HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
182 
These have been in flower all the winter, 
as it has been so mild, and are full of blossom 
in white, yellow, and orange ; while the poly- 
anthus are in crimson and reds, and gold-laced 
browns, etc. Sloping banks of violets and 
beds of such kinds as Californica are flower- 
ing, Admiral Avellan, perpetual blooming 
crimson-purple ; Princess of Wales, long- 
stalked, purple ; and Wellsiana , another good 
winter flowering and hardy kind. Then there 
are the small sweet violets, white, red, and blue, 
which flower here under deciduous trees in 
masses even among the grass ; and there is the 
yellow violet (sulphured) which likes stones or 
mortar-rubble and will seed itself anywhere. 
This last is almost the colour of an Allan 
Richardson rose, but is small, like the wild 
sweet violets. They are all out in early March, 
and the double violets come on a little later, if 
under the shelter of shrubs. Aconites in the 
grass ; Iris stylosa at the foot of a wall ; Iris 
reticulata , all flower in very early spring. 
The spurge or euphorbia in different varieties 
is very early ; the native greenish-yellow plant 
is out at the end of February ; Wulfii and the 
bright yellow polychroma flowering early in 
April. The dog’s-tooth violet, or erythronium, 
with mauve or maize-coloured flowers, prefers 
