A NEGLECTED PLANT.
In the garden of an Oxfordshire insLjone- of the -many delightful " Spread Eagles "—is growing a vivid patch of Mertensia Virginiea which its cultivator puts down as a satisfactory addition to spring flowers, from most of which it differs in colour and habit. Those whir grow these " liver- worts " will agree. They will flourish even in rough untended ground (to quote one particular " pitch," at the foot of a sycamore on a bank), like their cousins the forget-me-nots, borage or viper's bugloss ; and the colours vary from white to pink to blue. Perhaps more gardeners fail from neglect of common and hardy and cheap plants than from inability to grow the tender and rare ; and among hardy and early plants the liverworts demand a wider popularity, especially among those who have rough beds to fill. A hardy and wild plant, little known to most, is viola hirta. The colour is pleasantly different from the common violet, the heart- shaped leaves are attractive and the habit tends to produce a long stalk. It is now flowering freely in a wild state in East Hertfordshire.
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