CHAPTER XV 
ABOUT WILD AND CULTIVATED FLOWERS 
O NE of the fortunate things about garden flow- 
ers is that when once they have unfolded, 
they last long enough for us to know them well. 
The cultivated flowers make considerably longer 
visits than the wild ones from which they are de- 
veloped. Our irises, that is, the German ones, are 
still in bloom, looking finer every day ; but the wild 
blue flags which they so much resemble are now 
quite faded. 
This also I have noticed with columbines. It 
was about the first of May when we began to find 
the wild ones deep in the shadow of the woods 
and nodding over high rocks. A little later those 
which Miss Wiseman gave us began to bloom in 
the triangle. Now the wild ones are making seeds, 
but those of the garden are astonishing us every 
day by the added flowers they unfold, and by their 
lovely colours and their fantastic shapes. It seems 
to me that these cultivated columbines have learned 
every trick of variety. I can scarcely think of a 
colour in which they do not appear. There is a 
