The Calceolarias In Townend House.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19243, 3 December 1930, Page 8

The Calceolarias In Townend House.

Fairy Purses

By Stranger £JHRISTCHURCH PEOPLE are such keen gardeners that many of them probably know the calceolarias in the Botanical Gardens hot-house, and have coveted them. If there are any residents who have not yet seen them they should not wait, and visitors should make a point of seeing the collection—probably they will go a second time.

Just now the house reminds one of the description of the cave where the robbers in “ Ali Baba ” stored their jewels. Scores of plants fill the place with colour, and the artist will be just as delighted as the gardener. In the calceolaria Nature seems to have deliberately set out to imitate an old-fashioned purse, and embroidered it as richly as people used to do when purses were purses and money was not so common as it is to-day.

Each plant is covered with blooms to two inches across. All the colours of th® palette have been used in bewildering variety. Probably an artist would be able to prove that actually very few colours go to make up the result, but the great range of tints and the apparently endless way in which the changes have been rung, give the impression of a rainbow blown into a thousand ribbons.

In some of the plants the blooms are of one colour only; a delicate sulphur yellow here, a rich maroon there, a cream one, and then one of old-gold. It is on the upperside where Nature does most of her ornamentation. Just where a sort of flap closes the mouth of the purse she uses her paint brush with much effect. A yellow purse with delicate brown spots scattered over the “ flap," seems a favourite. In the next pot is a deep maroon without any ornamentation. Nearby is a pink with crimson markings. Cream with red spots would make an effective purse for say, a fairy. Of a different style are some that have the deeper colour as the main theme, as it were, with.a lighter colour •peeping through. For instance, there is a lovely orange fretted to show the groundwork of yellow. Not far off is one which has purple net thrown over a light pink ground. In others the scheme of decoration is not spots, but striations that seem to follow the veins, with a few scattered dots here and there. One of these has the purse of deep yellow, and the streaks of deep orange. A beautiful bloom has a light gold underside, deep yellow topside, suffusing into a lighter tone underneath, and brown spots on the flap. Maroon with gold markings suggests a masculine scheme of adornment, while a neighbouring one, pure white, and of a texture that suggests velvet, is distinctly feminine. A primrose colour with just about half a dozen wall-flower brown spots is dainty. A bold effect is achieved in a way that reminds one of the trick of school children with a blot of ink. Splashed on a sheet of paper and then folded across the middle the blot “ squashes" out into unexpected shapes and resembles butterflies and other insects. This bloom is white below, cream on top and the blot-like splash is a crimson lake. Although the blooms bear a general likeness, their individuality is unmistakable, when one comes to examine them; apparently Nature never makes two purses exactly alike.