144. ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



out with me after firmly refusing to flower through many 

 years of luxuriant growth. I first collected its big heads 

 of sapphire trumpets in a copse near Cannes, and in many 

 a cool, shady glen of Liguria will you come unexpectedly 

 on its glory of blue. To my surprise, the American 

 yellow Lithospermums have been a moderate success 

 with me — miiltiflorum, canescens, hngiflorum, and hirtum 

 making herbaceous, sturdy little bushes, with abundance 

 of golden blossoms, in any light, sunny place. Add to 

 these the lovely common Prophet-flower, with its black- 

 spotted, canary-yellow blooms like big cowslips, pro- 

 duced perpetually — and the Lithospermums, with their 

 cousins, do not do so badly by me after all; — and Arfiebia 

 echioeides is one of the most brilliant of easy beauties for 

 either border or rock-work, in any rich soil, well-drained. 



The Onosmas are opulent hairy creatures, with white, 

 golden, or crimson bugles, that hang from the uncurling, 

 crozier-like spikes. They are all Southerners, peering 

 down from the ruins of Byzantine castles or Saracenic 

 fortifications, and, it stands to reason, hairiness and 

 habitat considered, are quite unsuited to a cool, wet 

 climate. However, the best of all, the weU-known 

 Golden Drop, Onosma tauricum, is very satisfactory here, 

 and even more so, of course, in gardens that rejoice in a 

 drier, colder winter. Glorious, indeed, is a mass of this 

 all through the summer, with up-curling spikes thick 

 hung with long drops of pure amber. Similar is the 

 white form, but more delicate ; as also is rare Onosma 

 albo-roseum, whose bells are of white and pink — a lovely, 

 tender plant. Of Onosma Thurberi and O. Thompsoni I 

 speak doubtfully. I flowered O. Thurberi last year and 

 found it a fraud — a biennial, with a stout, podgy spike, 

 set with dull little red flowers. 



Of the remaining Borages the true Lungworts never 

 move me to much enthusiasm. The Spotted Dog or 



