JUNE 99 



their own way here, and mean to get it. 

 They smother the hepaticas, and choke 

 the irises, and over-reach the turf verge ; 

 and then ground-Ivy stretches along and 

 over the strawberries, and has to be 

 quickly made an end of. Red wood-straw- 

 berries are ripening for the children, mixed 

 with a few of the yellow-flowered fragaria 

 indica, whose berry is very handsome, but 

 so acrid as to ensure its stay safe enough 

 on its stalk. Neither child nor bird would 

 taste a second time. Italians, with their 

 characteristic gentle fun call it 'Inganna 

 Donna.' Vine and pomegranate and 

 white French honeysuckle, clematis and 

 Eccremocarpus, grow up in more or less of 

 wild luxuriance around the window. The 

 pomegranate never yet has flowered, 

 though her sister plant (since dead) in 

 another part of the garden used to flame 

 with blossom. Were it possible to decide 

 which to like best of all these, one or two 

 at least might attain perfection. It ought 

 perhaps to be the pomegranate, and a 

 clear place should be made for it. But 

 none of the others can be sacrificed ; and 



