flowers tumble about in clusters ; or sway forward amid their Summer, 

 leaves on bending stalks too weak by far to upbear their weight. Peony and 

 There is one, clad in murrey colour or maroon, that for some Buddleia 

 reason unknown, is longest lived of all these fine Peonies, (our 

 grandmothers used to say Piony^ and in " Hill's Eden " it is 

 also " Piony,") brief as is the life-summer of them all. The old- 

 fashioned red, scentless Peony, once common in cottage gardens, 

 makes a grand show disposed in distant patches on the grass. 

 The flower of it lasts shorter even than the finer kinds. With- 

 out any warning, in the fulness of its most fulgent red, down it 

 comes in a shower poured out on the grass beneath, and there's 

 an end. The others are different. Their fainting flowers 

 linger long, loth to take leave for ever of dear happy Summer. 



The single pink Peony, yellow stamined, with blue-green 

 leaves, is not, 1 think, very often seen. It is almost like a large 

 single cabbage Rose, if such a thing could be imagined. One old 

 plant of it struggles on in a shrubbery near where Peony walk 

 begins. There also, stiffly will hang up till about the end of 

 June, a thousand little fairy balls of Buddleia globosa. Among 

 the colours of Summer, orange is not so commonly seen as blue 

 or red or pink. The Buddleia is not quite hardy, in Bucking- 

 hamshire at least ; and we cover it up with matting in winter. 

 Soon it will grow too large to be treated thus. Nothing is more 

 desired by a gardener than that his trees should grow. Yet 

 what more tiresome than the gradual, undesired, too generous 

 growth of a young tree if planted where there is neither 

 room for it, nor an increase of picturesqueness gained by its 

 enlargement. . . . 



61 



