Page:The Wild Garden William Robinson.djvu/36

For rocky bare places and sunny sandy banks we have the spreading Gromwell (Lithospermum prostratum), which, when in flower, looks just as if some exquisite alpine Gentian had assumed the form of a matted hispid bush, to enable it to hold its own among creeping things and stouter herbs than accompany it on the Alps. Also the dwarf spring-blooming Lungworts (Pulmonarias), the handsome profuse-flowering Italian Bugloss (Anchusa),and the Apennine Hounds-tongue (Cynoglossum), and that strong old plant the Cretan Borage (generally known as Nordmannia cordifolia), which opens its lavender-blue and conspicuous flowers in early spring, and is tall and strong enough to maintain its position even among Docks or Nettles. It would be found to delight in any old lane or bypath with the winter Heliotrope or the like, while there would be no fear of its becoming a weed, like that sweet-scented wilding. We will next turn from the Forget-me-not order to a very different type of vegetation — hardy bulbs. How many of us really enjoy the beauty which a judicious use of a profusion of good and cheap Spring Bulbs is certain to throw around a country seat or villa garden ? How many get beyond the miserable conventionalities of modern gardening, with its edgings