352 MORE POT-POURRI 



we went to Monte Sennaria the weather was lovely, and, 

 though rather hot on starting, it soon got delicious ; 

 and as we reached the higher ground many spring 

 flowers remained. I particularly noticed quantities of 

 the blue Italian Borage, growing small and low on dried 

 banks, and a sheet of gentian -blue bloom. Grown in 

 good soil in English flower borders, it is coarse and 

 leafy, and flowers but little ; at least, that is my experi- 

 ence. I shall find it a most valuable plant in Surrey if 

 it will grow in poor, dry places. Last autumn, after I 

 got home, I immediately moved some of my plants of 

 Italian Borage to the driest, sunniest spot in the 

 garden. I shall see if it will flower as abundantly as it 

 did in Italy. The Rush or Italian Broom ought to be 

 sown every year in light soils, as it is such a useful 

 July -flowering plant, and rarely seen — not being quite 

 hardy — in Surrey. 



The villas of the rich that I saw round Florence — 

 and, of course, there are a great many which I did not 

 see — are to be recognised by the fact that the Vine and 

 Olive, Lemon and Pomegranate, Fig and Mulberry, are 

 turned out for the planting of Laurels, Deodars and 

 other conifers. Rhododendrons, and coarse -growing, un- 

 pruned shrubs. The beautiful old walls are often lev- 

 elled to the ground, to make a slope of coarse -growing 

 grass ; or the wall formerly used for the trained and 

 well -pruned Vine is smothered with a mass of untended 

 creepers. The newly planted Crimson Rambler is doing 

 very well and making excessive growth, though it will 

 never be a general favourite, as it flowers too late and is 

 not a marketable Rose ; so the gardeners despise it, which 

 is lucky, as its colour is not good. The greatest crime 

 of all, as regards the spoiling of Italian gardens, is 

 destroying the effect of space and coolness, and at the 

 same time entirely shutting out the view by planting 



