" CHAPTEE XV. 



COLUMBINES. 



It is strange that such attractive and hardy flowers, 

 so radiantly beautiful, should receive so little atten- 

 tion. They are easily grown, require but little ef- 

 fort, and repay all care and labor needed a hundred 

 fold. Light itself has been dissolved, and all its pris- 

 matic rays have been woven into their bloom. I think 

 one trouble has been they have not been planted on a 

 scale large enough and in generous masses, so that 

 their charms could be seen to advantage. People per- 

 sist in getting a lonely flower and giving it the task of 

 enlivening dreary surroundings, and the poor thing 

 cannot show to advantage. Then no single one, beau- 

 tiful as it may be, can represent them all. 



Before my window as I write there is a large bed 

 of them. Does one realize what a great family they 

 are, over fifty native species ? I have at least as many 

 sorts. No flowers hybridize more readily. You se- 

 cure a large variety, and then sow seeds from these, 

 and you have a marvelous permutation of beauty. 

 'No two flowers of this second cropj Avill be entirely 

 alike. The bumble bees especially delight in their 

 nectar. They seem almost intoxicated as they revel in 

 it. Of course they carry the pollen from one flower to 



