34 HOME AND GARDEN 



up. Some of these, evidently on the poorest ground, 

 have branched all round without throwing up a stem, 

 and look like stiff green rosettes pressed close to the 

 earth. Others, a little more well-to-do, have stout 

 stocky stems and dense heads of short, almost horny, 

 dark-green foliage, with promise of compact but abund- 

 ant bloom. Like the inhabitants of some half-barren 

 place who have never been in touch with abundance 

 or ease of life or any sort of luxury, they are all the 

 more sturdy and thrifty and self-reliant, and I would 

 venture to affirm that their lives will be as long again 

 as those of any sister plants from the same seedpod that 

 have enjoyed more careful nurture and a more abundant 

 dietary. No planted-out Wall-flower can ever compare, 

 in my light soil, with one sown where it is to remain ; 

 it always retains the planted-out look to the end of its 

 days, and never has the tree-like sturdiness about the 

 lower portions of its half-woody stem that one notices 

 about the one sown and grown in its place. Moreover, 

 from many years' observation, I notice that such plants 

 only, show the many variations in habit that one comes 

 to recognise as a kind of individual or personal char- 

 acteristic, so that the plant acquires a much greater 

 and almost human kind of interest. I have one such 

 charming seedling that gives me great pleasure. The 

 flower is of a full, clear, orange colour, more deeply 

 tinged to the outer margins of the petals with faint 

 thin lines of rich mahogany, that increase in width of 

 line and depth of colour as they reach the petal's outer 



