OCTOBER 255 



anemone, 'Honorine Jobert.' Everybody has it now, 

 because nobody who cares a pin's head for his garden can 

 do without it, and it never looks untidy, as some free 

 flowerers do unless carefully tended. Another good 

 white, seldom seen, is the Japanese loosestrife (Lysi- 

 machia ephemerum though why ephemerum I don't 

 know, for it lasts six weeks in bloom). 



Few of your neighbours have Gaura Lindhemeri, but 

 they will soon beg for it if you set it going. It is a native 

 of Texas, with long graceful sprays, set with rose and 

 white blossoms from early August till the first sharp frost. 

 It revels in a light soil, indifferent to sunshine or shade, 

 and is useful for cutting. Even more prolonged than that 

 of Gaura is the flowering season of the parrot lily (Alstrce- 

 meria psittacina), standing stiffly but daintily erect, and 

 displaying a quaint mixture of crimson, green, and black. 

 There are two kinds of the purple cone flower (Echinacea 

 purpurea and angustifolia) well worth persevering with, 

 even if you fail with them at first. Quiet, almost weird, 

 in tone by day, the subdued rosy rays surrounding the 

 sombre cone of the blossom glow with a singular radiance 

 under gas or candle-light. 



We have now reached the back row of the border, and 

 have named only some of the choicest and least familiar 

 ornaments for the front part. Here you will have at your 

 disposal the perennial sunflowers, to be sparingly used, 

 torch lilies, single hollyhocks, and chimney campanulas. 

 Behind these may be ranged a selection from the choicest 

 shrubs, of which mention may be made another day. 

 The great herbaceous meadow-sweet (Spiraea gigantea) 

 will tower above them all, and among them you may well 

 admit the giant saxifrage (Saxifraga peltata), which, 



