36 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



holding their cups brimming with 

 light, and wallflowers mingled the 

 sweetness of earth and sun. A few 

 brief weeks ago, in the keen crisp air, 

 we gathered primroses and violets. 

 To-day the air is languorous, and the 

 heat trembles above the gravelled path. 

 Look at the beds of iris ; some are 

 royal purple edged with violet, others 

 yellow laced with crimson, and in the 

 corner, a group apart, are the white, 

 with blue patrician veins and each 

 stamen feathered with gold. See the 

 spires of foxgloves, whose hairy, 

 spotted throats allure the bumblebee, 

 and the hardy poppy, who, borrowing 

 Mephisto's name and cloak, burns in 

 the bordering grass, next to masses of 

 clove pinks, pure white and fringed. 

 The tall blue larkspur, with flower 

 stalks of mimic bees, completes the 

 garden's tricolour, while the great peo- 



