108 HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
right and literally spiral growth of some in 
contrast to the branching or massing forms of 
others. Delphiniums are of the former class, 
and it is partly owing to their habit of growth 
that they rank as the most effective plant in 
the border. The lupin is of the same habit, 
but with this distinction, that its spikes are all 
more or less of the same height, whereas the 
larkspur — or delphinium — sends tall spikes 
upwards, rarely, if ever, of the same height ; 
and it is this variation in height that lets the 
air or atmosphere into our picture, and enables 
us to mass some compactly growing plant such 
as Chrysanthemum maximum , or Anthemis , next it 
without any effect of heaviness in the mixture. 
Hollyhocks and eremuri have this spiral 
quality, and tritomas (red-hot poker) also ; so 
has the yucca, with its creamy bells in rather 
denser spikes, raising itself with great distinc- 
tion from among its dark-pointed leaves, some 
of which stand up like spears. 
Among the front-row plants, it is only 
necessary to look at the way the sword-like 
leaves of the iris stand out, and up, against the 
more solid mass of colour presented by a group 
of pink p^ony or of scarlet poppy, to value 
the form of it at its true worth as a com- 
ponent part of the picture. One or two of 
