HERE is an old friend of the cottage garden. What is it--a species or a variety? And if a variety, what name does the species bear? In the opinion of the writer Lamium purpureum (the purple dead-nettle), L. album (the white dead-nettle), and the plant before us are but forms of one and the same species. But as they differ in habits and aspects, so also they differ in constitution. The first is an annual with broadish heart-shaped leaves and rosy-purple flowers; the second is a perennial with heart-shaped leaves, more pointed than the other, and white flowers; the third, which is here figured, has leaves of the same form as the last, but spotted with white, and the flowers are purple and some-what showy. Seen in a large patch in a rustic garden it makes a goodly show, and the grand gardener occasionally takes it in hand to give colour to the rockery or to form an edging.

A handsome near relative of this dead-nettle is a plant with bright yellow flowers and quite stately habit of growth. It is the yellow lamium (Galeobdolon luteum), also known as yellow weasel-snout and archangel. For the mixed border and rockery it is a very proper plant, and, though a true native, is, as such, a rarity, and therefore readily obtainable only by purchase. There are other good garden plants of the class--as, for example, Lamium garganicum, the Gargano dead-nettle, a pretty plant, producing bold whorls of purplish flowers; and L. orvala, a distinct red dead-nettle, native of the south of Europe.

The evolutionists give such clear accounts of the fashioning of forms by the cumulative influence of circumstances that one may venture to ask questions of them, and hope for categorical answers. Now, here is a question pertinent to the business in hand. Why are the labiate plants so prolific of variegated-leaved varieties? It seems that variegation in plants is not to be regarded as a phenomenon of general occurrence that may happen anywhere at any time, but rather as a family failing, to be looked for in certain quarters only. Many of the best known plants that have been cultivated in many ways, and much observed as wildings also, have not been known to produce variegated-leaved varieties. Thus, we have no variegated-leaved camellias, no variegated-leaved roses, and only one variegated-leaved rhododendron. But amongst the labiate plants these curiosities abound, and may be seen in plenty in old-fashioned gardens. When the bedding system was in high fashion, the golden balm, the silver mint, the white-leaved nettle, the delicate variegated thyme were in great demand, and would be again were the fashion revived of colouring gardens in geometric patterns after the fashion of carpets and wall-papers. The student of nature--no matter of what sect or school--may be invited to make a survey of these plants, and to meet, if he can, the question we have propounded to the evolutionist. And the amateur gardener who makes no pretensions to scientific observation may find some entertainment in collecting the plants and comparing their characters. We will here make a brief catalogue of them that may prove useful in many ways. They must be given as they appear in the books, or identification may be difficult.

Ajuga reptans fol. var. is the variegated bugle; Galeobdolon luteum fol. var. is the variegated yellow dead-nettle, a fine plant for the border; Glechoma hederacea fol. var. is the variegated ground ivy, one of the humbler beauties of the rustic garden; Hyssopus officinalis variegatus is the variegated-leaved hyssop; Majorana vulgaris aurea is the golden-leaved marjoram that has become a favourite edging plant for the flower beds in the London parks; it is a brilliant thing of its kind. Melissa offcinalis fol. var. is the celebrated golden balm, once a leading plant for "ribbon borders," the leaves being heavily edged and blotched with full orange-yellow. Of the mint family we can name three plants--Mentha rotundifolia fol. var., M. sylvestris fol. var., and M. viridis fol. var.; but as they are not particularly beautiful, we will not praise them. The very pretty variegated rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis fol. var., is one of the best of shrubs for a ruin, or a dry starving-place on a rockery. The sage family offers us Salvia fulgens fol. var., S. officinalis fol. var., and two others, one with golden, the other with purple leaves. The variegated thyme, Thymus officinalis fol. var., is a bright plant on a dry chalky soil, but a poor thing in a London garden. We here close the list, and repeat the question--Why are the labiates so prolific of variegated leaves?

"There never yet was flower fair in vain,

Let classic poets rhyme it as they will;

The seasons toil that it may blow again,

And summer's heart doth feel its every ill;

Nor is a true soul ever born for naught;

Wherever any such hath lived and died,

There hath been something for true freedom wrought,

Some bulwark levelled on the evil side:

Toil on, then, Greatness! thou art in the right,

However narrow souls may call thee wrong;

Be as thou would be in thine own clear sight,

And so thou wilt in all the world's ere long;

For worldlings cannot, struggle as they may,