A modest garden . . * should contain for those who know 

 how to look and wait, more instruction than a library/' 



AMIEL. 



DECEMBER 



'VT'ET another plant is left in our December garden, and is 

 worth considering for the sake of its evergreen trailing 

 stems. In old gardens, long, long ago, this plant, the peri- 

 winkle (Vinea major\ was a great favourite, so well suited to 

 cover dark ways in situations where few flowers will grow. 

 Now one seldom sees it. It was named by those who loved 

 it of old " The Joy of the Ground." I found in an early 

 MS. : "Parwynke is an erbe greene of colour in time of May 

 beryth bio flour. Ye leaf is thicke ... as in ye greene ivy 

 leaf . . . men call it ye joy of grounde." 



Butter-bur (Petasites vulgar is). This is perhaps the only 

 wild flower that is now in bloom, and as I view this leafless 

 spike of lilac blossoms, it calls to mind a dear old garden. 

 How well I remember always watching for its appearance 

 in a deserted part of that garden. Later, in the Spring 

 and Summer, it would unfold its enormous leaves, deemed 

 by everybody as the most pernicious of all weeds ! How 

 acceptable are the bright patches of colour the holly 

 furnishes, with its tufts of vermilion and golden berries, 

 and how cheerful is the look of its glossy leaves above 

 favourite pictures in the flicker of the firelight, intermingled 

 with sprigs of the sorrowful cypress and sad yew. And here 

 a strange yet true thought is embodied, applicable to many 

 circumstances in life : we bring these evergreens, that are 

 tokens of sorrow, to add to our Christmas mirth ! 



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