whose sides are slightly 

 folded inwards on the midrib as hinge, enclosing a tall 

 four-sided cone formed by pairs of leaves successively 

 fitted one inside another like a Chinese nest of boxes. 

 As the outermost pair develops, it opens and stretches 

 horizontally, and then it can be seen that only the backs 

 of the leaves are white ; the face, first palest green, 

 soon darkens on exposure to the light into the deep 

 natural shade. The contrast between back and front 

 is remarkable, and as the wind sways them they flash, 

 now dark now light, in obedience to it. And these 

 characteristics are common to other Buddleias. 



The little orange balls are built up of about a hun- 

 dred flowers, all their mouths outermost, so that the 

 surface of the ball is apparently cut up into about a 

 hundred little areas. The calyx is hairy, the orange 

 corolla is a wide tube topped with four lobes. Within, 

 it is very hairy ; on the inside of the tube are set four 

 small stamens, and in the centre is the seed-case with 



its column. 



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