OUE OUTCAST GAEDEN FOLK 



' ' After all, nothing prospers like weeds, all the 



world over ; 

 Nought makes them rue, neither cold nor heat nor 



drought dismays them ever." 



ON a bright day in spring, while wan- 

 dering round one's garden, it is 

 impossible not to give a thought 

 sometimes to the poor outcasts- who would 

 like to live in it, but who, for the most part, 

 are destined to a very different fate — the 

 burn-heap of the weeds. It may be that 

 there are not so very many of them about, 

 for the weather may have been dry and le 

 season late, but they are only biding their 

 time ; the first warm shower will find them 

 pushful as ever, and there will be plenty of 

 enemies to challenge them at the gate. 



Scores of very particular people there are. 

 who simply cannot pass a dandelion with- 

 out rooting it up, or a daisy (especially in 

 the lawn) without longing for a fork. Net- 

 tles of all sorts, even the pretty white and 



Fig. 2654. An Arrangement of Ox-eve Daisies, 

 Wild Parsley and Ferns. 



yellow ones, as also do thistles, vetches, and 

 spurges, all of which are very fond of in- 

 truding into gardens ; they are known to be 

 troublesome, and have bad characters. 



The measure of morality, as applied 10 

 plants, seems to vary as much as it does 

 with reference to the human family. The 

 pariah of one place becomes the pet of 

 another. Like the question of how many 

 wives it is expedient for a man to have at a 

 time, much depends on latitude and longi- 

 tude. In different parts of the country, in 

 the same week I have heard the same plant 

 — the grape-hyacinth — spoken of as " that 

 pernicious weed," and "the precious little 

 blue flower that lives in rockeries." When 

 and where make all the difference ; it is pos- 

 sible to have too much even of a good 

 thing, and numbers of pretty common flpw- 

 ers, by making themselves too cheap, earn 

 the opprobrious and scarcely-deserved epi- 

 thet of " weeds." Marigolds are flagrant 

 offenders ; gay in color, and gifted with a 

 pleasant bitter-sweetness, at times they are 

 a plague, and I have myself suffered many 

 things of my favorite oxalis. Only last 

 year it threatened to swamp us in clover, 

 wanting to carpet the rose beds, and make 

 an emerald setting for the geraniums. We 

 rooted it up, scattered it, and dried it in the 

 sun. In vain ; it always turned up a short 

 time after, smiling, and apparently uncon- 

 scious of any check. 



To many people weeds have a peculiar 

 fascination. Their very wildness appeals 

 to an instinct of human nature ; that is by 

 no means unaccountable, but one has to 

 dive below the surface to understand it. 

 The same Bohemian spark it is that makes 

 us enjoy uncomfortable picnicing and the 

 trials of life in camp ; that lends a charm to 

 every kind of sport, and sends the English- 

 man hunting for wild things all over the 



