Explanatory. 19 



in wild and natural gardening. I allude to the 

 beautiful Caucasian Comfrey (Symphytum cauca- 

 sicum), which grows about twenty inches high, 

 and bears quantities of the loveliest blue pendulous 

 flowers. It, like many others, does much better in 

 a wood, grove, or any kind of shrubbery, than in 

 any other position, just filling in the naked spaces be- 

 tween the trees and shrubs, and has a quick-growing 

 and spreading tendency, but never becomes weedy 

 or objectionable. As if to contrast with it, there is 

 the deep crimson Bohemian Comfrey (S. bohemi- 

 cum), which' is sometimes startling from the depth 

 of its vivid colouring, and the white Comfrey (S. 

 orientale), quite a vigorous-growing kind, blooming 

 early in April and May, with the blue Caucasian C. 

 I purposely omit the British Forget-me-nots, 

 wishing now chiefly to show what we may do with 

 exotics quite as hardy as our own wildings ; and we 

 have another Forget-me-not, not British, which sur- 

 passes them all — the early Myosotis dissitiflora. 

 This is like a patch of the bluest sky settled down 

 among the moist stones of a rockwork or any 

 similar spot before our own Forget-me-not has 

 opened its blue eyes, and is admirable for glades 

 or banks in wood or shrubbery, especially in moist 

 districts. 



C 2 



