Old Flower Favorites 
187 
have some inexplicable, witching charm ; even young 
children in arms will stretch out their little hands and 
attempt to grasp the Dielytra, when showier blossoms 
are passed unheeded. Many tiny playthings can be 
formed of the blossoms : only deft fingers can shape 
the delicate lyre in the “ frame.” One of its folk 
names is “ Lyre flower”; the two wings can be bent 
back to form a gondola. 
We speak of modern flowers, meaning those which 
have recently found their way to our gardens. Some 
of these clash with the older occupants, but one has 
promptly been given an honored place, and appears 
so allied to the older flowers in form and spirit that 
it seems to belong by their side — the Anemone Ja- 
ponica. Its purity and beauty make it one of the 
delights of the autumn garden; our grandmothers 
would have rejoiced in it, and have divided the 
plants with each other till all had a row of it in the 
garden borders. In its red form it was first pictured 
in the Botanical Magazine , in 1847, but it has been 
commonly seen in our gardens for only twenty or 
thirty years. 
These two flowers, the Dielytra spectabilis and 
Anemone Japonica , are among the valuable gifts 
which our gardens received through the visits 
to China of that adventurous collector, Robert 
Fortune. Fie went there first in 1 842, and for some 
years constantly sent home fresh treasures. Among 
the best-known garden flowers of his introducing 
are the two named above, and Kerria Japonica , 
Forsythia viridissima , Weigela rosea , Gardenia For- 
tuniana , Daphne Fortunei , Berheris Fortune'll Jasminum 
