210 The Wild Garden. 



it sows itself. Then the precaution should be taken 

 of thinning down the young seedlings, or you may 

 have far too many of them. One isolated plant or 

 a group or two is quite sufficient for ordinary 

 gardens ; but where there is sufficient space, it, with 

 many other fine wild plants, might be naturalized 

 with great advantage by simply sowing a few of the 

 seeds in any waste or half-wild spot, or in the 

 shrubbery. The Milk thistle, with its shining green 

 leaves and white markings, is also very desirable 

 among the British plants, though scarcely so much 

 so as the great cotton or Scotch thistle. 



Ever5nvhere the common corn-flower, Centaurea 

 Cyanus, makes a beautiful garden plant, if sown in 

 autumn and allowed to flqwer with all its accumu- 

 lated vigour in spring. Sown in spring, it is far 

 inferior. I know of nothing more beautiful than a 

 large group or small bed of the various coloured 

 forms of Corn-flower in full bloom in spring and 

 early summer ; the bloom is so ; prolonged and 

 vigorous, the flowers so pretty and so useful for the 

 usual purposes of cut flowers. It is common, and 

 easily had from any seedsman. One of the pret- 

 tiest of all dwarf trailing silvery plants is the 

 tomentose Diotis maritima, which is found on the 

 southern shores of England, coming up as far as 



