m WOOD AND GARDEN 



reflexed petals. A variety of this called Sulphur Crown 

 is only a little less beautiful. Then there is Golden 

 Crown, also with pointed petals and occasional thread- 

 ings of scarlet. Nothing is more gorgeous than the 

 noble Gesneriana major, with its great chalice of crim- 

 son-scarlet and pools of blue in the inner base of each 

 petal. The gorgeously flamed Parrot Tulips are in- 

 dispensable, and the large double Yellow Rose, and 

 the early double white La Candeur. Of the later 

 kinds there are many of splendid colouring and noble 

 port; conspicuous among them are Biine, d'Espagne, 

 Couleur de vin, and Bleu celeste. There are beautiful 

 colourings of scarlet, crimson, yellow, chocolate, and 

 purple among the " breeders," as well as among the 

 so-called iizarres a.nd bylloemen that comprise the show 

 kinds. 



The best thing now in the rock-garden is a patch 

 of some twenty plants of Amelia echioides, always 

 happy in our poor, dry soil. It is of the Borage family, 

 a native of Armenia. It flowers in single or double- 

 branching spikes of closely-set flowers of a fine yellow. 

 Just below each indentation of the five-lobed corolla 

 is a spot which looks black by contrast, but is of a 

 very dark, rich, velvety brown. The day after the 

 flower has expanded the spot has faded to a moderate 

 brown, the next day to a faint tinge, and on the fourth 

 day it is gone. The legend, accounting for the spots, 

 says that Mahomet touched the flower with the tips of 

 his fingers, hence its English name of Prophet-flower. 



