26 JANUARY 



azure stars on the trailing periwinkle Rousseau's 

 favourite flower. Distinguished for its delicious 

 scent is the winter heliotrope (Tussilago fragrans). 

 This plant, though it is an exotic, is as hardy as 

 its near relatives, the common coltsfoot (T. far/am) 

 and the butterbur (T. petasites) ; in foliage it re- 

 sembles the former, in flowers the latter. Few 

 gardeners know it or grow it; yet it is a herb of 

 such exceeding merit that none ought to be without 

 it. Nothing but severe frost prevents it flowering 

 freely through the winter months, and a bunch of 

 it scents a whole room with a perfume exactly like 

 that of heliotrope. One word of warning plant it 

 not among other choice things, but in a border by 

 itself ; for it spreads as quickly and is as hard to get 

 rid of as any weed of them all. It will make itself a 

 home on any sunny waste piece of ground, and once 

 established, it is a joy for ever ; you and your 

 children to the third and fourth generation will 

 never cease to thank me for telling you about it. 



Another fragrant winter flower is seen in English 

 gardens, if possible, more rarely than the winter 

 heliotrope. It is an evergreen shrub, Azara integri- 

 folia, worthy of the protection of a wall by reason 

 of the multitude of golden blossoms which spread 



