MAY 63 



with flowers of a fine orange colour, and foliage of 

 a healthy-looking golden-green. A striking and hand- 

 some plant in the upper part of the rockery is Othonna 

 cheirifolia; its aspect is unusual and interesting, with 

 its bunches of thick, blunt-edged leaves of blue-grey 

 colouring, and large yellow daisy flowers. There is a 

 pretty group of the large white Thrift, and near it a 

 spreading carpet of blue Veronica and some of the 

 splendid gentian-blue Phacelia cairvpanularia, a valuable 

 annual for filling any bare patches of rockery where 

 its brilliant colouring will suit the neighbouring plants, 

 or, best of all, in patches among dwarf ferns, where its 

 vivid blue would be seen to great advantage. 



Two wall-shrubs have been conspicuously beautiful 

 during May; the Mexican Orange-flower (Ghoisya. ter- 

 nata) has been smothered in its white bloom, so closely 

 resembling orange-blossom. With a slight winter pro- 

 tection of fir boughs it seems quite at home in our hot, 

 dry soil, grows fast, and is very easy to propagate by 

 layers. When cut, it lasts for more than a week in 

 water. Piptanthus nepalensis has also made a hand- 

 some show, with its abundant yellow, pea-shaped 

 bloom and deep-green trefoil leaves. The dark-green 

 stems have a slight bloom on a half-polished surface, 

 and a pale ring at each joint gives them somewhat the 

 look of bamboos. 



Now is the time to look out for the big queen 

 wasps and to destroy as many as possible. They seem 

 to be specially fond of the flowers of two plants, the 



