106 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



JUNE 24. On this midsummer morn St 

 John's wort, under the Elms, is not yet 

 in bloom. Yet I thought as I went over 

 the garden, there could not be a more 

 ideal 24th of June. 



White and purple foxglove throng to- 

 gether in stately beauty in the Boccage 

 and Fantaisie, with heads bent in the mid- 

 day sun : but where one slender spike 

 milk-white or red rises alone in some 

 shady spot, peering through green brake 

 fern, that, is better still ! I wonder what 

 like was the 4 lesser dusky foxglove/ 

 observed by Gerard in John Tradescant's 

 garden. Also his * Digitalis ferruginea, 

 with flower the; colour of iron.' A fine 

 plant of the yellow Swiss foxglove lives 

 snug and solitary, under a currant bush in 

 the kitchen garden. It is certainly hand- 

 some, but I never know whether to admire 

 it much or not. There is always an uncer- 

 tainty about the name of foxglove. In 

 old French it is Gante nostre dame ; in high 

 Dutch, as in German, Finger-hut. 



And Roses ! It is roses, roses every- 

 where. A very Pasque della Rose. Never 



