142 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



transmit it safely to the Horticultural Society of London, 

 by whom it was received in 1846. Many a more costly 

 acquisition may be referred to as testimony to the useful- 

 ness of this society, but this cheap, common, and very 

 charming plant confers as much honour as any upon those 

 who have enabled every cottager to obtain it to give light 

 to his homely garden. How delicate is its leafage; how 

 elegant the curved raceme bearing its two-winged or lyre- 

 shaped pendent flowers of the most exquisite tint of rosy 

 pink! 



Although hardy and accommodating, this plant needs 

 a little care to ensure a free growth and a plentiful bloom. 

 It will grow in any soil, but is happier in a deep, mellow, 

 sandy loam than in a stiff clay or starving limestone. 

 Moreover, a certain amount of shelter is to be desired 

 for it. On our heavy land in a northern suburb of 

 London we have seen it many times cut down by frost 

 in the month of May, and half blown away by strong 

 wind in June. The finest plant we have ever seen was 

 in a little front court of a small dairy in Highgate, where, 

 for several summers in succession, there was a tuft of 

 dielytra quite four feet high and as much through, the 

 supreme elegance and richness of which we could not hope 

 to describe. It was sheltered by high walls in a very 

 close, snug spot, and no doubt the soil was well drained, 

 warm, and fertile, for it is not often that fine plants of 

 any kind spring out of the " riddlings of creation/' 



The amateur who has accommodation for a display of 

 spring flowers under glass will find this plant invaluable 

 to associate with hyacinths and early tulips and tazetta 

 narcissi in the conservatory. As a pot-plant it is one of 

 the easiest to manage, for it grows freely in the spring in 



