ON EREMURI 
HR’: plants in our gardens are more striking than the stately History 
Fremurus, a group of which when in bloom never fails to of the 
arrest attention. On seeing them for the first time, the Byemuri 
general exclamation is, “ What wonderful flowers! What are 
they, and where do they come from?” And it is surprising that 
in spite of their not very recent introduction they should still be 
comparatively little grown or known. Cut spikes are exhibited 
at the Royal Horticultural and other flower shows, but when 
seen thus they are bereft of more than half their charm, for their 
true beauty is only to be appreciated when the lofty stem springs 
from its basal fountain of handsome, broad, grey-green leaves. 
They are the Oriental cousins of our European Asphodel, a 
flower familiar to those who, with eyes for botanical delights, 
have travelled in Southern Italy, Sicily, or Greece in early 
spring—the ‘“‘ Flower of death” of the ancient Greeks. The 
Asphodel, beautiful as is its name, is in truth somewhat dis- 
appointing when seen for the first time solitary or in twos or 
threes, with untidy stem and wind-bruised leaves; but its charm 
stands revealed when it grows in masses, shedding a pale pink 
haze under the light shade of some sparse oak wood, when the 
trees are bursting into their fresh spring green and the sun’s 
declining rays diffuse a soft glow through the glade. 
I know not how Eremuri grow in their Eastern homes, but 
if they are there to be found in masses the effect must indeed be 
glorious, for they are to the Asphodel what the Rose is to the 
Bramble. Their range, a wide one, is from Asia Minor through 
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