102 HOME AND GARDEN 



but their characters are quite distinct ; and though, as 

 a rough rule, Pansy is large and Violet small, yet there 

 are many small true Pansies, and in this case there is 

 one very large Violet. 



No rock-garden should be without Achillea um- 

 hellata in fair plenty. Even out of flower it is one of 

 the neatest of plants, with its silvery foliage so deeply 

 cut that the leaves are almost like double combs, and 

 its bountiful heads of milk-white flowers, whose centres, 

 dusky at first, change to a dull nankeen colour as the 

 bloom becomes perfect. There is no better plant for 

 an informal edging, or for any alpine carpeting, in 

 long pools or straight drifts ; it delights in a hot place, 

 and, like many silvery-leaved plants, will bear a good 

 deal of drought. 



I am very fond of the double Cuckoo-flower. It 

 has such a clean, fresh look, and the doubling makes 

 such a pretty round rose-shaped flower of each little 

 bloom. The single wild one of the meadows is a 

 pretty plant too, and sometimes grows so thickly that 

 one understands how it came by its old English name 

 of Lady's-smock ; for its close masses of whitish bloom 

 might well remind one of linen wear laid out to bleach. 

 Many years ago a dear old friend among our neigh- 

 bours bought a plant of the double kind. Her meadow 

 was already well stocked with the wild one, and she 

 had the happy idea of planting the double one with it. 

 In course of time it increased and spread over a large 

 space, and was so pretty and pleasant to see that nearly 



