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of the kind so beautifully described by Clare will to some extent illustrate my meaning:

'And where the marjoram once, and sage and rue,
And balm and mint, with curled-leaf parsley grew,
And double marigolds, and silver thyme,

And pumpkins 'neath the window used to climb;
And where I often, when a child, for hours
Tried through the pales to get the tempting flowers;
As lady's laces everlasting peas,

True love lies bleeding, with the hearts at ease;

And golden rods, and tansy running high,

That o'er the pale top smiled on passer-by;

Flowers in my time which every one would praise,
Though thrown like weeds from gardens now-a-days.'

There might be but little attempt at colour-grouping, or at the production of effect by masses in a narrow sense. But was there any want of beauty there? And did you not feel, in looking at those flowers, how each made you love it as a friend-the Pinks and Sweet Williams, the Everlasting Peas, Valerian, Day Lily, Jacob's Ladder, and a host of others? And did you not notice how ever and again you fell upon some quaint, strange plant which has been expelled from the modern border, which seemed to touch your inmost soul, and to fill the mind, especially if in childhood, with a sense of wonder and mysterious awe? What was that plant? Could not anybody tell its name, and where it came from, and all else about it, for it must surely have an eventful history? And, with curiosity rather stimulated than satisfied by the scanty knowledge you could glean, you fell back upon the imagination, which set it down as an actor in some strange and awful tale, as that of a young man who gathered some unknown wild flowers that attracted him, and who, together with his betrothed, was poisoned by their touch. Feelings of this sort were strongly awakened in my mind in childhood by such plants as Caper Spurge, Henbane, Rue, and other more beautiful species, as the Dog's-Tooth Violet, with its spotted leaves, the common Nigella, and the pink Marsh-Mallow of the fields.

Want of general effect! Is there none in those cottage gardens,

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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

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