43 8 
Old Time Gardens 
and that one of her blue eyes became red from exces- 
sive weeping. It was held to be unlucky even to 
destroy the plant. Soldier-and-his-wife also had 
reference to the red and blue tints of the flower. 
A cousin of the Lungwort, our native Mertensia 
virginica, has in the young plant an equally singular 
leafage ; every ordinary process of leaf progress is 
reversed : the young shoots are not a tender green, 
but are almost black, and change gradually in leaf, 
stem, and flower calyx to an odd light green in 
which the dark color lingers in veins and spots until 
the plant is in its full flower of tender blue, lilac, 
and pink. “ Blue and pink ladies ” we used to call 
the blossoms when we hung them on pins for a 
fairy dance. 
The Alstrcemeria is another spotted flower of the 
old borders, curious in its funnel-shaped blooms, 
edged and lined with tiny brown and green spots. 
It is more grotesque than beautiful, but was beloved 
in a day that deemed the Tiger Lily the most beauti- 
ful of all lilies. 
The aversion I feel for spotted leaves does not 
extend to striped ones, though I care little for varie- 
gated or striped foliage in a garden. I like the 
striped white and green leaves of one variety of our 
garden Iris, and of our common Sweet Flag (Cala- 
mus), which are decorative to a most satisfactory 
degree. The firm ribbon leaves of the striped 
Sweet Flag never turn brown in the driest summer, 
and grow very tall ; a tub of it kept well watered is 
a thing of surprising beauty, and the plants are very 
handsome in the rock garden. I wonder what the 
