128 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



dampest place we can compass ; its flowers are of a 

 particularly clear blue. The latter needs no special 

 consideration ; it forms large tufts of slender stems 

 and foliage in our rock-garden, and flowers freely, so 

 freely, indeed, that at a little distance all that catches 

 the eye is a mass of azure blue. 1 It is sometimes 

 called bird's-eye. The buxbaum speedwell is a 

 very handsome trailer ; its blossoms are large and 

 of a bright but light blue, the lower lip being almost 

 white. It is very hardy, and will flower almost 

 throughout the year. It is a foreigner, having only 

 been observed here since the year 1826, but it is 

 spreading rapidly throughout the country. It 

 probably came over with clover or other agri- 

 cultural seeds. 



Another very welcome blue flower that we must 

 by no means omit is the borage. The plant is so 

 thickly covered with short stiff hairs that they give 

 it a greyish appearance, while the flowers are large, 

 acutely fine-pointed, and of a beautiful sky-blue, 

 the dark purple anthers rising in a cone in the 

 centre. The borage is really indigenous in such 

 parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa as fringe the 

 eastern portion of the Mediterranean, and was 

 probably introduced into England by the monkish 

 herbalists. However that may be, it has now 

 thoroughly established itself, and may from time to 

 time be found on rubbish-heaps and waste ground. 



1 " The floures be of a gallant blew colour." GERARD. 



