22 FLOWERS AND SEASONS 



every ray of sunshine. So placed, it will soon form a 

 compact colony of silvery rosettes, some of which, 

 about Christmas time, will begin to rise in a crimson 

 cone from the centre. The cone grows slowly, quite 

 regardless of frost, till it assumes the form of a column 

 thickly set with bracts, the colour getting more intense 

 as the flower buds develop. For full two months it 

 gleams, a vivid ray of carmine, amid the grey stones, 

 and finally flowers when about four inches high. 

 Having now white, sulphur, golden yellow, and carmine 

 supplied by rockfoils alone, for blue and purple we 

 must turn to other families, which supply these tints 

 in great abundance. For intense dark violet nothing 

 can match the netted iris (/. reticulata), whereof the 

 rich colour is greatly enhanced by a spark of brilliant 

 orange upon each fall. Iris histrio gives light blue; 

 so does the Apennine anemone, of which the variety 

 called blanda is the earliest ; and, of course, everybody 

 can furnish their borders with crocus, hepatica, and 

 spring cyclamens. Everybody does not do so, however, 

 thereby forfeiting much of the legitimate delight of a 

 garden, which is never so exciting as in the months 

 ' before the swallows dare.' 



