OF ODD TREASURES 147 



and their colour ! Imagine long narrow bugles of a tender 

 soft violet, and then lip and hood and open thi-oat all of 

 the clearest, purest azure blue — blue as a Gentian or a 

 Myosotis. The tone in itself is a glory ; the combina- 

 tion is a very miracle. And, planted out everywhere, in 

 all places and conditions of good drainage and light warm 

 soil, the Pentstemon bids fair to show itself a sound, 

 hearty perennial, breaking anew (at least we hope so) 

 each season from the base. 



Of the larger Mimulus I can never muster much love 

 for cupraeus or for cardinalts ; cardinalis appears to me 

 to have flowers quite inadequate in size for the robust 

 leafiness of the plant ; while there is something — 

 shape, or shade, about the blossoms of cupraeus that 

 never quite appeals to me, though it makes a gorgeous 

 show round my pond in August. But our native or 

 naturalised alien, Mimultos luteus, with his big yellow, 

 brown-freckled Gloxinias, well deserves one's affection. 

 Even more deserving are two most splendid dwarf-grow- 

 ing hybrids, Brilliant and Model, of which Brilliant is of 

 a flaming velvety crimson scarlet, while Model, even 

 more lovely in my eyes, is of the hottest possible salmon- 

 rose. Both these make carpets round my pond, and are 

 a perfect blaze of glory all the summer, not to mention 

 that they pull to pieces and propagate heartily from the 

 smallest fragments. Then, of the little ones, there is the 

 neat, dainty yellow-flowered Langsdorffi from the Rockies, 

 and two minute species, radicans and primuloeides, moun- 

 taineers from wet places, I fancy, of whicii radkans has 

 violet and white flowers, and primuloeides abundance of 

 small yellow ones. They both creep and shrink along the 

 ground — and, either I have been away during their great 

 days — or else they have never had any great days ; at 

 all events my impressions of them are not by any means 

 striking. 



