6 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



shuts up when very cold, and opens wide 

 in the sun at noon.' ' Nov. 18. The Gen- 

 tian there still.' On Nov. 27, * Poor little 

 gentian has begun to fade;' and then, 

 Dec. i, 'The Gentian is withered away.' 

 It grew on a glossy-leaved, vigorous root, 

 sheltered by a flat stone ledge, in a pocket 

 half way up the bank, facing due south. 

 This strange flower, with its movements of 

 opening and closing, and its colour-changes 

 of expression, resembled almost some live 

 sea-creature. In May the plant is sure 

 to bloom again, between great cushions 

 of pink and snowy phlox Nelsonii. But 

 then, its natural life will not last for more 

 than a week or two. 



It is like a ' far-off melody,' to return in 

 thought from the grand deep azure gentian 

 of the mountain-side or the garden, to its 

 little sister of our own wild English heaths. 

 It was near the sea coast where first we 

 met, on one of the loveliest of miniature 

 moors, where a sudden hollow hides the 

 unsightly crowd of surrounding villas. The 

 September sun shone down in softened 

 brilliance, and the blowing breeze put one 



