COLOUR 



A ' Blue Border ' has a charming sound, but real 

 blues are rare, they shade to purple, mauves, to 

 slaty-grey-blue-whites ; glaucous and silvery foliage 

 is very lovely, but the combination lacks vigour and 

 is cheerless. 



But did I say yellow, tabooed yellow ? I love its 

 gorgeous shades, it is almost always pure, scarcely 

 any yellow flowers show other shades in their yellow 

 parts, and Nature gives us more wild yellow flowers 

 at home than of any other colour. She spreads a 

 wondrous sequence of her cloths of gold the seasons 

 through, responsive to the first touch of earliest spring 

 and never failing till autumn ends. 



The coltsfoot, celandine and royal kingcups lead 

 the gilded pageant in, ere spring has scarce donned 

 her mantle of primroses, daffodils, cowslips and dande- 

 lions. Orange bird's-foot trefoil spreads a carpet 

 beneath the gorse and broom bank's blaze ; and, best 

 of all, miles of burnished buttercups. Glorious golden 

 days of resplendent beauty ! Hawkweeds tall and 

 short, bright corn marigolds, and ragworts reign su- 

 preme on seashore waste ; there is no end of Nature's 

 yellow throng, and no flowering tree more beautiful 

 and bewitching than 'golden chain.' 



171 



A BLUE 



BORDER 



YELLOW 



