56 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



much shaded by trees. One of the grandest we have ever 

 seen was a tree of the purple variety;, in a garden which 

 had formerly been a sand-pit, in the Rue de Morny, Paris. 

 The tree stood, and probably still stands, in the midst of 

 pleasant greenery, some twenty feet below the footway, on 

 the right-hand side on the way out from the city, and was 

 remarkable for its great size and the number and splendour 

 of its purple flowers. 



Returning to the marsh-mallow, we remember finding a 

 bundle that had been hanging on the wall of a somewhat 

 damp store-room for three yeai-s, and the shrivelled stems, 

 brown and mouldy, were producing a few fresh and quite 

 pretty flowers. This is the most striking instance, among 

 many we can call to mind, of the continuance of vitality 

 in some degree and in some part of a plant long after it 

 had ceased to enjoy the advantage of connection with 

 mother earth. Mr. Loudon, in illustrating the legend of 

 the Glastonbury thorn, tells of a branch of the_ common 

 thorn that " hung for several years in a hedge among 

 other trees, and though without root, or even touching 

 the ground, produced every year leaves, flowers, and fruit." 



