It is particularly hardy, for when once obtained, 
it may be easily kept. Its seeds vegetate, after 
falling from the plant, and excite, through the win- 
ter, an interest for their welfare. Many circum- 
stances give winter a charm. Even the anticipation 
of spring is a charm which we owe to the existence 
of winter. Hear, too, what Clare says — 
“ Come, bleak November, in thy wildness, come •, 
Thy mornings clothed in rime, thy evenings chill 5 
E’en these have power to tempt me from my home, 
E’en these have beauty to delight me still. 
Though Nature lingers in her mourning weeds, 
And wails the dying year in gusty blast, 
Still added beauty to the last proceeds, 
And wildness triumphs when her bloom is past. 
Though long grass all the day is drench’d in dew, 
And splashy pathways lead me o’er the greens ; 
Though naked fields hang lonely on the view, 
Long lost to harvest and its busy scenes } 
Yet in the distance shines the painted bough, 
Leaves changed to ev’ry colour ere they die, 
And through the valley rivers widen now, 
Once little brooks which summer dribbled dry. 
Those yellow leaves that litter on the grass, 
’Mong dry brown stalks that lately blossomed there, 
Instil a mournful pleasure as they pass : 
For melancholy has its joy to spare, — 
A joy that dwells in Autumn’s lonely walks. 
And whispers, like a vision, what shall be, 
How flowers shall blossom on those wither’d stalks, 
And green leaves clothe each nearly naked tree.” 
As this Larkspur bears the winter so well, it 
should be sown in autumn. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 3, 318. 
