COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



Fraxinella, Dame's Rocket, fragrant Valerian, and Floren- 

 tine Iris in a gray cowl. Then should come pale Mulleins 

 erect by mounds of gossamer Gypsophila, stately Holly- 

 hocks, sweet Musk Mallows, shining Moon Daisies, white 

 Lilies, sweet white Tobacco, Phlox in broad masses like 

 snow high drifted, and the keen-scented Funkia. Honey- 

 suckle, without doubt, and filmy Clematis and many more — 

 all one's favourites assembled to give form to gloom and 

 by their sweetness to endow the night with subtle con- 

 sciousness. 



The faculty of some flowers to withhold their sweetness 

 from the day and pour it out to the night is often alluded to. 

 Curiously, too, these flowers have small personality by day, 

 but with the twilight seem to rise and expand, laying their 

 white stars, like ivory ornaments, against the dark back- 

 ground of the night. Possessing this peculiarity are Sweet 

 Tobacco and Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis); and 

 the little Night-scented Stock, a drooping, insignificant 

 bit of flowerhood by day that is quite transfigured at the 

 coming of twilight. Then it raises its pale head with 

 assured grace and floods the dusk with a sweetness at once 

 delicate and intense. 



Many of the Evening Primroses are more highly scented 

 after nightfall, some of them keeping their petals closed 

 during the day as if to more effectually hold back the 

 perfume. Oenothera biennis, only fit for "God's wide 

 husbandry" is one of these. The closely allied 0. Lar- 

 marckiana is a more cultivated plant and may be allowed 

 in the garden. Oenothera taraxifolia is a most beau- 

 tiful Evening Primrose whose blossoms reach their full- 



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