Part II. MYOSOTIS. 255 



heat, and planted out about the beginning of May in a some- 

 what shaded or sheltered position, in light but deep and moist 

 soil, in which it will form round spreading tufts. Peculiarly- 

 well adapted for half-shady quiet spots in the rock-garden, or 

 among low shrubs near it, and also for the mixed border. 



MYOSOTIS 'DlBSlTie'LORK.— Early Forget-me-not. 



This beautiful plant has now been some years in cultivation, 

 and there can be no doubt that, when it is better known to cul- 

 tivators, it will be more grown than any other species of Forget- 

 me-not. It bears more resemblance to the Wood Forget-me-not 

 than to any other ; but is much earlier in flower, blooming in 

 January and February, and lasting till early summer. It is less 

 hirsute, has the ribs on the stem much less strongly marked, and 

 the leaves more gradually pointed. The pedicels are much more 

 distant from each other, and, after the flower falls, lengthen con- 

 siderably, and become twisted to one side, with a tendency to 

 approach and embrace the stem. Early in the season, and in 

 poor ground, it sometimes opens with pink flowers ; but where 

 the plants are healthy and the ground suitable, it soon expands 

 into tufts of the loveliest deep skyblue. In dry ground it is apt 

 to go off with the droughts of spring or early summer ; but when 

 placed in some moist cranny in a rockwork, it continues in flower 

 for a long time, and accompanies the Wood Forget-me-not in 

 its beauty, though it begins to show much earlier. It is a 

 biennial plant, and in districts where the air is pure and some- 

 what moist, it flourishes to great perfection without any trouble, 

 sowing itself on rockwork or on borders. I have grown it to 

 great perfection in a moist bed of peat in a well exposed posi- 

 tion, the ground being regularly watered in summer ; there it 

 continued a mass of beautiful blue till the end of June, growing 

 continuously all the time, and sending up successive crops of 

 flowers throughout the spring and early summer. This or a 

 like plan is the one to adopt where the soil or climate are too 

 dry for it. I can imagine no more valuable subject for natu- 

 ralisation in rocky spots or in copses. For this treasure to our 

 gardens we are indebted to Mr. J. Atkins, of Painswick, who 

 found it on the Alps near the Vogelberg, and grew it for several 

 years in his garden beforp it was in cultivation elsewhere. From, 

 him I obtained it, and soon afterwards it passed into general 

 cultivation unde- the name oi M. moiitana. 



