12 FLOWER GARDENING 



soft and pretty and there are the still softer tones 

 of lavender and rosemary herbs that unfor- 

 tunately are very tender in the North. And some 

 of the other subdued hues, such as the red of the 

 flower heads of the burnet and the greenish yel- 

 lows of the fennel and dill umbrellas, are grateful 

 to the eye. Then there are the little golden but- 

 tons of the tansy, which should be in every herb 

 garden because the fresh leaves laid on the pantry 

 shelves will keep black ants away. 



In the Dark Ages the monks had medicinal 

 gardens that were agreeable to walk in, aside from 

 their primary reason for being. A medicinal gar- 

 den nowadays would scarcely sound right except- 

 ing as a reserved space in a botanic garden. Yet 

 the garden of simples, which is the same thing, 

 is a too-cherished memory of an age when life 

 was less complicated to be wholly neglected where 

 there is room for it as a special retreat. There 

 would be no obligation, even on the part of a New 

 England conscience, to go "simpling" in it; the 

 flowers properly entering into it would make it a 

 gay enough place in which to ramble for the sheer 

 joy of beholding. Any of the "worts," which are 

 legion, may go into it, and there will be blossoms 

 from the coltsfoot of March to the monkshood of 

 October. 



The rock garden, fairly common abroad but 

 rare here, is in the narrow sense of alpine an en- 

 deavor to make the plants of the high mountains 

 at home by approximating natural conditions. 



