Example from the Forget-me-not family 25 



of blues, and which will thrive in the wild garden. 

 The creeping Omphalodes verna even surpasses the 

 Forget-me-not in the depth and beauty of its blue, 

 and runs about quite freely in any shrubbery or open 

 wood, or even in turf in moist soil not very frequently 

 mown. Besides, in the garden border, it would be 

 a not very agreeable object when once the sweet 

 spring bloom had passed ; whereas, in lanes, woods, 

 or copses, the low plants are not noticed when out 

 of flower, but live modestly till returning spring jewels 

 them with the charm of fine colour. 



Another plant of the order is so useful for this 

 purpose, that if a root or two of it be planted in any 

 shrubbery, it will soon run about, exterminate the 

 weeds, and prove quite a lesson in wild gardening. 

 I allude to the Caucasian Comfrey (Symphytum cauca- 

 sicum), which grows about twenty inches high, and 

 bears quantities of the loveliest blue„pen_ dulous flo wers. 

 It, like many others, does well in a grove, or shrubbery, 

 filling in the naked spaces between the trees, and has 

 a quick growth but never becomes weedy. As if to 

 contrast with it, there is the deep crimson Bohemian 

 Comfrey^ (S. bohemicum), which is sometimes startling 

 from the depth of its vivid colouring ; and the White 

 Comfrey (S. orientale), quite a vigorous-growing kind, 

 blooming in spring. 



These Comfreys, indeed, are admirable plants for 

 rough places — the tall ones thriving in a ditch, and 

 flowering better than they do in the garden in prim 



