A GARDEN NOTE-BOOK 



Lady Alexandra Duff, before me as I write, is 

 so often described that words upon its whorl of 

 petals seem almost absurd. A whorl it is, and, 

 for its general look of having taken shape imder 

 the influence of whirling breezes, it calls to my 

 mind the cut fringed paper pinwheel of my child- 

 hood. Strong is the contrast in this great semi- 

 double flower between the smooth, large guard 

 petals of blush-pink and the friUed, feathered, 

 cut, and crumpled ones of the collar or inner circle. 

 All this is centred by golden-yellow stamens, 

 which bristle from the centre of the peony. 

 The whole effect is so striking that one cannot 

 wonder at the celebrity attained by this flower. 

 These peonies — the four or five I now describe — 

 stand in a jar of rough ware from Capri. The 

 jar is some ten inches high, fluted horizontaUy, 

 and has a faint suggestion of pink in its pale-gray 

 clay. The outer petals of Lady Alexandra Duff 

 exactly "corresmatch," as a charming older woman 

 of my acquaintance was wont to say, with the 

 tone of the rough ware, and the handsome peony 

 leaves are rich and fresh beyond words, as a foil 

 to both flowers and their container. Here among 

 others in water before me, is Ginette, so fresh and 

 fair, the long, boat-shaped guard-petals framing 



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