204 FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



a near relation to the orchid, several of which are also to be 

 found in this district ; in cool shady garden-corners these charm- 

 ing blossoms may be tempted to grow, and are full of interest. 



A feature of our moist hedges is the trailing moneywort 

 (the creeping-jenny of cottage gardens) which keeps delight- 

 fully green and sprinkled still with its golden honey-scented 

 flowers, friends with the scorpion-grass, or true forget-me-not. 

 The burning hours of August work havoc in the garden, and 

 although many of our flowers bravely try to withstand the 

 drought, many succumb, leaving brown dead patches where 

 but lately life and beauty reigned. But the garden of late 

 Summer has a distinct beauty, with its opening, many-coloured 

 asters, its clumps of ivory, rose-tinted and carmine phlox, and 

 blossoming fragrant lavender. 



" Oh, fair is the first of the light, when flowers are odours 



distilling, 

 And blithely awakens to song from the brief silence of 



the night. 



Each bird, as the darkness departs, the world with its 

 music is filling, 



Oh, fair is the first of the light. 



Swift up to the bright'ning sky goes the lark leaving 



mead-mists white, 



Its silvery carol of joy, its cadence of love it is spilling, 

 As the uprisen sun bids the dew from each bloom and 



bud take flight. 



On the morn-sea the glint of crisp waves, and there, on 



the distant hill, ling 

 Empurples the slopes with its bells, all the distance from 



foot to height ; 

 While the whisper of wind tells the joy that the older 



hours of the day will bring, 



Oh, fair is the first of the light." 



