4 8 
CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
ii 
early in the spring. The hepaticas, also 
familiar favourites, are a kind of anemone. The 
common hepatica does well in simple garden 
soil, in bed or border or edge of a wood. It 
does not like being disturbed, but will grow 
year after year in the same place, the flowers 
appearing among glossy dark leaves. The 
single blue or double pink varieties are the best 
known, but there are also single pink and 
white. The single blue are very often seen on 
the Riviera or in woods in the Tyrol and other 
parts of Europe. Another plant very like it is 
Anemone angulosa. This kind also comes into 
bloom about March, but the blue stars, which 
are larger than the ordinary hepatica, appear 
with hardly any of the leaves, It should be 
planted in beds or borders that are not too dry 
and sunny. 
Purple rock-cress (Aubrietia purpurea) is 
useful for bedding or edging, or for planting 
among rocks, and is of a mauve, and sometimes 
of a purple shade. It is closely allied to the 
Arabis or white rock-cress. There are some 
very good new varieties of Aubrietia, with 
larger flowers than the old one, to be obtained 
now, such as Hendersoni , with deep reddish- 
purple blooms. This is already getting a long 
list of blue and purple spring flowering plants, 
and yet there is an all-important one not men- 
